The beauty of a decentralized ecosystem is the freedom to buy, sell, speculate, trade, bet, and also collect crypto assets in a censorship-free and trustless environment.
Recently, the crypto industry was taken by a Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) frenzy, which includes digital art (professional and amateur), rare sports collectibles, and much more.
Rarible is a non-custodial and secure platform where users can onboard to create their art by minting unique digital items on the blockchain. The platform is also a marketplace where digital artists can mint and sell their artwork.
The Rise of NFTs
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) are a specific type of cryptographic tokens that represent a unique asset. Based on uniqueness and scarcity, NFTs are tokenized versions of digital or real-world assets.
NFTs are not interchangeable with each other, which means they are not like other digital assets such as BTC or ETH, for example. They cannot be counterfeited or replicated. Besides, it is impossible to sell 0.001 of an NFT, so buyers either have it entirely or do not have it at all.
ERC-721 tokens are the standard for the issuance and trading of non-fungible assets on the Ethereum blockchain. These rare tokens can be useful in various ways, not only as art collectibles and video games items but also as digital identity, licensing, certificates, documents, deeds, etc.
The ERC-721 standard was created back in late 2017 by a project called CryptoKitties. The Canadian project went viral soon after, sparking the NFT revolution that still stands to this day. The popularity of NFTs grew drastically, as a massive amount of funds continues to flow into the industry.
In this context, Rarible became one of the hottest marketplaces in DeFi, where users can come to mint NFTs easily and rapidly. The platform saw a huge rise in its popularity due to the launch of its native token, called RARI, which became a profitable opportunity for investors.
What Is Rarible?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYYxBgyOtdM
Rarible is a non-custodial Ethereum-based platform that allows users to create and mint unique ERC-721 tokens.
Used most for digital art collectibles and video game items, the platform does not necessarily obligate users to sell their work. Instead, anyone is free to onboard using a web3 wallet (e.g. MetaMask), mint an NFT, and decide to either sell it later or not.
Once created, NFTs can be exposed for selling, transferred, or even burned. Artists can lower the price of their exposed digital artwork any time, free of any additional cost. It is also possible to transfer an ERC721 token as a gift for a friend.
The platform supports both ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens. For those unaware, ERC-1155 is an improved standard for NFTs, allowing a single contract to contain both fungible and non-fungible tokens.
Highlighted artists can get a verified artist badge. These badges are granted in limited quantity according to the Rarible team’s decision. Also, the platform’s dashboard has a feature that showcases the top buyers or sellers according to date.
Unlockable Content
This is a unique feature provided by Rarible. Content creators can add unlockable content to their collectibles, which only becomes visible after a transfer of ownership. It means until the content is sold or transferred as a gift, it remains virtually invisible.
In this case, artists can use this feature to include high-resolution videos on how the artwork was created, making offs, secret messages, etc.
Partnership with Yearn Finance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opfkTb4ndvc
Recently, Rarible announced a new use-case for their NFTs. Now, users can have NFTs representing Yearn Finance smart contract insurance underwritten by Nexus Mutual. The feature is an innovative and efficient add-on to the DeFi ecosystem, as users can take out tokenized insurance policies and trade them.
These insurance policies are for varying amounts, being available for different protocols (Synthetix, Balancer, etc.) and different expiration dates. Given all the hype surrounding yield farming and vampire attacks, this can be considered possibly the most overlooked DeFi innovation in the last couple of months.
RARI Tokens
Rarible aims to be the first decentralized and community-owned marketplace for NFTs. The ultimate goal of the platform is to become a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization).
To gradually achieve this status, the platform created the RARI token, which is the governance token used to give the community the power to influence decisions and incentivize active participation.
It is important to highlight that votes are advisory, not binding, which means the Rarible team still has the final decision. Besides permitting creators and collectors to suggest platform upgrades, RARI tokens can permit holders to participate in curation and moderation.
Further reading: ChadsVC can be a new thing in the NFT world
RARI tokens cannot be purchased out of the platform, as they can only be earned by those participants who are active and steady on the platform. Denominated “Marketplace Liquidity Mining”, this process has the goal to ensure a fair distribution of RARI tokens according to participation.
60% of RARI’s total supply of 25 million tokens is reserved for Marketplace Liquidity Mining, while 30% is reserved for investors and the core team. The 10% rest is reserved for airdrops (2% for Rarible users, 8% for all NFT holders).
The most active participants receive RARI tokens via a weekly distribution, according to their weekly purchases/sales volume. This mechanism privileges the platform’s early investors, as RARI holders will have a deciding vote as Rarible reaches a DAO status.
Conclusion
Rarible is one of the hottest NFT marketplaces in the DeFi scene. It allows users to mint, buy, and sell digital collectibles without requiring any IT-savvy or coding skills. The platform supports both ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens.
With the launch of its governance token, called RARI, the platform saw a sudden growth in the volume of transactions. It is due to the mechanism used for token distribution, called Marketplace Liquidity Mining, which distributes RARI tokens according to users’ volume of purchases or sales.
The Rarible team has also revealed plans for an exclusive NFT market index, a price discovery mechanism for NFTs, a mobile App, and other novelties. Hence, smart investors surely must keep an eye on the platform and its RARI tokens before it is too late.