Visa launches NFT program to promote Digital Artist
Credit card giant Visa has launched a program that lets you create NFTs to help bring small businesses into the digital economy.
The idea behind a small business is shifting from traditional “brick-and-mortar mom-and-pop shops” to other kinds of businesses that can include anything digital, like ecommerce companies.
Visa is launching the first-ever one-year immersion program, creating a cohort of creators around the world to explore how they can use NFTs like artists, musicians, fashion designers and filmmakers.
"There's no 'hard cap' on the number of creators for the first cohort" he said and everyone will have access to Visa clients and a wider mentor network.
“NFTs allow someone who’s creative, who’s an artist, who’s talented, to produce a good entirely in a digital way,” Sheffield said.
Major League Baseball player and current artist Micah Johnson was one of the first participants in the Visa program.
Johnson had heard his nephew ask, “Can astronauts be Black?” and has spent years coming up with the character of Aku NFTs.
His 10-part collection consists of black male astronauts. One is posing in a helmet covered with spaghetti and meatballs, while the others wear sleek white helmets.
Visa isn’t new to crypto. Last year, it made headlines for buying a popular CryptoPunk NFT. Sheffield has said that the purchase wouldn’t be the company’s only one, either.