NFT Marketplaces (Part 4)
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We are going to breakdown some of the more popular Blockchain based Marketplaces. NFT Marketplaces are rapidly changing and responding to the needs and desires of the creative practitioners & collectors. So this post will be a snapshot of what's happening as of March 2021. We will continue to update this segment as we learn more. Please subscribe to stay updated on the status of NFT Marketplaces.First, and foremost, let’s check out the latest sales Snapshot of NFTs. NBA Top Shot has officially become the newest craze in NFT Collectibles with 64 million in sales.
100 million in sales in last 30 Days. WOW!
Marketplaces on the Ethereum Network (Design Language- “on chain”)
“On chain” simply means a transaction on the blockchain.
Marketplaces “on chain” for NFTs
Open Sea is the largest decentralized marketplace of over 4 million digital owned assets. The Open Sea Marketplace allows users to discover, collect & purchase digital artwork by some of the worlds most influential creative practitioners.
SuperRare is an exclusive marketplace that allows collectors to buy and trade unique, single-edition digital artworks that’s authentically created by an artist in the network.
Nifty Gateway collaborates with top artists and brands to create collections of limited edition, high quality Nifties. Each collection will be opened at a specific time (a drop), and will only be available for time. This concept is similar to the exclusive sneaker drops led by sneaker-head community.
Nifty’s goal is create new drops about once every 3 weeks.
Known Origin allows users to authenticate, showcase and sell rare digital artwork & collectibles.
Known Origin is a DIY platform that allows digital creators to authenticate, display and sell the works they produce.
Similar to the OpenSea model, Rarible allows crypto-enthusiasts to sell digital NFT collectibles & art. Established in 2020, it transformed into a marketplace where users can mint and create collectibles, making the platform a one-stop-shop for NFTs.
Foundation was designed to give artists an opportunity to turn creative work into cryptocurrency. They believe that artists should be able to can take control of the value of their work.
Foundation has a philosophy that decentralization can be transformative for creative economies. Artist will now have the option of making a decent living from pure creativity.
Mintable is a marketplace to buy and sell digital items (ERC-721’s) on the blockchain. With Mintable, anyone can easily turn their content (such as files, artwork, music, PDFs, images, videos, etc) into an item that live on the blockchain.
Digital items live on the blockchain by using smart contracts and what’s cool about Mintable is that it lets you create a smart contract without having to learn how to code.
We thought it was important to quote Zora below from Tech Crunch. Their philosophy speaks volumes and we think creatives really dig it. It touches to the core of an artists livelihood.
This is how they feel about Gatekeepers.
“The current system is fucked, and we want out. We see the value we create and we want our piece of it, and not just a little bit.”
“It’s a marketplace with two main components but one philosophy: sustainable economics for creators”.
As Tech Crunch article stated in Oct 2020:
“Think of an artist, as an example, that creates a piece and sells it for market value. That’s great, but thereafter, every ounce of work that the artist puts into future work, into building a name and a brand and a community for themselves puts additional value into that piece. The artist never sees a dime from that, relying instead on the value of future releases to pay dividends on the work”.
Here’s how the Zora team explains it:
“On Zora, creators have the ability to set two prices: start price and max price. As community members buy and sell a token, it moves the price up or down. This makes the price dynamic as it opens price discovery on the items by the market. When people buy the token it moves the price closer to its maximum. When they sell, it moves closer to its minimum”.
“For an excited community like Jeff [Staple’s], this new dynamic price can cause a quick increase in the value of his sneakers. As a creator, they capture the value from selling on a price curve as well as getting a take on trading fees from the market which they now own. What is used to trade on StockX is now about to trade on a creator owned market”.
The $RAC token, built on Ethereum, is the first of its kind from Zora.
Protocol Based Marketplaces & Apps
Protocol Based Marketplace simply means that it enables P2P (peer to peer)value transactions without a middleman though machine consensus. No Middlemen or Gatekeepers!
The Origin Protocol is a red hot option in the NFT space. This exciting new platform just launched the 11 million dollar 3LAU Drop.
One of the glaring issues that “on chain” marketplaces are facing now are those damn transaction fees. It really creates a friction point for the artists because uploading works become cost prohibitive. This is where marketplaces like Origin Protocol win.
Here’s their solution:
“Centralized intermediaries often charge 20-30% in transaction fees. By removing the middlemen, Origin removes these fees. Buyers and sellers can now share the savings from the fees that are no longer paid to traditional marketplace operators”. - Origin
Aeternity (AE) is a P2P public blockchain & digital-asset platform that supports a variety of applications and use cases. The AE Protocol use smart contracts to power games, payments, identity systems, De-Fi applications, registries, token-economies, supply chains, and much more.
Mintbase is a user friendly global platform built on the NEAR Protocol that allows users to create NFTs marketplaces without worrying about technical complexities. It’s an ideal solution for digital artists, online gallerists, musicians and producers.
For the first time, event organizers ( think plays or concert tickets) can use the platform to sell tickets for their next event. The threat counterfeit tickets is finally over.
This sums them up…
“Think of Mintbase as the “Shopify for NFTs”. People are creating and selling music, art, tickets, photography and much more. In a nutshell, anything other than money can be tokenized”. - Mintbase
Dapper Labs, the creators of CryptoKitties, recently announced that the NBA Top Shot blockchain based app is now available to collectors globally.
NBA Top Shots was developed on Dapper Lab’s Flow blockchain. The collectible allows users to collect and trade “Moments” of the game’s season. These “Moments” are essentially complete sets of dynamic plays & win challenges.
The competitive advantage and differentiator is the ability to trade these “Moments” in a peer-to-peer marketplace. One other advantage is that the digital collectible can be bought or sold for real fiat.
Niche Community Based Marketplaces
Photography & Lens Work
Ephimera's raison d’etre is to use the blockchain to create a robust community and dialogues at the intersections of conventional photography, film & crypto art.
The Ephimera Marketplace curates virtual spaces for artists, collectors & galleries and aims to revolutionize how we interact with digital art. The platform offers opportunities for photographers to sell their pieces as an exclusive single-edition digital creation.
Music
Audius is a streaming platform built for all musicians and producers! It’s been recently described by users as the Spotify of the blockchain.
Audius allows musicians to build a fanbase, share their works in progress, and publish completed tracks. Musicians & Producers for the first time can use the Audius platform to create, grow, & monetize their body of works, independently, any time they want.
Programmable Art
The Async Art Platform allows users to create, collect, and trade programmable art. What is programmable art? It is simply a digital painting that is split into "Layers". These layers are used to affect the overall image of the work.
Programmable art is super imaginative and immersive process. For example, it can allow the digital art to evolve and grow over time, react to its owners and/or fluctuate and follow stock prices. Digital artists decide the parameters of their works & grant exclusive control over any aspect of it to individual collectors.
What makes the the Async platform so fun is that it facilitates immersive experiences. This means that the collector can change layers such as the state of the background of a work or the simply the position of a character.
NFT Marketplaces that will accept Fiat currency and DAI
We understand that some of your collectors may be new to crypto and may not have a wallet yet. No worries! Many of the existing platforms take other forms payment. Visa and Mastercard are now starting to accept crypto payment.. so stay tuned.
Foundation: Accepts DAI which is a stable coin backed by the US $1
MintBase: Accepts Major Credit Cards
Nifty Gateway: Accepts Major Credit Cards
We will continue to update and modify this list as we learn more about Blockchain based marketplaces, protocols, and apps. We hope that you found this Marketplace overview helpful. Leave a comment below if you have any questions and or concerns or if you feel like we’ve left something out.
We’re always happy to help!
-Binary Lawyer