In our evolving digital age, world’s first private NFT ‘golf and adventure resort’ comes to Sisters

(Update: Adding video)

Purchase of Aspen Lakes Golf Course n progress, with Dec. 31 deadline

SISTERS, Ore (KTVZ)-- A development touted as the world's first private NFT "golf and adventure resort" is coming to Sisters.

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are unique cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain and cannot be replicated. NFTs can represent real-world items, like artwork and real estate, according to Investopedia.

Presently, the company Rhue Resorts based in South Dakota, is in the process of purchasing Aspen Lakes from the current owners, the Cyrus family.

The CEO of Rhue Resorts, Cindy Wyant, lives in the Willamette Valley and visits Central Oregon often.

She said the resort will be coming under the ownership of her six-generation Oregonian family by Dec. 31.

According to a recent announcement by Rhue Resorts, Aspen Lakes is becoming the world’s first private golf and destination club where a membership can be purchased as an NFT.

The resort is starting by releasing 10,000 Founding Family Memberships for purchase that cost the Ethereum’s equivalent of $15,000. These lifetime memberships do not include annual dues or fees. And unlike timeshares and country clubs, they say, the membership is owned in perpetuity and can be passed on to friends or future generations. Another advantage of NFTs is they’re easy to transfer.

Wyant said she and her family have known the Cyrus family for a number of years. Back in 2009, Wyant said there had been discussion with the Cyrus family about purchasing Aspen Lakes, but she and her family had decided against it.

Wyant's daughter and the founder of Rhue Resorts revisited the idea of purchase, which they are confident they can funded partly by selling memberships along with other funding resources. Efforts will be made to turn Aspen Lakes into a resort, which would include a large conference center, an indoor waterpark and a five-star hotel.

Wyant said, "We realized that we have the option to purchase or let an outsider come in, like Disneyland and make it a big concrete jungle, and we decided against that idea, and that we wanted to develop it.”

But you may be wondering, why the use of non-fungible tokens?

"We really believe that with our current U.S. dollar in the economy that more and more, we're going to see people moving into the digital age, and digital current has become very popular,"Wyant said. "With NFTs, there's actually utility attached to it, there's value."

Wyant said NFTs can be understood like a baseball trading card, something unique that cannot be traded for the equivalent of its kind. Another valuable card, perhaps, but not the exact same thing.  

Most NFTs are part of the Ethereum blockchain, a blockchain meaning a way to store data without having to entrust a company with its security.