In April last year, airBaltic announced it would be the first airline in the world to issue NFTs. Now, Australian flag carrier Qantas is jumping onboard with the digital asset hype. On Tuesday, the airline announced that it was gearing up to release a new set of non-fungible token digital art collectibles.

Collectibles and points

Using blockchain technology, each piece of digital artwork will be one-of-a-kind allowing buyers to buy, own, collect and sell their unique tokens. While airBaltic may have beaten the Australian national airline to the punch by about 12 months, Qantas will be the first to offer loyalty points to the initial buyer of a Qantas NFT. Given, of course, that the buyer is a member of the airline's frequent flyer program. There are also other 'more exciting future benefits for Qantas NFT holders underway', the carrier says.

Prospective customers can declare their interest in the digital art tokens on the airline's website. The release of the NFTs is scheduled for sometime mid-year. In a preemptive response to potential backlash from environmentalists on the use of ecologically controversial blockchain technology transactions, Qantas promises its NFTs will be released with net-zero emissions, using low-carbon platforms and carbon offsetting.

The exact motive has not been announced, but if posts on the airline's social media are anything to go by, it will be in honor of Qantas' long-standing history with the Queen of the Skies. The airline waved goodbye to its final 747 in July 2020 after operating the jumbojet for nearly 50 years.

How much will it cost?

Qantas has yet to announce a price point for its digital collectibles. Meanwhile, the first airBaltic NFT went up on OpenSea marketplace for a fixed price of 0.05 Ether, the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network. When the first 100 unique collectibles from Edition1, celebrating the Latvian city of Kuldiga, were put up for purchase, 1 ETH was worth about $1,972. At its peak in November last year, it was $4,819. Today, it is $3,010.

So what are NFTs again?

Just in case you hadn't Googled the term in panic when it began popping up all over the news a little over a year ago, NFT stands for 'non-fungible token'. They represent a unique piece of media - this can be an image or a video, and they live on a blockchain (which, simply put, is a special kind of database that stores information in batches called blocks that are linked together.

Initially intended as a means for digital artists to maintain ownership of their work, they have become a form of art in and of themselves. These digital assets are selling for enormous sums of money. In March last year, famed auction house Christie's sold its first 'purely digital piece of art' for $69 million.

What do you think of the NFT craze? Is it something airlines should concern themselves with or a gimmicky bubble that will burst in the near future? Leave a comment below and join the crypto-conversation.