28/04/2023 Romania plugs into Web3 with national NFT marketplace

Romania’s informatics institute is set to launch an institutional NFT trading platform, using Web3 to create a link between the public and private sectors.

Romania plugs into Web3 with national NFT marketplace

Romania’s National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI Bucharest) aims to drive Web3 adoption in the country with the launch of an in-housenonfungible tokentrading platform.

The institutional NFT platform, dubbed ICI D|Services, will go live on April 26 and aims to create a link between private and public sector institutions and users. The platform is primarily an NFT marketplace, allowing public and institutional users to mint, manage and trade NFTs.

Cointelegraph spoke to ICI Bucharest blockchain laboratory coordinator Paul Niculescu-Mizil Gheorghe to unpack the impetus behind the country’s efforts to adopt Web3-powered technologies.

ICI Bucharest has been primarily focused on research and development over the past five years, but shifted its attention to exploring blockchain, Web3 and nonfungible tokens as the space gained traction around the world.

Gheorghe says that NFTs have gained significant popularity in recent years due to their capability of creating unique and scarce digital assets that can be applied across numerous use cases. This in turn has made them valuable assets for institutions, which led to the proposal of the NFT platform within ICI Bucharest in late 2021.

The institution began developing and implementing the marketplace system’s architecture in partnership withMultiversX midway through 2022,which is the first strategic project using the blockchain infrastructure provider.

The partnership also includes the development of a decentralized Domain Name System (DNS) and top-level domain (TLD) ecosystem, asMultiversX CEO Beniamin Mincu explained in correspondence with Cointelegraph.

Gheorghe, who holds a PhD in blockchain technology and industrial engineering, says the project has been backed by the Romanian government through the secretariat–general as well as the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization:

“Our institute wants to create a bridge between the young generations and the public institutions values, initiating a comfort zone for the interactions with the digital space.”

The launch of the platform will feature five unique NFT collections developed in collaboration with a handful of prominent Romanian sportspeople, organizations and institutions.

This includes the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee, 18-year-old 100-meter freestyle swimming world record holder David Popovici, Romanian news agency Agerpres, national philately organization Romfilatelia and Bucharest’s Central University Library.

Gheorghe believes Romanian government support of innovative projects like ICI D|Services enhance the country’s economic potential by generating new revenue streams and fostering economic growth as well as a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship:

“Blockchain technology increases the efficiency of the institutions, to approach solid use cases based on digital asset management, transparency, security in various institutional operations, such as in education, health, transport, land registration, supply chain management.”

Mincu echoed these sentiments, highlighting the Romanian government’s commitment to embracing technology, fostering new opportunities for user interaction between citizens, businesses and institutions.

Arts

https://cointelegraph.com/news/romania-to-launch-national-nft-marketplace-nifty-newsletter-april-19-25/amp

Interesting NFTs
Brave Samurai
This is the second collaborative piece that I have created with the very talented Dutch artist, @eattheart23. Here, a samurai warrior stands guard, honour bound to protect his master even to the death.
Bloody Monkey
Artist notes: straight up side ya head + VERY valuable RED CIRCLE!! WOW.!!
Originalplan® - Series 1 - Raw Cut Diamond Be@rbrick
The Be@rbrick series is a project around creating unique Be@rbrick designs. Originally it started as a daily project so each design was created on a daily basis. The concept and idea is based on the subcultural phenomenon of collectibles and designer toys. Raw Cut Be@rbrick is made of several hundreds of diamonds and is only availabe as a 1/1 limited edition collectible. Format : 3D Render. File: JPG * size: 5120 × 2880px After purchase a hand signed Glichē print will be sent to the address of your choosing. Limited to: 1/1 digital pieces.
Alex in Wonderland
A figure, Alex, stands mostly naked in the midst of a physical and psychological maelstrom. He is clad only in nostalgic 80’s era socks, on a tenuous island between active waters and a variety of shark denizens. Sharks on the right side of the image are all beached, including a shark with a quartz crystal snout, an orange shark wrapped in a life buoy, and a shark further in the distance wearing an 80’s style shirt with the number “88”. On the left side is the largest shark, wearing bright glossy red lipstick and brandishing prominent teeth with braces. She is cordoned off from the figure by a roped float divider, and within her thought bubble is a warning symbol. Behind the figure, hovering in the air, are Grey aliens emerging from the distance, out of a series of elliptical UFO shaped interdimensional membranes. The Greys take on the visual form of spermazoa ostensibly impregnating the interdimensional thresholds. As is typical, these Greys inhabit a zone just behind the unconscious topology of Alex’s dissociative mind. Though Alex’s bottom half is representative, his top half mutates into a psychological cornucopia. In a manner akin to “Auto-Erotic Sphinx”, a predecessor work, the figure has self suctioned—an act of sensual infatuation, enjoyment, and exploration. Upward exists the figure’s primary conscious eye, adorned with a revolutionary beret emblazoned with a Bitcoin badge. The figure’s summit features the nose of a fighter jet facing off against video game Bullet Bills, one of whom is marked by a communist North Korean star. A cropped section of a UFO observes the contest. Alex’s mind branches both left and right. To the left is more singular embodied consciousness, manifesting two eyes and a Ganesh trunk grasping crayons. The right branch dissociates upward diagonally, emerging into an array of eyes, faces, teeth, tail, a unicorn horn, and much more—all of which participate in expressing his unconscious being; a democracy of psychic factions representing thought impressions and associations. All illumination and darkness– fernal, infernal, high consciousness and corporeal underbelly–reside in this realm. In the distance are relatively languid, light clouds, and against the firmament hovers a colossal distant eye peering over the scene and far beyond. This painting possesses underlying genetic traits with previous works such as “Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys”, “Dionysus”, and “Fuku-Shiva”. The work serves also as a nod to an earlier period of art inspiration during late teens and early twenties— born out of the nakedness, vulnerability, curiosity, and wonder inherent to coming of age and all subsequent psychedelic revelation.
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By OthersideDeployer