William Shatner’s Crypto Startup Helps You Digitize Precious Items

By CCN Markets: William Shatner has been dealing in virtual currency since 1966 when he began starring as Captain Kirk on Star Trek. Now he’s heading his own start-up, Third Millenia, which will help people use the Mattereum protocol.

Mattereum is a blockchain solution for authenticity and legal ownership bolstered by the blockchain. Using microchips and Ethereum, users can not only validate, for example, a signed photograph, but they can also find out a lot more backstory about the item in question. Shatner had previously partnered with the company. In the following Tweet, Shatner demonstrates how Mattereum works with an action figure.

Adding Backstory to Rare Items

Third Millenia’s goal is to make Mattereum asset transfers easy for Shatner’s senior citizen peers and non-technical people.

Shatner wrote a Star Trek spin-off series called Tek Wars, which was adapted for television in the early 1990s. In the opening episode of the show (below), the digital currency of the Star Trek universe plays a prominent role.

According to Michael del Castillo at Forbes, William Shatner came about the idea of a crypto project after having several other opportunities to be a spokesperson. Shatner understood there were risks involved with being the celebrity face of a crypto project, so he passed on most of the offers.

Third Millenia is reportedly launching in two phases. The first phase has to do with ensuring the technology works and launching a line of “digital twins.” These are essentially “non-fungible tokens” on the blockchain – you can use your Ethereum wallet to show off your real-world collectibles.

The technology merges the visions of Lucid Sight, who create digital collectibles for firms like Major League Baseball, and projects like Propellr, which helps tokenize a range of assets.

The first test case of the blockchain is an action figure of Shatner himself. Reportedly, such memorabilia is worth almost over $270 billion worldwide, meaning that the actor’s merchandise alone provides a compelling use case for the technology.

William Shatner Goes Beyond Action Figures

Del Castillo, who spoke to William Shatner, writes:

“Shatner believes proving an object’s authenticity will help it retain value, but that the ability to prove the story of its past ownership will actually give it value. ”

The second phase of Third Millenia’s launch will involve enabling fast, efficient, and legal transfers of assets on the blockchain. Imagine if someone stole your prized action figure but you could prove they didn’t own it, because you still held the token.

Thanks to firms like Third Millenia and Mattereum, collectibles of the future will be stamped on the blockchain and authenticated from the beginning. Counterfeiters are going to have a whole new mess to deal with in the coming decades if they don’t crater out of business entirely.