Coinbase (COIN) is set to open its long-awaited NFT marketplace on Wednesday, with the goal of fostering a social community for buyers and sellers.
In addition to a marketplace for buying and selling NFTs, Coinbase hopes to increase social involvement in the NFT economy by forming a community for NFTs. Users can establish a profile and customize it with the NFTs they’ve generated, comment on NFTs, and initiate conversations with other NFT holders and sellers, in addition to browsing what’s for sale. Users can follow other collectors and makers, just like they do on Twitter.
“The community aspect has become a really important part, almost as important as the art itself,” said Lucréce, an NFT creator on Coinbase’s platform.
“When you create a community, they’re your advocates. I don’t have a large crew because I’m a solo creator. People who share your vision and long-term goals are the ones you want to have involved with you… NFTs are by their very nature sociable.”
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are certificates of authenticity for digital valuables that serve as proof of ownership. Among other things, the tokens are usually given to one-of-a-kind digital music, sports collectibles, and virtual real estate. According to Chainalysis, the market for NFTs has grown to more than $40 billion in the last year. According to Coinbase, this is up from a projected $338 million in 2020.
NFTs pay artists royalties based on a percentage of the sale price when their work is first sold and each time it is resold on a marketplace. That is, when the original artist sells the NFT, the buyer can sell it on the secondary market to another buyer, and the original artist will receive royalties on the secondary sale.
Coinbase’s marketplace is intended to be open to everyone, allowing users to disconnect their digital wallets at any time and take their NFTs with them wherever they go. Users can buy and sell NFTs using a self-custody wallet, which is a digital wallet in which owners have sovereignty over their digital money and assets because only they have access to the private key.
Verification badges will be used to verify the legitimacy of the collections. Coinbase will rely on users and the community to report bogus NFTs, as well as a team dedicated to identifying scams, duplicates, and fakes and removing them.
Coinbase will not charge a transaction fee for NFT purchases as an initial promotion, but will eventually begin charging one, which the company claims will be in the low single digits. Users will be able to buy NFTs with cryptocurrencies as well as a credit card.
The marketplace will be exposed to a limited number of invitees in beta before being more widely available to the general public. Coinbase wants to expand its marketplace to more people and nations in the coming weeks as it refines the product and adds new features based on feedback from early adopters.
Coinbase hopes to partner with artists to release exclusive NFTs on the Coinbase platform in the next weeks and months, in addition to enabling the opportunity to buy and sell NFTs on the secondary market. Coinbase will also assist with the management of royalties for NFT creators, ensuring that the original author is paid on a daily basis whenever an NFT is sold.
Doodles, the colorful, line-drawn NFT avatars used as profile pictures on social media; Boss Beauties, the first NFT artwork collection to be displayed in the halls of The New York Stock Exchange that stands for female empowerment; and actor Bill Murray’s NFT collaboration with
The Chive that is changing the way stories are shared and told are among the NFTs that the marketplace plans to offer. Murray, who doesn’t have any social media profiles, is using blockchain technology to replace books and documentaries.
The NFT Coinbase store will be able to search for any NFT produced on the Ethereum blockchain. Users can search for new collectors by price or collection name, or use the “discover” page to locate brand new artists tailored to their likes. On the site, Coinbase will also suggest people to follow.
