CCJ Innovators profiles carriers and fleets that have found innovative ways to overcome trucking’s challenges. If you know a carrier that has displayed innovation, contact CCJ Chief Editor Jason Cannon at jasoncannon@randallreilly.com or 800-633-5953.
Cash may be king, but there is currently a line of decentralized currency vying to take the place of the all mighty dollar.
Bitcoin and various cryptocurrency kin like Ethereum or Dogecoin might be the most widely known digital currencies, but one of the more trendy quasi-monetary devices is the non-fungible token (NFT).
Hoping to cash in on the trend, 205-truck van and end dump trucking carrier Woody Bogler Trucking is leaping into the metaverse, releasing what is likely the first NFT collection in the trucking industry.
Think of an NFT like a digital baseball card, and its value is determined in a few ways: mostly its scarcity, collectability and the mass appeal of the digital artist. If you own one NFT, for example, of which 10,000 were minted, it's generally worth less than a 1-of-1 unless you find a collector in need of yours to complete their collection. In that case, the laws of supply and demand take over. And if your 1-of-1 holding was compiled by a widely revered artist, you might be holding the digital equivalent of the Mona Lisa.
"You can think of an NFT as a deed or a token," said Woody Bogler President and CEO Tracy Bogler, adding that NFTs have been a blooming personal interest. "Owning an NFT really provides a sense of belonging to a community, and we thought it would be interesting to create a collection and then offer ownership to our drivers. We realize that many people are unfamiliar with these digital assets, but we believe they have great potential in the trucking community.”
The marketplace for these digital artwork files has taken off. OpenSea, the largest NFT platform in the world, recorded transactions totaling nearly $5 billion in January. A handful of exclusive tokens by noteworthy artists have fetched millions of dollars. Everydays: the First 5000 Days – a collage assembled by digital artist Beeple – sold last year for almost $70 million at auction through Christie's.
