Melania Trump, the former First Lady of the US, has joined the non-fungible token (NFT) mania. She announced this news on December 16, noting that her project is a Solana-based NFT platform that will, allegedly, release NFTs regularly on MelaniaTrump.com. The first NFT to drop on the platform is dubbed Melania’s Vision and is available for purchase until December 31, 2021.
Melania said this NFT endeavour represents her passion for the arts, and it seeks to support her commitment to helping children through her Be Best initiative. She added that this project would help offer children computer science skills, such as programming and software development. Melania believes such skills will offer the children what it takes to succeed after they age out of foster homes.
Apart from releasing NFTs regularly, Melania also seeks to host a one-of-a-kind auction, which she claims will go down in history books. This auction is set for January 11, next year, and will include three elements. These include digital artwork, physical artwork, and a physical one-of-a-kind accessory.
Powered by Parler, a microblogging and social networking service common among conservatives and extremists, the Melania Trump NFT platform will accept Solana (SOL) and credit cards payments through MoonPay.
Solana dissociates itself from the project
Melania announced the news of her NFT project to her 1.7 million followers on Twitter, attracting a lot of press to Solana Labs, the core team building the blockchain ecosystem. However, the organization was quick to note that it had nothing to do with Melania choosing to launch her NFT project on the Solana blockchain.
A representative from Solana Labs said,
“I wanted to inform you, to avoid any confusion, that her choice to use the Solana blockchain was completely organic, and this project is not part of any Solana-led initiative.”
With Solana being a permissionless, public blockchain network, anyone can build projects on it. While the above traits are ideal for fostering the development of web3, they also create a gateway for controversial and notorious actors to build web3 projects.
Despite Solana Labs distancing itself from the Melania Trump NFT platform, Solana’s native crypto, SOL, surged yesterday to set a weekly high of $188.88. However, it soon began a descent and revisited the $170 levels. At the time of writing, SOL is changing hands at $177.29 after losing 2.48% over the past 24 hours.
