Over the weekend, a Pune-based couple became the first to hold a blockchain wedding in India. The wedding took place on the open sea platform.
What is the Blockchain?
For those who don’t know, a blockchain is a permanent, publicly distributed ledger that verifies transactions, records events, and is resistant to data modification. Each new piece of data included creates a new block consisting of a cryptographic hash and a timestamp and forms a chain of verified information.
In the case of this marriage, it was done via an Ethereum smart contract, which (according to Blockgeeks) is a digital agreement between two or more people that can be accessed simply by scanning the blockchain at any time in the future.
Such contracts have been commonly used in trade finance as they can settle transactions without requiring third party verification. It is said that anything you put on the Blockchain stays forever.
How they did it?
As described by groom Anil Narasipuram, they got married for the first time via court marriage on November 15, 2021 and wanted to keep it small without involving a large group of people.
However, they decided to immortalize their union through an online ceremony, which was officiated by their own “digital priest” Anoop Pakki. The Ethereum smart contract was enshrined in the form of NFT (non-fungible token) which was minted on OpenSea, which is the largest NFT marketplace, involving people trading rare digital items, crypto collectibles, etc.
The NFT named Ekatvam was actually the image of his wife’s engagement ring with wedding vows embedded on it. Both Narasipuram and his wife, Shruti Nair, had established Metamask Wallets, essentially cryptocurrency wallets, where the priest had minted the NFT on OpenSea, which was later transferred to him.
Soon, wedding vows were exchanged and the digital priest blessed them both. After completing the transaction, the NFT was transferred to Shruti’s crypto wallet.
The ceremony, which lasted around 15 minutes, was also digitally attended by friends and family who saw it on Google Meet.
Anil stated: “The transaction took a few minutes (and around $35 in ETH gas fees) after which our digital priest declared us man and wife. The transaction is a permanent, immutable and public record of our commitment to each other in the ETH Blockchain”.
What is special about blockchain marriage?
Unlike a traditional marriage where the state, law or religion act as an institution to regulate the union between the two partners, a blockchain marriage is decentralized, where it can be as flexible as the wishes of the blockchain owners.
Couples can create smart contracts that can be renewed, changed, or dissolved on a yearly basis. Sadly, it has no legal weight in Indian law (or even US law), it surely is an attractive option for couples due to its immutable behavior, unlike a traditional marriage certificate which would deteriorate over time. eventually, this one would stay on the blockchain forever.
