For lovers of the movie series ‘Jurassic Park,’ and for those who have also wanted to own a part of a dinosaur, this is an article you would want to read. Metarex is the world’s first collection of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) of authentic Tyrannosaurus rex fossils.
Metarex is using the most disruptive technology today, Blockchain technology, to create NFTs linked to a real-world fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex, providing the opportunity for humanity to own this one-of-a-kind asset class, embedded with 66 million years of history.
Nairametrics was able to interview Jeff Jaffrey, the CEO of Metarex to tell us how exactly Metarex is linking real-world assets to its NFT set, that is scheduled for pre-sale on the 24th of January 2021.
The inspiration behind Metarex
Jeff came from the traditional finance space and he explained the journey leading up to him becoming the CEO of Metarex. He stated, “I come from the business world. One of my contacts came to me about four months ago, who started collecting dinosaur fossils 15 years ago as a private collector. He is a big dinosaur enthusiast. So, he contacts me in September of last year and he asked me if I saw what had happened with Christie’s. In October 2020, Christie’s auctioned off the first T rex fossil ever and it sold for $32 million without IP rights. He asked me if I knew anyone that was interested in buy T rex from him as he is trying to offload some of his assets.
“Following the sale of ‘Stan’, there was a big uproar in the academic community. They were so upset that the billionaires of the world were pushing the prices of fossils up so high that academia could not afford to pay for them. Museums cannot pay $32 million for these types of fossils because they lack the funding.
“There is a very big gap between private finance owning these extremely valuable and rare dinosaur fossils and the museums and the public in which these fossils are supposed to be in the first place, so humanity can study, use and research them.
“We saw an opportunity to do something funky. We have an opportunity to not only have the funding to purchase a T rex to donate but to also put together a financial perpetual reward system back to the academic community. What we decided to do is use the power of decentralization that the cryptocurrency world gives us. As you know, in 2021, there was a big boom in the NFT market. We decided to use the NFT world to crowdfund the acquisition of the T rex. So, we are basically raising the money through NFTs to acquire these T rex’s and donate them to the museums which means we are giving it back to humanity but we are keeping the IP rights intact for the NFT holders.
“As the first steppingstone, we are taking one of the oldest assets in the world, marrying it with the latest technology of today, blockchain technology. We are bringing the first apex predator onto the blockchain.”
The utility of buying a Metarex NFT
Jeff explained that the Metarex NFT set goes beyond digital art. He stated, “Our NFTs aren’t just images. We have got a certain number of bones that we are acquiring as part of the fossil and we have taken each bone and turned it into a 3D image that rotates. It is also linked through a certificate of authenticity. In terms of utility, for example, when the fossil is in the museum, there will be a QR code next to the fossil. When you scan that QR code, your phone will automatically show you what part of fossil your NFT is tied to.
“The second really cool thing is, when you log into our website, there will be a button that states, ‘send me my bone.’ It means in 2-3 weeks you will receive a shipment of a 3D printed version of your bone. This means, its not just digital anymore but something you can put on your table in which you can hold, touch and feel.
“The third thing that we are working on is, one of our partners in our joint venture is a company called Stratun. They are developing, as a steppingstone, a T rex education center, where people will be able to log in online into this little metaverse where you can visit the T rex, learn about them and all the scientific documentation and history will be available on this metaverse.
“Another point is, we are setting up a foundation along side our business. As the NFTs trades, there will be a bit of revenue that will come back to our organization. We are going to give a significant portion of it to our foundation which would be run by a group of paleontologists. On an annual basis they will come up with 5 to 6 proposed grants to various projects to those who they believe should receive the annual grant from the foundation. Our NFT holders will also be able to read and study the proposals and be able to vote on which projects that should receive the grant. We are not only taking the fossils out of the billionaires’ hands and giving it back to humanity, using the power of decentralization, we are also setting up revenue streams back to academia which has been a problem of paleontologists right from time. This is our core focus.”
He further added, “What happens when we start with one T rex in the metaverse we are building. Then we add a second and a third, a fifth or tenth species, what do we end up with? We end up with the first Jurassic Metaverse. This is where the goal is. If we can build a metaverse, an ecosystem that creates revenue streams back to academia, in a perpetual manner and at the same time, keeping the value intact for our NFT supporters and backers, what’s not to love about it?”
Metarex NFT pre-sale now on the 24th
Metarex had initially planned to launch its first pre-sale of 34,800 NFTs on the 2nd of January 2021 but there has been a slight change of plans. Jeff explained, “We are changing it slightly because we are announcing some partnerships with some DAO’s and museums over the next week or so. We are now doing our initial launch on the 24th of January and it is going to be approximately 40,000 NFTs up for grabs. This is a huge volume in comparison to other NFT collections on the market but I urge people to understand that this is not just an image or a random collection. The reason we have so many NFTs is because it is tied to a real-world asset that is super expensive.”
Jeff Jaffrey also spoke about his thoughts on private ownership of dinosaur fossils, the state of cryptocurrency regulation and finally, he concluded talking about his top 5 cryptocurrencies. Click here to watch the interview.
