Earlier this year, Microsoft had patented a conversational AI technology that could preserve the persona of the deceased through chatbots. A number of such efforts are being directed to create technology that appeals to the softer side of human beings. While bringing people back to life might be far down the line, Stonses, a Dubai-based startup has launched a blockchain-powered platform that will enable users to preserve the memories of their loved ones in a digital format. Stonses’ platform, which enables its users to create unique digital identities of real-world objects, is based on Verofax’s blockchain-powered asset management and NFT platform.
In today’s digital era, a number of memories associated with a person exist in the physical world, as well as the digital world. For instance, pictures may contain real-world objects that hold emotional significance to a person. Similarly, many people associate key events’ with objects like wedding gifts, a family party video, a favorite location on the planet, a job uniform, or even household items that carry priceless memories of a person we were close to. However, a number of these memories are scattered on phones and across locations, some are lost, and others are discarded – along with their loss, the memories associated with them are also lost. Stonses aims to bring permanence to those memories, through digital replicas of real-world objects linked to NFTs created by family friends and colleagues.
To make this happen, Stonses’ memorial platform leverages NFT technology with QR codes as Physical interaction, that the user can attach to any object that reminds them of their loved ones. A digital replica of that object is then built, and unique identity is assigned to the object. This data is loaded onto an immutable blockchain, which enables the user to preserve the object and its associated memories forever. The user, however, retains complete control over the data, and decides which data is made public and what remains private and defines who has the right to create memories and who has only read access. By scanning the QR tag that connects the object to its digital replica, the user can instantly bring it – and the memories associated with that object back to life. Thus, the QR tag serves as the bridge between the person’s memories and the objects that are associated with them for sharing with the public or among close family and friends network securely with Blockchain.
Stonses’ memorial platform is built on top of Verofax’s immutable blockchain application, which brings decentralized trust and verifiability to digital objects. The QR code is a unique identifier that represents the digital object. As smartphone penetration levels go higher each year, such nimble technologies carry the potential for mainstream adoption. The shift from hard copies to digital copies of images, books, and music is a clear signal that points to the appeal of digital objects over physical ones.
Chief executive officer of Stonses, Miha Balek said “Personalized gifts industry is expected to reach $43.3 bn by 2027, and objects are increasingly associated with people who own, use, or gift them. Digital and physical objects make up digital tokens protected by Blockchain technology. Stonses’ memorial platform is the first offering to help people preserve and exchange their personal belongings with technology across generations. Expect other functionalities to include other treasured assets to be transferred ownership based on smart contracts”.
Wassim Merheby, CEO Verofax Limited, added: “When an object is replicated digitally combined with certified content, its replica is called a digital twin or non-fungible Token. The first NFT project was launched in 2015 on the Ethereum blockchain, but today, all assets and belongings can be tokenized digitally by making use of blockchain technology, which helps establish ownership and identity and seamless conditional transfer among user wallets. Verofax’s blockchain-based asset management platform, which shoulders Stonses’ memorial platform, is also being leveraged for other use-cases across industries. For example, retailers are using Verofax’s solution to render digital identities to their products along with information around their origin, composition, and environmental sustainability.
With the ability to interface stakeholders securely and enabling easy asset transfer and content access, opens up new possibilities for organizations like Stonses, which is leveraging that direct-to-consumer interface to consolidate their memories and assets of significance value. Stonses business model adds to our personal lives great value that goes beyond monetary measures and efficiencies, to that of meaningfulness.”
Please visit Stonses at https://www.stonses.com/ or contact [email protected] for more details.
For technical matters, visit Verofax at http://www.verofax.com or contact [email protected]
About Stonses
Stonses aims to usher a revolution in the way memories are digitized, tokenized and exchanged in a seamless way with the use of Blockchain and Smart Contracts. Stonses Marketplace brings suppliers of mementos and plans to bring lawyers and asset custody services to its platform in the near future.
About Verofax
Verofax is a blockchain-enabled, Asset Digitization and Traceability solution provider with a presence across North America, Europe, Asia and MEA. Verofax’s solution is available across multiple cloud environments and is helping businesses transform physical products to digitally-enabled, and enable meaningful interactions with customized user interfaces.
