Since its inception, Star Trek has been about exploring the final frontier — boldly going where no one has gone before. Paramount, which owns the Trek IP, has now appropriated that language to push NFTs on the new Paramount.xyz platform, which it plans to launch on April 9th in partnership with Recur. The early response from fans has been overwhelmingly negative, but like it or not, Star Trek content is coming to the metaverse. As for when the metaverse will actually exist, that’s still up in the air.
When the Star Trek Continuum project launches, you’ll be able to pony up $250 to purchase algorithmically-generated starships. And if you’re hoping to get an iconic vessel like the Constitution Class made famous by the OG Enterprise, get ready to drop a lot of cash. The $250 “Captain pack” includes one ship, and the Constitution drop rates are very low. You have a roughly 11% chance of getting a Constitution or Constitution Refit (as seen in the earlier movies), but less popular classes like Oberth and Soyuz are more common. If you want a guaranteed Constitution, you’ll have to buy the Admiral Pack, which you can only do if you’ve purchased a separate NFT known as a Recur pass for $350 (at current prices). It doesn’t appear that Galaxy Class is even an option in this drop, so you’ll have to buy additional packs later if you want that NCC 1701-D vibe. The Ferengi Alliance would definitely approve of this scheme.
As for what you’ll be able to do with these unique items, Paramount is just as vague as the next NFT project. There will be an “experiential hub” to house the first-season NFTs, and future seasons will include more types of NFT content like characters, and you’ll be able to go on missions of some sort. Paramount has also hinted that other properties from Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures will come to Paramount.xyz in the future.
$250 for one random starship? Pass. (What even is that design? – Ed)
This is all unclear largely because the “metaverse” and “web3” don’t exist yet. These experiences, and the foundational technology to make them possible, are still years away. All we have right now are blockchains that can assign “ownership” of these digital items. You rely on the platform to give them any value and to set reasonable purchase prices. In this case, I think they have definitely missed the mark on the second point. Charging $250 for a single NFT item, which doesn’t even have any functionality, would be a tough sell for any fandom — and especially for Star Trek.
One of the most fundamental elements of the stories told in Trek is that of the post-scarcity society. We hear time and time again that the people of the Federation are no longer concerned with accumulating material wealth, focusing instead on the improvement of themselves and humanity as a whole. That’s a big part of what makes Star Trek so hopeful and appealing to its fans, which include basically the entire editorial staff of ExtremeTech. Turning this beloved franchise into an NFT machine is, at best, tone-deaf.
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