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From the humble message board beginnings of Bitcoin, the past decade of the blockchain’s existence has brought millions of people to fundamentally challenge their beliefs on what is “value” in currency. Heated debates in real life and digitally are still going on for this topic to this day. Yet in the background intrepid builders, curious minds and cautious skeptics have continued to move full speed ahead into what they believe is the next step in “value” and the internet as a whole: Web3.
Web3 is the name given to systems that are built upon philosophies of transparency, decentralization, ownership and censorship resistance. This is made possible by Blockchains; the name for systems that incentivize users in the role of miners or node operators with tokens to maintain the network on their computers all over the world. These tokens represent ownership in the network and in some cases provide a way for users to participate in the governance and decision-making processes of the network. The architecture of this system has given blockchain networks resilience as well as creating economies behind the tokens which become scarcer (as designed) the longer the story of Web3 continues.
2023 is a curious time of global economic uncertainty and years after the budding economics (or tokenomics) of Web3 Tokens began taking shape. The nature of “value” in tokens has expanded with the introduction of non-fungible tokens or NFTs, tokens that are made to back a single item. They’ve made history representing art, event tickets, proof of membership to social clubs, ownership of virtual spaces, and in one landmark case even the serving of legal documents. Presently the blockchain presides over millions of transactions for thousands of tokens that represent genuine commercial exchange, speculation, payment, investment, and more. Every token represents a different idea, technology, network, and philosophy.
Utopos token (UTOP) has entered Web3 with an ambitious idea: bring these philosophies together with real-world commerce in the making of Blockchain powered “Smart Cities”. Powered by the Polygon network’s low transaction fees, the UTOP token aims to serve as the backbone currency to this entire system to be used in transactions for both physical goods and digital ones by way of the Metaverse. UTOP has recently celebrated both their initial token distribution and the beginning of its use being proven in real-world commerce.
Much like Bitcoin and the famous 300 million dollar pizza, proving value in anything usually comes down to its ability to be exchanged for goods. In spite of the Bitcoin pizza being over 10 years old, cryptocurrency skeptics still hold doubts about the business applicability of crypto tokens. In spite of such doubts, UTOP token has already taken its own historic step in real-world/blockchain exchange this month in the city of brotherly love.
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The first item purchased entirely in UTOP.
Philadelphia is known for many things: cheesesteaks, pretzels, rowdy sports fans, and the “Rocky” movie series. One thing it is not known for is cryptocurrency adoption. Despite not having the crypto reception of New York or Miami, the UTOP token is already seeing use in the city. The first known purchase was at the African Cultural Art Forum, an institution founded in 1969 famous for being one of the oldest non-pretzel vendors in the Center City section of Philadelphia. From there the African Cultural Art Forum (ACAF for short) became a staple in Philly and over their decades-long journey they learned a thing or two about the importance of doing good business & community building. Upon hearing about the Utopos project goals and vision the ACAF was enthusiastic in becoming a part of Utopos story.
They’re not the only ones. Following ACAF’s lead UTOP has been transacted in Philadelphia for chiropractic services, architecture, antique goods, and more seemingly every day.
Beyond “Fightin' Philly” and real-world locations, The Utopos team has also laid the groundwork to extend this business use digitally through e-commerce and metaverse experiences. These plans are certainly ambitious as they are exciting, but there is still massive work ahead. But if the growing number of UTOPians (a name for Utopos supporters) are any indication, the vision of the blockchain city may slowly be realized brick by brick.
Follow updates of the Utopos project here