Faith on the OpenSea: Christians Launch NFT Fundraisers…… | News and reporting
With big green eyes, Maple the rabbit dons a bright orange tiger costume. A character in the Christian video game world called RhymVerse, her loyal and courageous personality carries her through her heroic adventures. She and her friends must face dark forces in games that Maple and the Forest of Words.
Last month, designs of Maple and six other characters were sold as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) by TruPlay, a Christian entertainment company that offers a variety of family-friendly mobile games.
NFTs like Maple are digital works of art that can be bought and sold. When purchased, the rights to the unique artwork are transferred to the new owner, said TruPlay CEO and founder Brent Dusing.
As for the RhymVerse characters — which TruPlay says represent the first and largest NFT release from a Christian tech company — the NFTs are a way for families to support their video game ventures. Dusing said it’s “like a next-generation way to get the community involved in helping build and financially support things they want to see.”
From South Africa to the Philippines, Christians bought TruPlay’s first 6,650 Genesis NFTs within 10 minutes of release, according to the company’s press release.
While TruPlay sold the NFTs for free, consumers subsequently sold, bought and traded them, and the company earned 10 percent of those transactions. The secondary sale of the NFTs generated more than $200,000 in volume on OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace. During the first 24 hours of sales, the company placed in the top 10 on OpenSea globally.
Dusing said he was surprised by the response and thanked God. For him, offering NFTs as a Christian company follows a long tradition of Christian involvement at the forefront of cultural movements and art.
“Jesus met people where they were…and where they are right now [is] on screens,” said Dusing. His previous venture, Lightside Games, grew to reach 7 million players — a third of whom were non-Christians, he said. With more than $20 million in investor capital, TruPlay plans to release interactive Christian games in 2023.
Other Christian groups, including charities and nonprofits, have ventured into the NFT realm with mixed success.
Using NFTs can have both advantages and disadvantages for Christian organizations, said Adam Graber, cohost on Technology Focused Unity and virtue podcast. While NFTs are currently grabbing headlines, he is unsure how long the token’s popularity will last. Total NFT sales on OpenSea have fallen for five consecutive months.
NFT sales are closely related to cryptocurrency since the digital assets are purchased using the cryptocurrency Ethereum.
Graber explained their connection by comparing them to the game of Monopoly: Cryptocurrency is the Monopoly money, while NFTs are the properties. Properties can change in value based on different properties.
“Crypto enthusiasts are still trying to argue what the value of both crypto and NFTs are, and until they succeed in doing that within some sort of market economy, there will continue to be skepticism around NFTs,” he said. “I think art has true value, has real value. I have yet to see NFTs convey any of that real value.”
Still, NFTs can be used to positively impact Christian organizations — namely as fundraising or promotional tools, he said.
The non-profit organization Compassion International raised money to support college scholarships for students in Haiti through virtual reality NFTs depicting Haitian landscapes. Released in July, the VR pieces combined art and technology to appeal to buyers. Sales of their NFTs resulted in more than $220,000 during the initial coin and more than $3,400 from secondary sales in OpenSea.
A group called Reformers NFT created a collection of NFTs based on Christian leaders in March. Featuring figures like John Calvin and Martin Luther, it has more than $8,000 in sales volume. The group, which calls itself “a pioneering community of Christians,” created the pieces to help Christians embrace technology, according to its OpenSea website.
For a church in Zurich, Switzerland, NFTs were not only a fundraising tool, but also a way to try to incorporate trending technology into their mission. The International Christian Fellowship (ICF) Church has always tried to be at the forefront of new technology, said Simon Egli, head of the digital ICF Zurich team.
The ICF, the mother church of a movement of more than 80 congregations across Europe, began offering its members the chance to donate using cryptocurrency in 2018. Its crypto tithing option went viral, making its way through news sites and even landing on Bitcoin’s news platform.
“One of our values is to be relevant — to be a relevant church in the midst of our community,” Egli said. “Our team is always looking for new ideas, new solutions, finding smart solutions because our resources are limited.”
When a staff member with NFT experience joined their team a year ago, church leaders decided to try the new technology. The church created a series of Worship Music NFTs that reinvented songs written by the church’s band, ICF Worship. However, the music files have not yet sold on OpenSea. These musically focused NFTs may be ahead of their time, Egli said.
Dusing helped generate interest in the TruPlay NFTs by allowing followers to vote on the designs of the characters. For example, Noah the kangaroo donned a shark outfit based on the vote numbers.
In early 2022, commentators Stephen McCaskell and Patrick Miller wrote for CT about the “new world of opportunity for creatives, content creators, businesses, churches and parachurch organizations” with the launch of NFTs and the potential of digital ownership. They said, “Now is the time for believers to start thinking, programming, developing and creating in that space.”
