Switzerland’s National Postal Service is working to bridge the gap between physical stamps and the digital cryptocurrency industry by introducing tradable digital stamps.
13 unique designs
on Sept 20, announced the Swiss Post officially announced the launch of the “Swiss crypto stamp”. This is a digital collector’s item attached to a physical postage stamp issued by the postal service that is worth 8.9 Swiss Francs.
The Swiss crypto stamp will be a digital representation of a physical stamp and will be stored on a blockchain. A Swiss Post spokesperson said: “Every design forms an NFT and is stored in the Polygon Blockchain”.
Buyers can get a digital ‘copy’ of their physical stamp online via a QR code printed next to the physical stamp. The image of the crypto stamp shows one of 13 possible designs and can be collected, exchanged and traded online, according to the Swiss Post.
According to a Swiss Post representative, customers can trade or sell crypto stamps on platforms such as the major NFT marketplace OpenSea. “The Swiss Post only sells the Swiss crypto stamp, trading with it takes place separately from the Swiss Post,” the spokesperson added.
Stamp trading is going digital
The upcoming Swiss crypto stamp will apparently offer an experience somewhat similar to NFTs. Some of the stamps will have a rare design. The Swiss Post wrote the following:
“Some are more common, while others are much rarer and more sought after. There are 65,000 copies of the most common digital design, but only 50 of the rarest. One thing is clear: the Swiss crypto stamp means that collecting, exchanging and trading stamps has also gone digital.”
The Swiss crypto stamp will be launched at the end of November. 175,000 such stamps will arrive at selected Swiss post offices on November 25. According to the announcement, the Swiss crypto stamp will be the first stamp of its kind ever launched in Switzerland.
Switzerland is not the first country to experiment with blockchain technology to offer collectible digital stamps. In May 2021, the Austrian postal service announced plans to include NFC chips in its Crypto Stamp 3.0. This is the third version of his limited-edition NFT stamp collection series. Austria released its first-ever crypto stamp in 2019.