IKEA's research and design lab Space10 has recently come up with a totally breakthrough idea, aimed at merging NFTs and furniture. The innovative suggestion lies in using NFTs as an 'amplifier' of IRL furniture, providing all items with a non-fungible code, which can be minted on the blockchain. One of the key goals behind IKEA's endeavor dubbed Carbon Banks is the elimination of the money-consuming 'purchase-to-waste' cycle of most furniture. Within the Carbon Banks concept, Space10 compares IKEA furniture to a 'carbon sink', which prevents carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
Upon scanning a code on the furniture, a buyer is offered to mint an NFT, which primarily arrives in their wallet as a small seed to later grow into a big, beautiful tree. The concept of the morphing tokens lies in connecting wooden pieces of furniture to digital trees that mirror the way owners treat their interior items. The NFT artwork comes with an augmented reality addition, showcasing a tree the furniture item is made of.
Space10 explained the technology, giving the purchase of a $120 IKEA wooden Forest chair as an example. Thus, when a person buys a chair at IKEA, they also acquire a morphing NFT, which develops over time and reacts to certain events, like, for example, repairs of a chair. Moreover, if the person decides to trade in their piece of furniture, the next owner will inherit the NFT attached to the chair as well. This is the best evidence of how NFTs prolong the shelf life of IRL objects.
Being an eco-friendly company, Space10 strives to reduce its environmental impact, by keeping, repairing, and trading its furniture, which is primarily made of wood. The same as the ecological materials used in the production of furniture, Carbon Banks NFTs utilize the proof-of-stake protocol, which causes no harm to the environment.
To bring the innovative idea to life, IKEA's Space10 has joined efforts with design and research lab WINT, and interaction design and soft robotics researcher Anna Schaeffner.
Thus, Space10’s Carbon Banks concept is a perfect example of how production companies can prolong the life cycle of their goods, and reduce ecological impact, alongside providing customers with a new immersive way of engagement and interaction with the items they own.
While the idea seems beneficial from any point of view, we might expect more companies to follow IKEA's example in the shortest possible time.
