Swiss Post (Schweizerische Post AG)

About Swiss Post

Schweizerische Post AG (Swiss Post) is the national postal service of Switzerland, headquartered in Bern. Founded 1849 as a federal operation, it is today a federal stock corporation operating a comprehensive postal network with over 800 branches and several thousand agencies throughout Switzerland. With its crypto stamp program, it belongs to the early European adopters of blockchain stamp technology.

Strategic Position in the Crypto Stamp Ecosystem

With the launch of Swiss Crypto Stamp 1.0 on 25 November 2021, Swiss Post became the second European postal service after Österreichische Post (June 2019) to bring blockchain stamps to the market. The time gap of about two and a half years was strategically clever: Swiss Post could study the experiences of Österreichische Post with CS 1.0, CS 2.0, CS 3.0, and the Gold Edition Doge — and learn from them.

The strategic position can be summarized in several points:

1. Standalone sub-brand. Unlike some other postal services that treat crypto stamps more as a sub-product, Swiss Post has set up an independent brand website (crypto-stamp.post.ch) — a clear commitment to the strategic significance of the program.

2. Swiss Crypto Valley connection. The technical platform is provided by Inacta AG of Zug — a Swiss IT consulting company located in the "Crypto Valley" Zug. Swiss Post thus deliberately leverages the national Swiss crypto ecosystem instead of relying on foreign technology partners.

3. Most innovative theme choice. The three solo editions (SCS 1.0, SCS 2.0, SCS 3.0) show a remarkable thematic progression: physical geography (mountains) → cultural collaboration (Locarno Film Festival) → AI art experiment (digitalswitzerland). This progression cannot be attested to any other crypto stamp program in such clarity.

Program History

Swiss Crypto Stamp 1.0 (25.11.2021)

Mintage: 175,000 pieces in 13 motifs (tiered) Motif: Swiss mountain world (Säntis, Pilatus, Matterhorn, Dent Blanche, Eiger, Jungfrau, Mönch, etc.) Sales performance: Sold out within five hours Token standard: ERC-721 on Ethereum Technology partner: Inacta AG, Zug

The premiere edition chose the iconic Swiss mountains as motif family — a perfectly national and internationally connectable subject. Each of the 13 stamps shows a different mountain with its own cultural-historical or geographical story.

Swiss Crypto Stamp 2.0 (08.08.2022)

Mintage: 250,000 pieces (10 motifs × 25,000) + bonus NFT (50 pieces raffle) Price: CHF 9 per piece Motif: Swiss film (Locarno Film Festival collaboration) Artist: Corina Vögele (illustrations) + 10 Swiss filmmakers (NFT video clips) Innovation: NFTs as short video clips instead of static images

The second edition dared a cultural leap: instead of national geography, Swiss film became the subject — in cooperation with the renowned Locarno Film Festival. Swiss filmmakers designed NFT video clips for illustrations by artist Corina Vögele. The premiere of video NFTs was an innovation that later inspired many crypto stamp programs.

Swiss Crypto Stamp 3.0 (02.05.2023)

Mintage: 14 versions with tiered mintages from 65,000 (most common) down to only 50 pieces (rarest) Innovation: AI-generated stamp motifs Collaboration: digitalswitzerland (Swiss Digital Days 2022) Special editions: 13 auction special editions for charitable purposes

The third edition was the most innovative: at the Swiss Digital Days 2022 organized as a roadshow by digitalswitzerland, visitors used artificial intelligence to combine terms from three categories (Switzerland, digitalization, art style). Software created about 2,500 unique AI artworks from this — a selection became the 14 versions of SCS 3.0.

Joint Editions with Liechtenstein

CHLI 1.0 and CHLI 2.0 are bilateral joint editions with Liechtensteinische Post. They are separate editions with their own bundles and will be documented in a separate bundle.

Differentiation Against Other Issuers

Versus Österreichische Post

• Swiss Post: 3 solo editions + bilateral joint editions with Liechtenstein
• Österreichische Post: Over 30 editions since 2019, with extensive gold program and CSA program

Österreichische Post operates a significantly more extensive crypto stamp program. Swiss Post focuses on few, qualitatively high-quality editions, each with a clear conceptual focus.

Versus PostNL

• Swiss Post: Independent technical platform (Inacta), independent theme choice
• PostNL: Joint-edition partner of Österreichische Post (CS 4.0 Bull, CS 5.1 Lion, etc.), adopts Variuscard platform

Swiss Post is significantly more autonomous in building its crypto stamp program — it uses own technical solutions and develops own themes, while PostNL is more closely tied to the Austrian platform.

Design Principles of the Swiss Program

Several design principles can be recognized from the three solo editions to date:

1. Swiss identity as core theme. Mountains, film, AI-generated Swiss symbolism — all three editions revolve around specifically Swiss subjects. This is different from, e.g., the international artist collaborations of Österreichische Post (CSA with Hackatao, FVCKRENDER).

2. High mintages for broad collector base. With 175,000 + 250,000 + variable total mintage, Swiss Post reaches a comparatively broad collector base per edition — unlike, e.g., the Austrian premium editions with 999-piece mintages.

3. Innovation per edition. Each edition brings a technical or conceptual innovation: SCS 1.0 brought the program to Switzerland in the first place, SCS 2.0 brought video NFTs, SCS 3.0 brought AI generation. This continuous innovation is a clear signature.

4. Charity component. Especially SCS 3.0 had 13 auctioned special editions for charitable purposes — a connection of collector market and social engagement.

Significance in Crypto Stamp History

Swiss Post marks several important points:

1. First non-Austrian crypto stamp premiere in Europe: Swiss market entry 2021
2. First Locarno film cooperation: SCS 2.0 as cultural bridge
3. First AI art crypto stamp: SCS 3.0 as technological novum
4. First CH-LI joint edition: CHLI 1.0 as bilateral premiere with Liechtenstein
5. Crypto Valley connection: Inacta partnership as strategic signal

Swiss Post is thus not merely another crypto-stamp-issuing postal service but a strategic innovator: it uses the crypto stamp format as a platform for continuous thematic and technical experiments that clearly differ from the mainstream Austrian orientation.