LimeWire and the Zombie Brands Pivot to Crypto

Will Gottsegen is CoinDesk's media and civilization reporter. He holds ETH and 2 NFTs supra CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1000.

Last week, the defunct euphony level LimeWire announced a comeback nether caller management.

Yes, LimeWire is backmost – but arsenic a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) alternatively than a file-sharing service. And with a squad that has thing to bash with the early-aughts classical you knew and (maybe) loved.

It’s the latest illustration of a marque returning from the dormant to currency successful connected the crypto golden rush. RadioShack, MoviePass and adjacent thing called “BlockbusterDAO” person each leaned into near-past nostalgia, too.

LimeWire’s resurrection is simply a stake connected the powerfulness of the brand. The squad down the company’s new, crypto-inflected work is hoping a trusted sanction tin assistance easiness caller users into the notoriously inhospitable satellite of Web 3.

This nonfiction is excerpted successful The Node, CoinDesk's regular roundup of the astir pivotal stories successful blockchain and crypto news. You tin subscribe to get the afloat newsletter here.

LimeWire roseate to prominence successful the aboriginal 2000s, post-Napster and pre-streaming, arsenic a piracy-centric euphony alternate to the iTunes Store. Just arsenic you could get escaped movies and bundle done BitTorrent, LimeWire allowed you to download audio files (usually astatine an incredibly dilatory pace). In 2010, the work was unopen down by a national injunction, and the institution down it paid $105 cardinal to large grounds labels successful an out-of-court settlement.

It’s remembered fondly, though. The rapper Soulja Boy – 1 of the archetypal existent internet-native musicians – famously utilized the level to drum up involvement successful his archetypal fewer singles. For those frustrated with the existent operation of the euphony business, with its accent connected algorithmic find and streaming monoliths, it’s not hard to find thing appealing successful the DIY clunkiness of the LimeWire paradigm.

LimeWire was acquired past twelvemonth by a brace of Austrian brothers, Paul and Julian Zehetmayr, and is present being relaunched with a crypto twist. Purchases volition beryllium denominated successful U.S. dollars, but it’s pitching itself arsenic an OpenSea alternative, a benignant of eBay for NFTs, with a absorption connected music-related collectibles. Julian told Bloomberg it volition beryllium “initially a precise music-focused marketplace,” but near the doorway unfastened for different kinds of NFTs down the line.

On Monday, LimeWire announced a concern with the institution down the Algorand blockchain. In an effort to get speculators connected board, the institution besides plans to merchandise a token (according to the company’s website, LMWR is already being sold to insiders connected an invite-only basis).

What’s not wide is however the caller LimeWire volition separate itself from existing euphony NFT platforms. Sound.xyz, which launched successful December, is explicitly focused connected communal listening and monetization. Royal, led by the shaper Justin Blau, offers opus royalties via crypto. Catalog is simply a marketplace for one-of-one audio NFTs. And communities similar Water & Music, Tiny Mix Tapes, Poolsuite and Sone are experimenting with the societal broadside of euphony NFTs.

So far, LimeWire’s revival feels similar axenic gesturing, an effort by these 2 entrepreneurs to piggyback connected the file-sharing site’s estimation successful the hopes of a speedy payday.

And portion currency grabs person ever been par for the people successful crypto, the effort to resurrect an old, beloved marque nether the auspices of Web 3 has go thing of a inclination successful caller months.

RadioShack, the concatenation of electronics stores, filed for bankruptcy successful 2015, but was resurrected successful December arsenic a decentralized speech for cryptocurrencies. The self-help influencer Tai Lopez purchased the marque successful 2020 and orchestrated the relaunch.

The proposition is that an older, much established marque is amended positioned to clasp the hands of mainstream consumers inactive getting a consciousness for these analyzable caller systems.

“Currently crypto has nary well-known brands implicit adjacent 15 years old,” announces 1 promotional document for the RadioShack relaunch. “Until now. It is our proposal that the champion mode for crypto to beryllium much mainstream is for an established marque sanction successful the tech abstraction to pb the way.”

As it exists today, radioshack.org hosts what’s fundamentally an off-brand mentation of Uniswap, the starring decentralized speech for Ethereum-based tokens. Within what appears to beryllium a skeuomorphic vigor interface, you tin swap betwixt ETH, USDC, USDT, MATIC and a fewer different coins.

Of course, you tin besides swap for RADIO, the cryptocurrency Lopez and his squad person whipped up to beforehand this merchandise (it’s presently trading astatine astir 2 cents a pop).

As with LimeWire, there’s nary wide crushed for this zombie merchandise to exist, but to lull imaginable customers into a mendacious consciousness of security. But nostalgia won’t assistance you, successful crypto. It’s hard to ideate your mean hardware junkie – i.e., the benignant of idiosyncratic who mightiness person wanted to store astatine RadioShack successful the ‘90s – feeling enticed by a programme that lets you speech 1 benignant of obscure cryptocurrency for another. At slightest with LimeWire, the lawsuit basal already skews toward record sharers and privateness nerds.

There’s besides MoviePass, a subscription-based ticketing work for movie theaters, which got large successful 2018 connected the backmost of its unthinkable sticker price: $10 a period for virtually unlimited screening astatine a assortment of theaters. (One movie per day, really, but who’s counting?) Being intolerable to maintain, this terms was besides wherefore the institution folded successful precocious 2019.

MoviePass hasn’t been scrapped and sold for parts successful rather the aforesaid mode arsenic RadioShack and LimeWire, but it’s astir surely readying to incorporated “the blockchain” into immoderate it’s got planned for its resurrection.

During a property lawsuit past month, archetypal MoviePass co-founder Stacy Spikes revealed, somewhat hilariously, that MoviePass 2.0 volition impact eyeball-tracking software.

Spikes’s thought is that consumers privation to walk more clip watching advertisements than they bash watching movies.

“I emotion merchandise placement successful movies,” Spikes said, per the New York Post. “I emotion the cars, I emotion the watches, I emotion the clothes. I’m that idiosyncratic that sometimes has a notepad and I’m penning down, is that Hugo Boss?”

As outlined by Spikes, MoviePass 2.0 volition way your eyeballs utilizing facial detection. If the bundle determines you’re truly watching the ads, you’ll get credits; watching in-demand movies during primetime connected the caller work volition necessitate much of these credits. It’s each “powered by Web 3 technology,” which is to say, a blockchain with a crypto coin.

It’s somewhat successful enactment with Y Combinator laminitis Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project, which, amazingly, besides gleans blockchain-backed tokens from consumers’ eyeballs. My colleague, David Z. Morris, called it “creepy arsenic hell.”

What is it astir the blockchain that makes it specified an appealing past resort? Can Web 3 truly respire caller beingness into these once-beloved services, oregon is the thought of a blockchain pivot a benignant of giving up successful and of itself? Is the “ownership economy” communicative truly that compelling?

Consumers can archer erstwhile something’s not rather right. I’m not convinced by the statement that consumers volition instinctively spot thing similar a LimeWire 2.0 conscionable due to the fact that they admit the name.

Every marque dies, baby, that's a fact. Maybe it’s amended to judge that world than to spell the “Weekend astatine Bernie’s” route.

LimeWire, RadioShack and MoviePass are 3 highly antithetic companies, offering highly antithetic products, adjacent now. The blockchain has ne'er been a one-size-fits-all solution; nary bully tin travel from recklessly jumping connected the hype train.