In 2020, Shruti Nair and Anil Narasipuram started a Twitter romance. As India prepared for its first national lockdown, the two exchanged messages. After a few months, Narasipuram proposed to her at her parents’ house. The couple got married in November, and their wedding became viral due to the Indian government’s decision to consider taxing cryptocurrencies. Instead of a traditional wedding, the two got married using blockchain. This started a chain of events in their relationship that will leave them with memories for a lifetime.
Their wedding records are on the blockchain, and it’s proof of their commitment to each other. Narasipuram said that having their wedding recorded on the platform is a powerful statement about their marriage. The couple’s ceremony serves as a reminder that despite the government’s slow progress in regulating digital currencies, transactions are still happening in India.
The couple’s wedding ceremony was carried out on the Ethereum blockchain, and their non-fungible token, which they created using their wedding vows, was then exchanged on OpenSea. A blockchain is a ledger that enables people to record transactions online. Its decentralized nature enables people to collect digital tokens and other physical assets. NFTs are also used to represent physical commodities such as art and real estate.
The couple said that having their wedding recorded on the blockchain allowed them to capture their special day in a way that reflected on their relationship. The couple got married in a courthouse, and their guests were able to watch the event via GoogleMeet. They also opened their digital wallets so that online attendees were able to offer money as gifts.
Anoop Pakki, the cousin of Narasipuram, officiated the wedding and created the NFT before it happened. He blessed the couple as they read their vows, and he then transferred the token to the other blockchain. For Narasipuram, the idea of having a blockchain wedding started as an inspiration. She found it to be a new paradigm in how people think of trust online. Her then-fiance was also ready to participate in the project and quickly agreed to the blockchain-style ceremony where they would officially become married.
In 2014, a couple got married using a bitcoin ATM at Disney World. In 2021, two employees of Coinbase exchanged their NFT rings during a Jewish wedding ceremony. In India, a couple got married using a metaverse wedding reception held on February 6. The event caught the attention of both their families and friends. While some were excited about the decision of these couples, other family members and friends were not.
Their family is not from the blockchain or crypto world, but they are still trying to make them understand what happened. The couple’s wedding has been met with mixed reactions online. Some people accused the couple of altering the traditional Indian wedding ceremonies.
The couple’s wedding reception was also met with mixed reactions online. Some people accused them of trying to replace the traditional wedding ceremony with a digital one. The couple’s family members noted that some of the comments they received were very funny. Some of them asked if they would mint their kids on the blockchain.