WISeKey and Porrima.CH Team Up to Launch the First Ever Sustainable NFT Project to Celebrate Earth Day 2022
Geneva, Switzerland – April 22, 2022 – WISeKey International Holding Ltd (SIX: WIHN, NASDAQ: WKEY), a Swiss based cyber security, IoT, AI platform company, today announced that it has teamed up with Porrima.CH, a Swiss based foundation committed to delivering the proof of operations of technologies that will change reality and transform society, for a first ever-sustainable NFT project using the Porrima.CH solar panels installed in 2010. Using limited resources effectively is the core philosophy underpinning the Porrima, a concept boat centered on environmental research, which aims to show how sustainable technology could revolutionize the shipping industry.
Each solar panel is encased in a special cover that protects the panels from sea water. There are 800 panels only - and these are the ones that undertook the world's first tour around the world using only solar energy. WISeKey and Porrima.CH are seeking to share this incredible solar project with the growing number of sustainability enthusiasts on Web3 as a way to engage with new audiences around renewable energy, environment and tokenization technology.
The premier world tour took 2 years (2010-2012). The solar panels used to generate power were complemented in 2017 with hydrogen made from sea water, and an intelligent kite catching wind placed 200 meters above the ship. By July 2022, the solar panels on Porrima - named after the Roman Goddess for the Future - will have navigated 100,000 nautical miles. After all these years circling the globe 4 times over each panel continues to operate with only a 25% loss in power generation. Porrima, this 36 meter long and 24 meter wide catamaran demonstrates our human capacity to produce more power than is ever needed.
These panels have a unique history and emotional capital captured by an identifier serial number that now has a WISeKey authentication microchip with a correspondent NFT listed on the WISe.ART Platform. Each solar panel NFT will be auctioned off with a starting price of $2,222 each with an option also to acquire the physical serialized version with the microchip for $10,000. Collectors can have as an option to own both, the digital NFT plus the correspondent physical item. This will finance the refit for a next generation of solar panels.
The first 100 panels are offered for NFT tokenization, which will be announced on April 22, 2022, on Earth Day at 22:00 hrs local time in Tokyo (09:00 am in EST in New York). You have never seen so many “2” in a riddle. The ship left Osaka on December 18, 2021 and is currently in Dubai where it was part of the closing event of the EXPO 2020 and created the link with the Osaka Expo 2025 from where it will sail as a final destination. After visiting the Middle East, PORRIMA will sail around the Mediterranean crossing the Atlantic and the Pacific planet in 2023-2024. “In 2025, you will be able to meet the ship at Osaka World Expo,” said Gunter Pauli. And all the way - in each port - there will be a chance to learn firsthand from the technologies that are not taught at any university. Porrima wants to inspire young talent!
The ship is a case study in much more than renewable energy. Air bubble nets prevent overfishing by separating fish by weight and then releasing the reproductive females, which tend to be heavier due to their eggs. The vessel will soon be equipped with a unique filtering system that isolates and concentrates nanoplastics from seawater and converts them into hydrogen fuel. PORRIMA will also make it a standard to convert all excess power into hydrogen directly from sea water.
We want to make this trip and this story famous, in order to become a formidable vector of hope and knowledge! The boat is now entering a new phase of its life, and although it is once again about to undergo an upgrade with cutting-edge innovations, we want it to carry the philosophy of the Blue Economy, synonymous of hope and wisdom. Indeed, cherishing life and looking to the future is also about learning, understanding and being responsible.
Buyers of each solar panel could get the original item certified plus the NFT as unique collector’s item celebrating this amazing sustainable project that bears the name of Porrima: a goddess with a vision of the future and protector of pregnant women in Roman mythology. The solar panel NFT drop will include an auction with a reserve, rare editions, and other pieces with a limited run and items will be priced according to their rarity. It will also be accompanied by a social media campaign to connect audiences with the auction.
“The WISeKey NFT platform is secured by WISeKey’s various security technologies enabling the authentication of digital identity based NFTs, physical objects as well as digital assets, in a safe end-to-end process. The user is in full control of its WISeID NFT and other NFTs need to request access to its identity information so WISeID NFTs users can decide by themselves what level of information they wish to share, thus keeping full control. The WISeKey approach to the Metaverse has as objective to provide safe infrastructure identity services based on blockchain technologies for a wide range of users, including individuals, corporations and government institutions. As our digital lives become increasingly digitalized, Metaverse will leverage the advantages of the internet to establish a virtual world for its users. Businesses and communities will depend on users’ digital identities to manage assets. As interest in NFTs continues to accelerate, WISeKey is committed to promoting a more environmentally friendly consumption and distribution model,” said Carlos Moreira, Founder and CEO of WISekey.
About Porrima.CH
PORRIMA is a Lausanne (Switzerland) based foundation committed to delivering the proof of operations of technologies that will change reality and transform society. The foundation is committed to regenerate ecosystems and put Nature back on its evolutionary path using the best of humanity - its creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. The Foundation can count on the backing of the ZERI network (zero emissions research and initiatives) the visionary think tank created by Prof Gunter Pauli in 1994 in preparation for the Kyoto Protocol. So Porrima is backed by science and needs more entrepreneurs. That is why Porrima created the Blue Campus <www.bluecampus.ch> to build talent and works with funders to strengthen innovation through entrepreneurship <www.blueinnovations.ch>.
About WISeKey
WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey microprocessors secure the pervasive computing shaping today’s Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.6 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.
Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.
Press and investor contacts:
WISeKey International Holding Ltd
Company Contact: Carlos Moreira
Chairman & CEO
Tel: +41 22 594 3000
info@wisekey.com
WISeKey Investor Relations (US)
Contact: Lena Cati
The Equity Group Inc.
Tel: +1 212 836-9611
lcati@equityny.com
PORRIMA Foundation
Founder: Gunter Pauli
pauli@porrima.ch
Press Relations Contact: Alex Rihs
contact@porrima.ch
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CNN Coverage https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/ms-porrima-shipping-sustainability-scn/index.html
