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Pionauts, one of the most unique and groundbreaking NFT art collections, is set to launch on 28 April 2022, announced Johan Van Asperen Vervenne, the founder and visionary behind the team that created the series.

Today, Pionauts is the world's first company to create large-scale photorealistic appearances of historical pioneers, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Nefertiti, Aristotle, Cleopatra, and so many more.

"Pionauts began as an idea for an NFT collection. Most NFT collections have about six different backgrounds," Johan said. "My team used 84 different 17th and 18th-century paintings to create many of the backgrounds used."

The 150 original pioneers selected by Van Asperen Vervenne and his team mostly lived before the invention of the camera. The team behind Pionauts are artificial intelligence, 2D and 3D graphic design specialists from nine countries.

“People of all ages are fascinated by pioneers that lived before the invention of the camera,” Van Asperen Vervenne said. “Before Pionauts came to life, we only saw old paintings and could only imagine what they looked like when they were alive.”

Van Asperen Vervenne felt it was time to bring them back to life today and go beyond the “stories we read about what they accomplished and go beyond imagining what stories they would tell about themselves if they were alive today.”

With that in mind, Van Asperen Vervenne and his team brought to life “the best-known pioneers with the latest 3D and artificial intelligence (AI) technology.” Applying Deep Learning technology and months of manual retouching, a collection of 8,500 unique variations was created with modified characteristics such as age, facial features and expressions.

Voting utility

Each of these NFTs comes with voting powers that grant holders of the breath-taking digital art collectibles the right to voice how they want the Pionauts comic stories told. They also come with copyrights and many of the photorealistic pioneers' portraits are already trademarked, said Van Asperen Vervenne.

“These portrait trademarks safeguard against infringement of copyrights increasing the value of the Pionauts project,” he added. “Pionauts owns the copyrights for commercial and non-commercial use.

 Royalty income

The Pionauts team sees a positive future in collaborating in various entertainment, marketing and educational projects. Johan and his team's goal is to create more 3D models of pioneer's faces and explore collaborations with Metaverse games, brands, educational- and the movie industry.

“Our goal for Pionauts NFT holders is to share in our future success as the Pionauts brand expands. Pionauts will share 25% of its royalty income with its NFT holders that are KYC (Know Your Customers) compliant,” Johan said.

Pionauts allows all Pionaut NFT holders to exclusively co-create new storylines about breathtaking interplanetary journeys and have a voice in choosing where the story goes next, Johan said.

"The ambition of the Pionauts team is to create a series of pilots, blockbuster movies, similarly as Pixar's Toy Story franchise and the Marvel cinematic universe," Van Asperen Vervenne said. "Pionauts has some very exciting announcements in the pipeline," he said.

The Pionaut's inception

Van Asperen Vervenne one day became intrigued by musician George Aquilla Hardy's depiction of what the first US President would look like today. But Johan went further. He dove into the topic of facial recognition and researched facial reconstruction techniques for digital illustration.

After he concluded his investigation, he decided to see if he could recreate the faces of a few famous people throughout history. After forming a dedicated team of international designers, he looked at historic pioneers regarded as some of the world's greatest minds.

With the help of some of the world's best artificial intelligence (AI) experts, including the founding father of the AI Gan source code, Johan added movements to the face of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle from the image of a statue representing his likeness.

Patience paid off, and it enticed Johan and his colleagues to continue with more restorations. They chose several more famous personalities of the past, that also include Socrates, Beethoven and William Shakespeare.

After many hours of meticulous attention to detail, the talented group transformed the faces of several of the most renowned pioneers worldwide into a photorealistic likeness of them thanks to groundbreaking AI. And then the decision to make them Pionauts.

"Earth is explored by the greatest minds in history. Imagine the progress we can make if these brilliant people help us explore space?" Johan asked. "And thus, the pioneers from history became Pionauts."

Utility

Each of the 8,500 NFTs comes with great utility. They come with voting rights on comic stories with the pioneer characters, their stories, the possibility for holders to input their stories, royalties from their sales, and future movie deals from which we like each NFT holder to profit.

“The goal is that holders of any Pionauts NFT will enjoy passive income as the Pionauts brand expands,” and “This 'army' of thousands of Pionauts NFT holders will undoubtedly help signal, prevent and protect Pionauts portrait rights for the benefit of all those invested in the collection.”

The unique Pionauts NFT collection launches on 28 April 2022

www.pionauts.com         Discord: https://lnkd.in/eQktanmD         Twitter: @pionauts 

Ends

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell emphasized on Wednesday that technology transformation is here to stay in the financial sector and that new regulations will be required. Powell revealed some insight into how the United States would govern the market during a presentation at the Bank of International Settlements Innovation Summit on central bank digital currencies. The digital age was not taken into consideration when establishing our current regulatory structures, the Fed official said. “There will be revisions to current laws and regulations, as well as the creation of wholly new rules and structure, if central banks, stablecoins, and digital currencies are to be implemented,” he said during a roundtable discussion on CBDCs at the BISI Summit. Is There A Threat? Powell noted that emerging forms of digital money, like cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, pose threats to the US financial system and will necessitate the adoption of additional consumer protection measures. Powell reaffirmed his position that cryptocurrency should adhere to the “same activity, same regulation” premise. He proposed regulating stablecoin issuers, such as banks, in October 2021. “Stablecoins function similarly to money market funds. They’re similar to bank deposits… and it is reasonable for them to be controlled similarly, same activity, same regulation,” he concluded. Powell Says DeFi Can Improve Finance Sector Despite this, the Fed chairman acknowledged that distributed technology and DeFi have the potential to improve the payment system’s efficiency and foster a more competitive financial sector. This is an impressive recognition from the director of one of the country’s premier financial institutions. Other agencies and their personnel have embraced crypto and blockchain technology as well, albeit they all appear to advocate for some level of regulation. Crypto total market cap at $1.94 trillion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com Suggested Reading | Fiat – Not Crypto – Still The Top Choice For Financial Crimes, US Treasury Says Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that are typically backed by the dollar or a commodity such as precious metal. CBDCs are digital representations of dollars or other fiat currencies that governments issue. The Fed is exdigital currencies but has not yet decided whether to issue them. In January, it published a study on stablecoins. Biden’s Executive Order US President Joe Biden signed an executive order earlier this month directing the Treasury Department and other federal agencies to conduct a study on the impact of cryptocurrency on economic stability and national security. Biden’s directive comes as many Democratic legislators, notably Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren, have expressed worry that cryptocurrency could be used to circumvent US sanctions against Russia. As part of the executive mandate, the Treasury is leading a report on a CBDC in consultation with the Departments of Justice, Commerce, and State, as well as the Office of Management and Budget, Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, to determine whether the US should pursue a digital dollar. Suggested Reading | Bitcoin Breaks Past The $40,000 Barrier Again – Can It Sustain The Momentum? Featured image from CryptoSlate, chart from TradingView.com