Salesforce Launches a Pilot NFT Platform, Won’t Support PoW Blockchains

On Wednesday, American software firm Salesforce announced the launch of a pilot NFT platform – NFT Cloud – on which users can mint and trade such digital assets. However, the company has not revealed details regarding when the platform will be available to users, nor wallets or blockchains the platform will support.

• Salesforce views the newly launched product as a way to connect to its customers and “make NFT selling more accessible,” according to the coverage by TechCrunch.
• Adam Caplan, SVP of Emerging Technology at Salesforce, described NFTs as a bridge between the digital and physical worlds. He said that these digital assets already showed utilities in multiple fields, including retail, media, fashion, and consumer goods.
• The company’s website did not reveal which blockchains and wallets NFT Cloud will support in the future. It only indicates that the platform will “link data, communities, and wallets” and allow users to “deploy from secure, sustainable technology.”
• In line with the company’s “net-zero emission commitment,” the NFT Cloud pilot will not support Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchains as it sees the consensus mechanism as a major cause of waste in electronic energy. Instead, it stated that it prefers Proof of Stake over PoW.
• Salesforce’s interest in blockchain technology could be traced back to 2018, when it announced it was working on a blockchain project. Earlier this year, its investing arm – Salesforce Venture – tagged Samgsung Venture in a funding round, investing a total of $35 million for a blockchain company called Digital Asset Holdings.
• In the latest survey focusing on the state of digital commerce, Salesforce noted that with just 30% of organizations offering cryptocurrency as a payment option, an additional 46% of entities plan to provide such a service to customers in the next two years.