How Phygital Mining Aims to Turn Your Wardrobe into a Crypto Mine

Imagine earning crypto simply by looking stylish.

A new project called Phygital Mining seeks to bring this to life by reimagining fashion consumption and seamlessly integrating chic, tech-embedded garments with the digital economy. Each piece not only serves as a statement of style but also acts as a conduit for the daily mining of digital tokens. Engineered with precision, the platform’s core relies on NFC technology intertwined with blockchain’s immutable ledger, ensuring each item is a strategic asset for value generation. 

At the heart of Phygital Mining’s innovation is a family steeped in technology. Denis Chistyakov, the project’s co-founder and driving force, leverages his profound crypto expertise, gained from early investments in landmarks like Cryptopunks and Decentraland, along with the professional pursuits of his children in software and fashion design. This fusion of personal passion and familial synergy has crafted a unique platform that aims to revolutionize how we interact with our clothes.

Phygital Mining is set to expand its horizons with its inaugural collection launch at 10 a.m. ET on Oct. 8. Featuring 1,000 exclusive phygital wallets, each charged with 105 Fiji tokens, the mint will provide the foundation for all of the project’s forthcoming initiatives. Mint the project here and learn more about the upcoming drop in this tweet.

With plans to venture into gaming and other interactive industries, it’s setting the stage for a series of innovations that blend physical allure with digital functionalities, looking to reshape how value is created and experienced in the tech-infused future of fashion and beyond.

We caught up with Denis ahead of the project’s mint to learn more about what’s in store.

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nft now: What’s the origin story and inspiration behind Phygital Mining?

Denis Chistyakov: Our children played a big part! Our son is a Solidity developer, and our daughter works in the fashion industry—her collection will be launching on our platform soon. Of course, my own crypto journey, which began in 2017, has been a major influence. It changed my life, especially getting in early with Cryptopunks, Decentraland, Axie Infinity, and Art Blocks.

What were the major technical challenges you faced integrating NFC and blockchain, and how did you overcome them?

That’s where my co-founder Johnny comes in—he’s a tech wizard. Johnny has the incredible ability to connect the dots between chips, blockchain, backend, and frontend systems.

A major puzzle was identifying and programming NFC chips capable of supporting dynamic URLs, which are essential for our security and gamification features. This dynamic URL system ensures that each time a phygital item’s owner claims new tokens, they must scan the item, preventing the reuse of old URLs. To address this, we developed an innovative solution: a digital twin NFT that pairs with the NFC chip upon the product’s first interaction. This pairing mechanism creates a secure, verifiable link between the physical item and its blockchain-based digital counterpart.

Can you explain the tokenomics behind your platform and how it ensures long-term value?

The Fiji token has a limited supply of 21 million. Each fashion collection is charged with 0.05% of the remaining token supply. Up to 10% of fashion collection sales will be used to buy back and burn tokens, reducing the supply. Additionally, our gamification system, which includes boosts and achievements, encourages users to spend tokens on the platform, helping sustain long-term engagement and value.

How do you balance technological innovation with fashion appeal in your collections?

There are virtually no limitations for fashion designers when incorporating NFC chips into garments. The chips are even machine washable—just avoid ironing them! For one of our future collections, we’re embedding the tags inside wooden beads for bracelets. There’s a lot of room for creativity here.

We are thrilled to announce our partnership with the Metaverse Fashion Council and our participation in the upcoming Metaverse Fashion Week, set for November 2024 in San Francisco. In collaboration with MFW, we invite forward-thinking fashion designers and brands to join our innovative platform, where the worlds of fashion and technology converge in spectacular fashion. This is a unique opportunity to showcase your creations on a dynamic, cutting-edge stage and to be part of shaping the future of digital fashion.

“There are virtually no limitations for fashion designers when incorporating NFC chips into garments.”

DENIS Chistyakov

What incentives does Phygital Mining offer to keep users engaged with their fashion items?

Each item is linked to Fiji Tokens, which unlock gradually over a one-year period. Users can interact with the chip as often as they like to claim the tokens that have been released.

Additionally, we have a gamification system. First, our boost system allows users to apply special boost NFTs to claim even more tokens from an item. These boosts can include NFTs from other projects, like Cryptopunks—owning a Cryptopunk will give you a 10% boost in mining power for your item.

Then, there’s our achievement system. The more you interact with the item, the more achievements you earn, which grant you status and voting power on the platform. Fiji tokens can be used to get whitelisted for future drops, vote, buy boosters, and access discounts.

How does your platform address sustainability concerns in the tech and fashion industries?

Our reward system encourages users to interact with and hold onto their items longer. Additionally, because our items are produced in limited supply, they have collectible value, meaning people are more likely to treat them with care—unlike the fast fashion mentality.

We also believe that consumers will increasingly prioritize digital experiences first, followed by the physical product. Sustainability is about more than just eco-friendly materials; it’s about encouraging longer use, and that’s where we see our value.

What does the future look like for Phygital Mining?

We see the next big trend for the crypto community in hybrid concepts, blending elements from web3 like blockchain, physical items, AI, art, gaming, and more.

We’re starting with fashion, but we see huge potential in gaming—where phygital merchandise can unlock in-game perks—as well as sports and other industries. This is just the beginning of a new hybrid movement that we believe will shape the future.