LimeWire is coming back as an NFT marketplace, but hasn’t the bubble burst already?

Peer-to-peer file-sharing web LimeWire is making a comeback. But this time, alternatively of offering escaped downloads, the steadfast intends to run an NFT marketplace focused connected euphony and entertainment.

Co-CEO brothers Paul and Julian Zehetmayr, who bought the rights to the firm, said they mean to usage this arsenic an accidental to link fans and artists. The Zehetmayrs accidental NFTs and cryptocurrency, successful general, are hamstrung by barriers to entry. They question to instrumentality down those barriers, making it casual for each to participate.

“Most euphony fans bash not ain immoderate cryptocurrency oregon person entree to a crypto wallet, fto unsocial recognize the mechanics of collectibles connected the blockchain. We privation to region each those obstacles and marque it casual for radical to participate, portion astatine the aforesaid clip offering an breathtaking level for crypto natives.”

Much is said astir non-fungible tokens, but the overriding statement seems to beryllium that determination is small applicable usage for them, which is thing Theta Labs CEO Mitch Liu disagrees with.

In immoderate case, with information showing a softening NFT market, is it excessively little, excessively precocious for LimeWire?

The emergence and autumn of LimeWire

Decentralized peer-to-peer networks existed agelong earlier Bitcoin. First, proving the conception connected a wide standard was Napster, which enabled users to stock euphony files. Then, successful May 2000, LimeWire came, which ran with the aforesaid thought but added downloadable pictures, video, documents, and programs.

Coinciding with a leap to more than half of U.S households owning a machine and innovations specified arsenic the iPod, LimeWire rapidly began the go-to level for downloading escaped content.

But conscionable arsenic low-rise jeans died a death, truthful excessively did LimeWire. In a four-year-long ineligible conflict with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a tribunal ruling successful May 2010 determined that LimeWire had infringed copyright and was ordered to wage $105 million to settee the case.

Then came a drawstring of other lawsuits, which yet ended successful LimeWire shutting down successful October 2011. Although a radical of developers called the “Secret Dev Team” tried to support the task live with a Pirate Edition, by this time, Spotify, which launched successful 2008, was gaining ground.

Spotify offered escaped euphony streaming without the viruses and the hit-and-miss downloading, wherever record names don’t lucifer what was downloaded.

Hasn’t the NFT bubble burst already?

LimeWire plans to travel backmost arsenic an NFT marketplace, enabling users to create, sell, and commercialized NFTs.

Differentiating itself from others, but not OneOf, LimeWire says its offerings volition absorption connected music-related assets. This includes:

“Limited editions, pre-release music, unreleased demos, graphical artwork, exclusive unrecorded versions, arsenic good arsenic integer merchandise and backstage content.”

Signing up to the waitlist grants aboriginal entree to the level and a accidental to triumph 1 of 10 1000 airdrop NFTs.

An invite-only backstage token merchantability of its $LMWR token volition instrumentality spot successful April. Followed by an authoritative level motorboat successful May. The roadmap states the nationalist token merchantability volition hap sometime successful Q4 2022.

However, information from marketplace tracker NonFungible shows regular NFT income are down from $160 cardinal connected January 31 to $26 cardinal connected March 4 – an 83% drop. Similarly, the mean NFT selling terms astatine these 2 dates fell from $6,800 to beneath $2,000 – a 70% decrease.

Entering a marketplace connected the diminution and successful a clip of tightening spending is simply a brave move. However, if things don’t spell to plan, possibly this volition beryllium the extremity of the LimeWire story.