You can actually get married on blockchain. Here's how

A blockchain or crypto wedding offers a modern take on traditional matrimony by recording the marriage on a blockchain. This approach utilizes blockchain technology’s secure, transparent, and immutable characteristics to document the marriage contract. The couple’s commitment is permanently etched into a digital ledger, ensuring it remains verifiable and tamper-proof.

This concept symbolizes permanence and transparency in marriage, which relates well to modern-day couples. A few couples even exchange digital tokens as vows or rings during their wedding ceremony to add a distinctive and futuristic touch. Each token is unique and is stored on the blockchain, so the exchange is permanently recorded.

An NFT (non-fungible token) refers to a unique digital asset that can take the form of art, music, in-game items, videos, and other types of digital content stored on a blockchain network and traded using cryptocurrency as a means of exchange.

Couples can take their blockchain wedding a step further by storing their marriage certificate or license as a digital asset in the form of an NFT. In an NFT marriage, the couple creates and exchanges unique digital tokens between their crypto wallets that symbolize their union, often minted on blockchain platforms like Ethereum. These tokens can be personalized with meaningful elements such as vows, digital wedding rings, or even special artwork representing their relationship.

Smart contract marriage: A smart contract is a computer program that functions as an agreement between two parties or entities, automatically executing its terms when triggered by a user on the blockchain. Smart contracts can also be used as digital agreements outlining the couple’s terms for the marriage. The couple signs the smart contract using their private keys, making it official.

Digital Priest: Some blockchain weddings include a “digital priest,” an online officiant who oversees the ceremony and may add a ceremonial touch, such as a blessing attached to the NFT transaction.

There are platforms like “Marriage-Chain” on GitHub that provide couples with the ability to register their marriage using blockchain technology.

In 2023, Web3Wed launched its “Words of Love” season where couples could tie the knot using blockchain technology.

In 2022, Unilever’s oral care brand and toothpaste, Closeup, introduced a platform that allows couples to marry in a virtual setting represented by digital avatars. After the ceremony, they receive an NFT certificate, marking their union in the digital realm.

In 2018, Swedish sports fashion brand Björn Borg launched a digital platform called “Marriage Unblocked,” inviting LGBTQ+ couples from around the world to marry on the platform. Sybille and Alexandra from Switzerland became the first couple to do so, as their home country did not legally recognize same-sex marriages then. Same-sex marriages became legal in Switzerland on July 1, 2022. 

The first blockchain-based wedding was held in 2014 when David Mondrus and Joyce Bayo got married via a QR code at the Bitcoin conference at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

In 2021, California-based Rebecca Rose and Peter Kacherginsky, employees of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, got married on Ethereum’s blockchain. In addition to a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony, the couple wrote an Ethereum smart contract named Tabaat (the Hebrew word for the ring) that issued tokenized “rings” NFTs in the form of TBT tokens to the couple’s wallets. The blockchain wedding ceremony took 4 minutes, and the couple paid $587 in transaction fees.

Another young couple from India, Shruti Nair and Anil Narasipuram, got married using nonfungible tokens and paid $35 to digitize their love till eternity.