Congressional Candidate Shrina Kurani Launches Climate-Focused NFT Drop on Abris

Congressional Candidate Shrina Kurani Launches Climate-Focused NFT Drop on Abris
News Representation Image Source: Google Images

CORONA, Calif.: Shrina Kurani, a Democrat running for Congress in California's 41st District, and Abris, a carbon-negative NFT marketplace built on Algorand, today announced the launch of "Kurani for Congr3ss," an collection of 230 NFTs designed to raise awareness for Kurani's campaign and to highlight the potential for innovative, climate-friendly solutions in the fast-growing Web3 space. The 230 NFTs available in the drop represent the 230 billion tons of carbon remaining in the world's "carbon budget."

The NFTs are available now through March 31 and are priced at $1250 and $5800. The assets also represent greater utility: NFT holders will have access to airdrops from other crypto and climate projects, intimate conversations with climate scientists, and exclusive invitations to the campaign's Earth Day party in the metaverse.

In late 2021 Kurani—who seeks to engage the crypto community in the future of Web3 policy-making—became the first candidate running for federal office to launch an NFT drop. Since that time other political candidates have followed suit, demonstrating the surging interest in both NFTs and the broader financial innovation taking hold across the crypto industry.

"As a former cleantech entrepreneur I know firsthand the importance of sourcing energy-efficient processes whenever possible, yet too often this still leads to compromises and trade-offs," said Kurani. "By partnering with Abris for this drop, which leverages the hyper-efficient Algorand network, we're shining a light on the innovation happening in the Web3 world - innovation that is community-driven, inclusive, and, yes, climate-minded. Tech- and crypto-literate legislators like myself are essential to paving a path toward this reality, and we hope this NFT drop gets people excited about everything the future of the internet can enable."

Abris is built on the Algorand blockchain, a network that is so computationally lightweight it can run on a device as simple as a Raspberry Pi. This enables creators, brands, and users to take advantage of the benefits of NFTs and digital uniqueness without the extreme energy intensiveness required by other blockchain protocols. Last year, Algorand also announced a novel partnership with ClimateTrade to offset its minimal remaining emissions and become the first carbon-negative blockchain network.

Launched in 2021, Abris is an easy-to-use platform for NFTs with a creator-driven profit structure. The marketplace is designed to enable anyone to mint NFTs securely and in a single step, as well as to sell, buy, and resell with ease. In addition to the open marketplace, Abris offers NFTs as a Service (NFTaaS), a white glove solution to help artists, galleries, political campaigns, social impact initiatives and brands mint and sell their own NFT collections.

"When innovative ideas meet technology, fundraising becomes a memorable experience," said Priya Samant, CEO of Abris. "It is very promising to see political candidates getting creative and venturing into the world of NFTs."