/ Pianist Greg Spero (onscreen) and as an avatar (right) speaking with a fan after his live VR performance in NFT Oasis with its founder Will O'Brien (in red) Last month, the blockchain had a coming-out party in the arts world, as the greater public learned about NFTs (non-fungible tokens). The Checkout was all over it, cohosting a livestream (with JazzTimes) to celebrate the jazz world's first NFT drop with pianist Greg Spero, violinist Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and animator Olivia Hern. On April 10, those artists and other forward-thinking industry leaders gathered online to celebrate the release of Maiden Voyage, a seven track jazz album and short animated film freshly minted on the Open Sea online marketplace, available to purchase only with Ethereum (ETH). (Yes, that's a hat tip to pianist and technologist Herbie Hancock.)