Aquis Farm enters virtual world in exclusive blockchain deal
Aquis Farm has entered into a joint venture with a major blockchain gaming and metaverse company to exclusively develop digital equestrian assets for the increasingly popular virtual world and NFT (non-fungible tokens) space.
The Fung family’s prominent racing and breeding brand Aquis Farm has joined forces with Animoca Brands, a high-growth digital company in the Asia Pacific region, to build metaverse products, games, and NFTs directly related to real-world equestrian activities and assets, including the horses themselves, horseracing, showjumping, and other sports such as rodeo events.
Unique NFTs, such as virtual art, have quickly become a tradeable commodity with prices soaring for many digital assets, much in the same way as crypto currencies have gained acceptance.
Animoca Brands will be responsible for the development, marketing and sales of NFTs, NFT race products, metaverse games, and generally bringing the equestrian world to blockchain.
The application of blockchain is highly relevant to the equestrian world, particularly in terms of the lineage, traceability and welfare of animals. Blockchain and smart contracts also have high applicability to investment in equestrian assets and the trade of horses, according to Animoco Brands.
Justin Fung, the co-founder and chairman of Aquis Farm, which has a stud based in Queensland’s Gold Coast hinterland, believes the “opportunities are endless” for racing and other horse sports in the digital space using blockchain technology.
“This joint venture will enable Aquis Farm to partner with a world leader in digital entertainment, blockchain and gamification to bring real-world equestrian concepts, business ideas and assets to the decentralised finance world and the metaverse,” Fung said.
“Whilst Aquis Farm will remain heavily committed to the physical equestrian world, the future cannot be ignored.
“Aquis recognises the inevitability of the growth of a digital and decentralised world and will be at its forefront to leverage the equestrian and other forthcoming opportunities of the metaverse.
“In Animoca Brands, we believe we have found a well capitalised cutting-edge partner for this new and exciting digital world”.
Yat Siu, the executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, said horses in the digital space could have mass appeal around the world.
“Few animals can boast a more rich and distinguished relationship with humans than horses,” he said.
“As our friends during times of both war and peace, horses have been an important part of human civilisation, history, and legend for thousands of years.
“We are absolutely thrilled to introduce that corpus of culture into the metaverse through our partnership with Aquis, which is one of the global leaders in the breeding and racing of champion horses.”
What is the metaverse?
It’s a combination of multiple elements of technology, including virtual reality, augmented reality and video where users “live” within a digital universe. Supporters of the metaverse envision its users working, playing and staying connected with friends through everything from concerts and conferences to virtual trips around the world.
What is an NFT?
A non-fungible token (NFT) is an idiosyncratic and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a digital ledger (blockchain). NFTs can be associated with reproducible items such as photos, videos, 3D models, audio, and other types of digital files as unique items (analogous to a certificate of authenticity). NFTs use blockchain technology to provide a public proof of ownership. Copies of the original file are not restricted to the owner of the NFT, and can be copied and shared like any file. The lack of interchangeability distinguishes NFTs from blockchain cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin.