Anil Narasipuram and Shruti Nair tied the knot in a wedding unlike any other.
In November 2021, the two agreed to use blockchain technology to immortalise their nuptials. In January, a Twitter thread and a LinkedIn article detailed their unconventional ceremony, which was hailed as India’s first blockchain wedding. The posts have since gone viral on the internet at a time when high-tech weddings are becoming increasingly popular.
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Anil Narasipuram claimed in a LinkedIn post that the internet ceremony took place following a formal court wedding in Pune, Maharashtra, with only a few individuals in attendance because of the pandemic. “Given the epidemic period we live in, we chose to keep things simple with a courthouse wedding, popularly called in India as a ‘Registered Marriage.’ We have chosen to use blockchain technology to immortalise our nuptials,” Mr Narasipuram said.
“With an Ethereum smart contract that sealed our commitment to each other in the form of an NFT issued on OpenSea, Shruti and I made our marriage ‘blockchain official’,” the design professor stated.
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NFTs are digital assets stored on a blockchain by networked computers. Anyone may use the blockchain to verify the legitimacy and ownership of an NFT. In this instance, a picture of the bride’s engagement ring was utilised to produce the NFT, which also included the couple’s wedding vows.
Anoop Pakki, a “digital priest,” officiated during the event.
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“To prepare for the ceremony, both my wife and I created Metamask wallets, and our digital priest Anoop Pakki coined the NFT on OpenSea and transmitted it to me,” Mr Narasipuram added. OpenSea is a non-fungible token (NFT) online marketplace, whereas Metamask is a cryptocurrency wallet that allows users to access their Ethereum wallets via an app.
The bride and groom were then seated next to one other, with close friends and family in attendance through Google Meet. They read their vows and were blessed by their digital priest. The groom then confirmed the transaction, transferring the NFT to his wife’s digital wallet.
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“On the ETH blockchain, the transaction represents a permanent, unchangeable, and public record of our commitment to each other,” Mr Narasipuram stated.
Mr Narasipuram believed that his wedding will be only the start of blockchain marriages in India.
“We may be the first couple to be married on the blockchain in India (AFAIK), but we won’t be the last,” he wrote.
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Because of the coronavirus epidemic, many couples have had to hold smaller and more personal weddings. At this point, some individuals have resorted to technology to guarantee that their close friends and family members do not miss out on the festivities.
In a similar incident, a couple in Tamil Nadu conducted a wedding celebration on metaverse. In the high-tech wedding, guests were given digital avatars to enter a Hogwarts-themed online reception. Another couple in West Bengal ensured that their family was practically there at their wedding. Guests ‘attended’ the event through Google Meet and ate meals brought to their homes via Zomato.