Launching UniCask on Shiden

Project Overview
UniCask is the world’s first project to tie NFTs to spirits casks.

Since March 2021 UniCask has been hosting whisky cask NFTs, and by December plans to sell the first fractionalized spirits cask to the public.
The whisky market, value, and prices of rare whisky have been steadily growing for the past 30 years. Casks were difficult to manage as assets and generally had low liquidity.
Using UniCask’s service makes transactions and management easier by converting casks to NFTs and makes it possible for anyone to own spirits casks. UniCask will also design NFT-based games, which UniCask NFT holders can participate in.

Team:UniCask

WebsiteUniCask ~ Cask ownership for everyone.

Stats/Past Performance
We are partnering with a Japanese whisky distillery, Hanyu Distillery and Kingsbury, an independent bottler in the UK.
The Hanyu distillery used to produce whisky for world famous Japanese whisky, Ichiro’s Malt. Kingsbury holds one of UniCask’s most valuable whisky casks, “Springbank 1991”. In December it will be sold as UniCask’s Genesis Cask. “Springbank” is a distillery that creates extremely valuable whisky such as the “Springbank 1919”, a 50 year old whisky which a bottle is sold over 100K USD.
In April 2021 we have sold and hosted a few hundred casks as NFTs, using a beta version of UniCask.

Track Record:UniCask UI

(NFT Product List)

Github:None

Builders Program Roadmap
Total Estimated Duration: 6 months
Milestone1: Mint Cask NFTs on Shibuya Testnet

  • Estimated End Date: 2022/2

  • Use the Testnet to create fractionalized Cask NFTs.
    Milestone2: Mint Cask NFTs on Astar and/or Shiden chain

  • Estimated End Date: 2022/5

  • Create fractionalized cask NFTs on Shiden’s or Astar’s main chain to allow primary sales.
    Milestone3: Create casks with Astar and/or Shiden’s name, mint and distribute those casks only on Astar or Shiden’s chain.

  • Estimated End Date: 2022/8

  • Use Shiden’s or Astar’s name to create original distilled spirits casks, and sell these casks exclusive to their chain.

Future plan
In the future, UniCask hopes that Cask NFTs and Digital Content NFTs can be freely trade on Shiden/Astar’s blockchain. Once the blockchain is stable, UniCask will start collaborating with other marketplaces to make it easier for users to buy and sell UniCask NFTs.

Idea: Giveaway
①Shiden/Astar coin holder will have chance to win UniCask Digital Content (DC) NFT.

5 Likes

Holding this NFT can this be redeemed for a bottle of Whiskey or how should I see this?
I’m a big fan of distilled spirits so I’m already a big supporter.

I think it would be great if you could already start testing on Shibuya and use this as a demo for users to understand the process. Can you contact me on Telegram so we can create a group and talk further. Please add me: @Fiexer

Thanks

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Hi Maarten,

Thank you for reaching out to us. Holding this NFT will have the right to redeem 1/100 of the cask, which is usually 1 or 2 bottles of whisky depending on the particular volume of the cask and the time it is store (because there is the angle’s share i.e. the evaporation of whisky).

I will add you to the telegram! So we can chat!

Best,

1 Like

Great video to understand UniCask

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I personally know people who have made a lot of money buying unusual cask finishes on decent Single Malt Scottish Whisky and made a lot of money doing so. I think this is a great idea and part of the next wave of NFTs that have real utility. Well done guys.

Very cool idea. Springbank is very impressive to get your hands on as well. Hats off.

Just a couple of thoughts.
So will the whisky only be bottled when it has reached maturity? Will the maturity be voted on by the NFT holders? What if the NFT holder wants to ‘liquidate’ and drink their whisky earlier, will this be allowed?
Will the bottling of the whisky and (high) bottling taxes be paid for, or do the NFT holders have to pay for these. Are the labels on these voted on as well or will these be personalised?

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Hi,

Super interesting concept and a great way to use NFT functions with real utility.
I’m a fan of whisky and I would love to see UniCask on Shiden !

However, I’m a bit confused with the roadmap. Why does the roadmap say a duration of 6 months but finish in 9 months from now ? The milestones need to be sooner. Could you provide milestones of 1 and 3 months after integration into dApps staking ?

I’m also agree with Maarten, you should start testing and mint NFT on Shibuya before getting access to the dApps staking on Shiden. It would be a good way to show your idea to the community.

Otherwise, great project ! Well done.

Thank you for the encouragement!!

Thank you for your comment!

Yes, the cask will be bottled when it reaches maturity, but we can make make earlier bottling for reasons such as drop in alcohol % near 40%.
But of course we want to engage the community more so it is possible we do community voting in.
We are looking at decades to store the cask so enough time for us to experiment what will the best way to engage the community and thank you for your suggestions!

As for the cost of bottling and tax is not paid yet because these are uncertain in the future. These cost will be have to be paid by the cask nft owner.

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I think adding a gamification layer is too much.
Why would you do that?

I think blockchain technology perfectly fits here for managing the ownership and conducting sales. While the gamification layer, in my personal view, is here for the hype. Which is a bit repellent for me.

Yep very cool, and makes sense re the bottling tax.

Might be an option making them 20CL bottles rather than 70CL so you have more control when you bottle the cask. But as you said, lots of time to think about those things.

And purely out of a legal interest. Is in the contract with the warehouse the NFT holder the legal owner of the cask, so does it act like a share. Or does the pass of title happen when it is bottled, so there is an intermediary thats owns the contract with the warehouse until it is bottled?

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Gamification layer for NFT was created for generating liquidity not for the hype. The key benefit of converting a real asset such as the whisky cask to nft is the greater liquidity it can create for cask trading, that’s where the value come from. But being recorded on the blockchain does not guarantee more transactions. Gamification is needed to generate exchanges of nfts thus generating more liquidity.

good point. for the warehouse, we are representing the owners of the portion cask holders because there are simply not that many placeholders on paper to write all the owners address.

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