The First NFT in Congress
McCarthy's office mints the first NFT in congressional history for the Ruthless Podcast live event.
As announced, Leader McCarthy, Whip Scalise, and Chair Stefanik will be welcoming the fellas from the Ruthless Podcast for a live show in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, January 20 – one year from President Biden’s inauguration. If you’ve listened to the “progrum” before, you understand why we are excited for the event and conversation.
On the agenda will be a report card for the first year of the Biden presidency. Spoiler alert: it’s been pretty bad.
Beyond what happens on stage at 2 pm, we wanted to use the opportunity to execute on ideas we float around the office all the time. How can we create a more exciting atmosphere surrounding a podcast taping in the basement of the Capitol?
With about 100 people attending between members and their staff, the normal operating procedure would be to collect RSVPs and check names at the door. But we wanted to do something different – events shouldn’t always be reminiscent of waiting in line at the grocery store (although given the bare shelves, that checkout time is quicker than usual these days).
Events are experiences and we intend to execute them with that in mind…
Attendees of the show were provided an option to receive their ticket as an NFT. We think of it as a field pass you’ve collected from a sporting event or a poster you walked away with after a concert or event.
Instead of hanging in your office, it’ll live in your digital wallet – which we believe could see a big increase in adoption.
While still nascent, NFT’s have emerged in the political arena.
Earlier this year, Senate candidate Blake Masters minted 99 NFTs of the book, “Zero to One” that he co-wrote with Peter Thiel. In a statement to Axios, Masters said: "The best NFT projects aren't just random 'art on the blockchain,'" but instead "create or support certain communities where people share an excitement about something in particular."
We couldn’t agree more.