Coronavirus has compelled many couples to have small wedding ceremonies and have friends and relatives attend them virtually, but Anil Narasipuram and Shruti Nair from Pune seem to have truly redefined celebrations during the pandemic.
The couple got married on the blockchain, probably becoming the first in India to do so. In November 2021, Narasipuram and Nair had an online wedding ceremony officiated by a “digital priest”.
“Shruti and I made our marriage 'blockchain official' with an Ethereum smart contract that consecrated our commitment to each other in the form of an NFT (non-fungible token) minted on OpenSea,” Narasipuram, a design professor, said in a LinkedIn post.
NFTs are units of data stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain, that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore, not interchangeable. NFTs can be used to represent items such as photos, videos, audio, and other types of digital files. It uses a digital ledger to provide a public certificate of authenticity or proof of ownership.
In the Pune couple’s case, a photo of the woman’s ring was used to create an NFT. The couple’s vows were also embedded in the image.
“We won’t make any big promises, but we will do everything we can to make this work,” the couple’s vows read. “Through all our disagreement and conflict, we hope to grow our understanding of each other and ourselves. We don’t expect to be the whole village for each other, but we will be by each other’s side, hand in hand, walking through this adventure, together”.
Narasipuram and Nair set up cryptocurrency wallets for the ceremony. “Our digital priest Anoop Pakki minted the NFT on OpenSea and transferred it to me,” Narasipuram added.
The couple sat next to each other with their laptops, with family and friends watching on Google Meet.
“We completed the transaction in a 15-minute ceremony officiated by the Anoop,” Narasipuram said in his LinkedIn post. “We read out the vows and after receiving the blessings of our digital priest, I confirmed the transaction to transfer the NFT to my wife's digital wallet.”
The couple were pronounced husband and wife after the completion of the transaction. “And now by the power vested in me by Ethereum, it is my honour and delight to declare you married,” read a note from the “digital priest”.
Narasipuram said he and his partner may be the first couple in India to get married on blockchain but they will not be the last. “Cryptocurrency and blockchain represent a significant change in the way we transact and the way we trust. This is just the beginning....”
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