VIRTUAL ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

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This paper examines the emergence of physical non-fungible tokens (PNFTs) through a socio-cultural case study of Stoffeli®, a reimagined Swiss artifact that fuses analogue security with digital reference systems. While NFTs have been widely discussed in economics, art markets, and digital sociology, their physical counterparts—and their implications for digital heritage—remain largely unexplored. Stoffeli® offers a unique entry point into this gap as a multi-material artifact embedding digital information refinery in a hack-resistant analogue form, positioning itself as a secure and durable store of value. The study situates Stoffeli® at the intersection of money, material culture, and digital heritage, drawing on Clifford Geertz’s concept of thick description to explore how objects become recognised as valuable and maintain legitimacy over time. Rooted in the history of the Swiss textile company Stoffel AG, the artifact’s contemporary reinvention by Felix Stoffel—great-grandson of Beat Stoffel (1863–1937)—illustrates how heritage, “Swissness,” and artisanal craft are mobilised in new cultural economies. Methodologically, the project integrates archival research, interpretive ethnology, and critical autoethnography. As the researcher is directly involved in reviving Stoffeli®, entrepreneurial practice becomes a reflexive site of inquiry. Empirical data include unstructured interviews with Felix Stoffel and business autoethnography documenting lived professional experience. Theoretically, the paper advances debates on value, trust, and exchange in the context of surveillance capitalism (Zuboff, 2018). It argues that PNFTs such as Stoffeli® represent not merely hybrid art-objects but a reconfiguration of how societies materialise security, socio-cultural heritage, and value in the 21st century.