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Rick and Morty creator's next show will be 'curated on the blockchain'

In more understandable terms, Dan Harmon is helping Fox get into the NFT game.

Daniel Van Boom Senior Writer
Daniel Van Boom is an award-winning Senior Writer based in Sydney, Australia. Daniel Van Boom covers cryptocurrency, NFTs, culture and global issues. When not writing, Daniel Van Boom practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, reads as much as he can, and speaks about himself in the third person.
Expertise Cryptocurrency, Culture, International News
Daniel Van Boom
2 min read
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Rick and Morty meet the NFTs.

Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

NFTs are confusing and little understood, but Fox wants in. Dan Harmon, the creator of Community and Rick and Morty, is making a new show for the media giant called Krapopolis. Based in ancient Greece and revolving around a family of humans, gods and monsters, Fox says Krapopolis "will serve as the first-ever animated series curated entirely on the blockchain."

So what the hell does that mean? From what we know so far, not a whole lot.

"The company will launch a dedicated marketplace for Krapopolis that will curate and sell digital goods, ranging from NFTs of one-of-a-kind character and background art and GIFs, as well as tokens that provide exclusive social experiences to engage and reward super fans," Fox said. 

NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, are certifications of ownership that are minted on blockchains -- digital ledgers that are unalterable and available for all to see. You can get NFTs for anything digital: art, tweets, YouTube clips, audio recordings, GIFs and so on. People buy them for bragging rights -- everyone can see Jack Dorsey's first tweet, the argument runs, but only one person can own it -- or because they hope to sell them for more later. One NFT of an art piece depicting a splice of Homer Simpson and Pepe the Frog sold for $320,000 this year after being bought in 2018 for $38,000. 

So when Fox says Krapopolis will be "curated on the blockhain," it's seemingly a vague way of saying it will set up a marketplace for the purpose of selling NFTs and tokens (i.e. cryptocurrencies) related to the show. It doesn't mean that the show will exclusively be available via the blockchain. It's less about Dan Harmon's new show than it is about Fox venturing into a new, potentially lucrative monetization opportunity. In fact, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox is setting up a new company, Blockchain Creative Labs, to that end. 

"As an advertiser-focused, artist-first and animation-obsessed company, Fox is going to take advertisers into the world of blockchain-powered tokens, including NFTs,"  Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier said during a presentation to advertisers, reports the publication.

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