William Shatner-backed firm teams up with Mattereum for NFT provenance tracking

Blockchain authentication outfit Third Millennia — founded by science fiction icon William Shatner — has partnered with Mattereum, a London-based “digital twin” trading platform, to launch an initiative focused on nonfungible token provenance.

"Digital twins" refer to real-world asset NFTs, or rwaNFTs — tokenized versions of physical goods.

According to a press statement issued on Monday, the joint initiative will feature rwaNFTs based on memorabilia and props from Shatner’s iconic character Captain James T. Kirk of the seminal sci-fi series Star Trek.

The collectibles catalog will also include props from Boston Legal, where Shatner played the character Denny Crane, as well as merchandise from movies like Titanic and Logan’s Run. The items will be auctioned on the OpenSea NFT marketplace later in the week.

As part of the collaborative initiative, Ocuver — a service under the Third Millennia umbrella — will certify the authenticity of each digital twin. Using smart contract protocols, Mattereum will reportedly record these certified proofs on the blockchain via asset passports.

According to Mattereum, asset passports are a third-party digital identification protocol developed by the company to authenticate the identity of digital twins. Mattereum’s partnership with Third Millennia will see the extension of the protocol toward NFT collectibles.

The partnership comes amid significant interest in the NFT space as entities from outside the crypto industry join blockchain's expanding metaverse. For Shatner, the collaboration is a positive step in ensuring robust provenance tracking capabilities for all stakeholders in the digital collectibles arena.

Commenting on the need to combat counterfeiting in the NFT space, Third Millennia CEO Paul Camuso remarked:

“With counterfeit goods being so readily available, there needs to be a system in place for consumers to feel safe in purchasing luxury brands, art, and collectibles. Third Millennia's system of authentication is an effective method for ensuring consumer confidence in goods purchased in the primary and secondary markets. Consumers can feel assured that what they are buying is genuine and the system takes the doubt out of the history and provenance for future generations.”

The NFT provenance initiative is hardly Shatner’s first foray into the crypto and blockchain space. As previously reported by Cointelegraph Magazine back in June 2020, the actor has been advocating for increased adoption of the emerging tech since 2019.

In July 2020, 125,000 NFT trading cards featuring Shatner’s personal life and career sold out in mere minutes on the WAX blockchain.

Celebrity involvement in the NFT space is also gaining ground with the likes of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and Linkin Park co-founder Mike Shinoda auctioning their own NFTs.