Ethereum Wallet MEW Gets Into NFTs by Tokenizing Historic ETH Blocks

By Jason Nelson

Do you have a favorite moment in Ethereum history? Now you can buy it.

MyEtherWallet (MEW) announced today the launch of ETH Blocks, a new feature that will allow MEW users to mint NFTs directly in the app.

MyEtherWallet says users will be able to mint blocks of transactions from Ethereum that have historical or personal significance. But not so fast, collectors: MEW founder and CEO Kosala Hemachandra told Decrypt that 13 blocks of historical importance to Ethereum—including the whitepaper release in 2013, the first Ether sale in 2014, and the DAO fork in 2016—have already been minted and will be auctioned off for charity at an auction on December 11. The auction proceeds will go to nonprofits, including The Skid Row Trust, Wikipedia, Girls Who Code, and NPR.

"We wanted to provide users the ability to recognize major milestones associated with Ethereum," Hemachandra said in a press release. "Instead of owning ETH or an Ethereum-based asset, they may now obtain an immutable and gorgeous record of ownership of the entire Ethereum block."

MyEtherWallet says the first 100 ETH Blocks will be minted at the cost of 0.01 ETH ($46.26) each for the launch. The next 500 will increase in price to 0.03 ETH, and all following ETH Blocks will be minted at 0.05 ETH for each.

MEW launched in 2015, not long after the Ethereum network went live. As of February 2021, it claimed 1.3 million monthly users, according to data from the Blockchain Council's research site. That number has grown in the past ten months to over 2 million, according to Hemachandra.

Until now, the only way MyEtherWallet users could mint NFTs was by connecting the wallet to a marketplace like Rarible. This first NFT drop will include only Ethereum Blocks. But MEW plans to add other projects later, essentially allowing the wallet to become its own NFT ecosystem.

"MEW was founded on the principle of empowering users to easily access Ethereum and everything that it offers," Hemachandra said. "It is a perfect fit for us to embrace NFTs and enable users of all skill levels to get involved. Our users are already accessing their wallets every day with MEW and it makes sense to bring NFTs to where crypto fans already are."

When asked if MyEtherWallet can scale quickly enough to meet the increased demand, Hemachandra told Decrypt he is confident the team can handle anything the launch throws their way.

"MEW has been around for almost as long as Ethereum through all its leaps, bounds, and innovations," he said. "We've been through the ICO craze and yield farming hype, and have taken everything in stride."

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