Please briefly introduce yourself
Hello everyone, I am Choi Junho, the brand manager of the Incheon City Government, responsible for the metaverse activities of "Operation Incheon Landing". Nice to meet you.
What inspired you to create the Inchon experience?
The Inchon Landing was not widely recognized and was considered an almost impossible mission. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the armistice in the Korean War. To commemorate those soldiers who defended their country in pursuit of freedom and peace, we developed this metaverse experience.
What were your main goals when creating this experience?
Our main goal is for The Sandbox users to experience Inchon and engage with historical figures, not just for entertainment. Additionally, our goal is for many people to have an informative and meaningful experience while understanding the historical significance of this operation.
In addition to the experience, an exclusive NFT series has also been released, how is it different from other NFTs?
In conjunction with the experience event, we are also releasing an exclusive collection of NFTs. What’s unique about this series is that all profits from NFT sales will be donated to soldiers who served in the Korean War through the Korean War Veterans Association.
Photos of the Incheon landing operation (Source: National Archives of Korea)
We have launched a campaign where creators will not receive revenue from NFT minting and all proceeds will be given back to society. Donating proceeds to veterans is a first for the Korean NFT industry and one of the few in the world. In this war-torn era, we organized this event to remember the pain of war and promote peace through this initiative. We hope everyone can pay attention to and participate in this meaningful event.
NFT holders can obtain many benefits, including what?
We have prepared various offers, not limited to freebies, for tourists who purchase NFT and want to visit Incheon. These benefits include accommodation at a luxury hotel in Incheon, a "Live Like an Islander" travel voucher that allows you to freely explore various islands in Incheon, and the Incheon Travel Pass that allows you to visit 40 popular attractions in Incheon for free. The purpose of this is to encourage people to put down the Internet for a while and travel to Incheon in reality.
What’s your favorite NFT?
I have a special liking for the Batio Island Lighthouse. The small size and voxel style of the lighthouse captures its character effectively and the design is fantastic. It is a valuable asset to be placed on the land and it means a lot to me as the Isle of Palms Lighthouse will be celebrating its 120th anniversary this year.
What are Incheon City’s future plans at The Sandbox?
Starting with the Incheon Landing experience content, the Incheon City Government will continue to work closely with The Sandbox. The tangible and intangible values of Incheon will be shared with people in Korea and around the world through The Sandbox platform, and collaborative projects such as NFT competitions and offline promotion booths will be jointly promoted to develop content that allows people to experience Incheon City in various ways.
Finally, do you have anything to say to the citizens of Incheon and users of The Sandbox?
Commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the Inchon landing (Source: Gyeonggi Ilbo)
This year, Incheon hosted the event to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice and to express our gratitude to the war veterans. We hope that the content of the Incheon landing operation experience activity can go beyond historical records and allow people to experience, feel and connect with the events at that time, so that more people can remember it in their hearts.