NFT’s for a better world: Music producer auctioning his personal Snoop Dogg Platinum plaque for a philanthropic stand

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have taken the world by storm for their ability to allow content owners and other creators to monetize scarce images, videos or contracts for sizable amounts of money. However, they more recently have proven their ability to facilitate philanthropic actions to raise funds for noteworthy causes.

NFTs offer opportunities for fundraising since they, unlike crypto, offer something more than monetary donations. Instead, they allow celebrities and other individuals to auction off digital creations, with the proceeds going to a charity of their choice.

Tito Rodriguez is just one example of this use case put into action. Tito, also known as “The Hood Santa,” is a platinum record producer with previous experience working with artists like Snoop Dogg. Tito has since transitioned from the music industry to help his community through the establishment of the Local Hearts Foundation. This charity aims to give back to underprivileged families in the East LA area.

To do so, Tito has made arrangements to auction a 1/1 NFT. This NFT comes with the physical Snoop Dogg Presents Tha Eastsidaz platinum plaque. Collaborating with ZUZ Protocol, the winner of this plaque will also receive a Zeus NFT. With the Zeus NFT, owners will be able to do in-wallet gasless staking and earn rewards each month for the next eight months.

Initiatives like these are made possible through the ZUZ Protocol, an NFT network created by the Zero Utility Company. The platform shares that its mission is to “bring efficiency, privacy and value to the NFT market.” Their current specializations include NFT and ERC-20 multisending, minting dynamic NFTs with special properties, gasless in-wallet staking, and streamlining NFT projects. 

With the ZUZ token, users can build off the team’s existing tool kit, which aims to allow traders to move multiple NFTs at a lower cost.

Providing greater uses for NFTs

To help facilitate transactions like this, the ZUZ protocol continues to build new tools to help expand the usability of NFTs, leveraging two Zero Utility tools. 

The first is NFT Multisend, to accelerate the distribution of NFTs to more users with lower gas fees, a feature currently used by the Redlioneye Gazette  and several other artists who want to distribute their own NFTs. 

The second product is the NFT Forge Immolator, a machine for making NFTs that allow users to post on any marketplace. The Forge is a dynamic NFT minter to help users mint tokens that conduct a certain action as determined by the creator. One example of this is burning an NFT automatically if a user doesn’t follow a certain requirement. 

The ZUZ team has also created Lightning, an NFT Staking platform for ERC-20 tokens that owners of any project can use. Individuals can create their staking pool using an ERC-20 token and determine which tokens can be received as a reward. ZUZ Protocol plans to release a new feature to the platform that will allow NFTs to be staked or time-locked, with availability on the Ethereum and Polygon Network.

The project has shared that it partnered with Polygon, a Layer-two scaling solution and Chainlink, an oracle protocol.. 

Taking a philanthropic stand

Over the next year, the team shares that the launch of their decentralized philanthropic initiatives is only one of their focuses. The team also plans to enhance and continue developing its tools to further improve the NFT market experience and adoption. Future plans also include the creation of a highly specialized NFT marketplace targeted at consumer and enterprise use.

On the philanthropic side, the ZUZ team shares that they will continue to partner with charities such as the Local Hearts and Manny Pacquiao Foundation.