“This is an old dream, to make the pastel de nata as famous as cannoli and sushi. Basically, it's like going to our phone and having an emoji of a pastel de nata that doesn't exist,” said Jason Carvalho, 37, owner of a bakery and pastry shop in northern Toronto, to Lusa.

Son of emigrants from Braga and Barcelos, where he lived from 10 to 24 years old, the businessman acquired the commercial establishment at the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020.

To design the traditional Portuguese sweet, Jason Carvalho is creating a virtual bakery and pastry shop and the project will be launched at the Art Basel fair in Miami on December 4, intending to “recreate the experience of catering, bakery and pastry, cultural events ”, thus being able to “create a new environment” for the sector.

Nata$ World is the first automatically generated NFT (non-fungible 'token') and DAO (internet community sharing a bank account) bakery that sells virtual land and NFT art to its community, allowing members to participate in various online social experiences and have discounted prices and advantages at the real pastéis de nata store.

“This project is a new reinvention of the dining experience, it's about having that and much more, a virtual library, educating people about what Portugal is, about the discoveries, eventually the Government can team up with us, to be able to sell more trips and promote Portuguese culture”, he added.

This will be the first platform for a bakery and pastry shop in this new "metaverse" with a DAO vision where customers can enjoy the "tokens" and "virtual land", but also later in the real store.

“Many people question whether it is possible to carry out this project. There is nothing like it in this industry. Let's be the first ones”, he added.

Entrepreneur António Trincão, executive director of YouCan Galaxy, is also part of this project.