Zima Red ep 101: Ori Levi - Creating The “Binance” Of NFTs
Primer: Andrew Steinwold calls NFTrade the “Binance” of NFTs for their fast shipping of new features. In this episode of the Zima Red Podcast, he speaks with Ori Levi, the man behind NFTrade, on his entrepreneurship journey and what he is seeking to achieve with his project.
Background
Entrepreneur since he was 19
Started with a clothing store back in Jerusalem
Had multiple small businesses
Into digital marketing
Started an agency in 2014 to help companies move to the blockchain space
In 2017, he helped a lot of ICOs with a company called MarketAcross
When Did He Dive Deeper Into Crypto?
Found out about crypto in 2012
Opened a website that had the first Bitcoin mining calculator
Was into crypto more for the anarchist side of it
MarketAcross
MarketAcross has 2 divisions:
Financial sector
SaaS and tech startups
When he came in, he started helping blockchain companies
During the ICO boom, they helped over 100 companies with PR and general marketing
Discovering NFTs
Discovered NFTs in 2018
Brock Pierce mentioned that NFTs are going to change the world. However, he did not understand the potential of NFTs
In 2020, he started to see art and game items as use cases for NFTs
Moving From The Crypto PR Industry To NFTs
Saw the business opportunities and lack of competitors in the space
Was a gamer and knew that people trade game items. Saw that peer-to-peer NFT swaps were missing from existing marketplaces
Got one of his best friend to start NFTrade with him
Why Did They Start A Marketplace When OpenSea Was Already Out For Some Time?
Thought that they could build a better marketplace
Started by solving the swapping issue
Improved on it by listing all NFTs from multiple blockchains
NFTrade
The first cross-chain NFT marketplace
Currently supports 4 blockchains:
Ethereum
Binance Smart Contract
Polygon
Avalanche
Will be adding Solana, Fantom, and a few others
Added peer-to-peer swaps and NFT farming in this quarter
Have some social features on the way
Building an NFT launchpad
Will be creating order books for every NFT collection
Process Of Going Multichain
Multichain is not as hard as cross-chain
End users do not care about the different blockchains. They just want a platform to buy and trade their NFTs
“You buy an NFT on this marketplace, you try to sell it there, it doesn't work. It's a really big mess. And so we tried to solve it by connecting these blockchains and giving the users seamless experience.”
- Ori Levi
What Does Cross-Chain Mean?
For an NFT to move between chains, they have to do 2 things:
Locking the NFT in a smart contract
Minting a new NFT on the other blockchain that is a coupon to the original one
It’s a non-custodial solution because the NFTs are locked on a smart contract
Working with a company that has a decentralized way to connect and communicate between chains
NFT Farming
A lot of projects wanted a platform where their users can stake their ERC-20s and earn NFTs
Their Launchpad
Anyone will be able to launch on their launchpad
Will have featured launches
Projects can sell their NFTs in any way they want — auction, limited supply drop, etc.
P2P Swaps
Their solution is trustless
If you offer someone your NFT and they accept it, you get their NFT and they get yours
Social Features That They Are Thinking Of Implementing
Will be a combination of Facebook and Instagram:
A lot more reactions
Ability to chat
Create groups of similar interests
Have a feed
Their Open Source, Decentralized Creator And Community Royalties Contract
💡 An issue with NFT platforms is that the royalties do not travel outside the platform.
Still need marketplaces to adopt this NFT standard
The contracts are open source and have great documentation
No financial incentives for marketplaces because they charge fees
Users flock to platforms that enable royalties. Hence, marketplaces would eventually implement them
When users mint an NFT on their platform, users actually deploy a contract and become the owner of the NFT. This is not the case with other marketplaces
Describing Them As The Binance Of NFTs
💡 Andrew describes them as the Binance of NFTs as they ship new features very quickly.
Likes the analogy and is a big fan of how Binance works and moves
How Does Order Books Work For NFTs?
NFTs usually trade at the floor price
Wants to provide a tool for users to trade the floor price
Users will get a random NFT from the order book. They will not be choosing which one they get
How Similar Is The Ethereum NFT Community To NFT Communities On Other Blockchains?
Similar to how Ethereum was in the beginning
A united and helpful community
Thinks that Avalanche is great
What Is NFTrade’s Biggest Moat?
They move very fast
Their ability to release and innovate is what gives them the upper hand
Thoughts On The Current NFT Market
It’s madness. People ape into a lot of projects
Hopes to see more maturity in the market
Most Difficult Things He Has Experienced As A Builder In Crypto
Onboarding of new users
In the process of releasing a formal educational program
Grand 5-10 Year Vision
Become a one-stop shop for everything NFTs
Single Favourite NFT
720 minutes by Alexis André
We have 720 minutes in a day
Each NFT has a different time set in it
If you look at the NFT on that exact minute, you will see a very special effect
Most Controversial Thought On Crypto
Shitcoins are cool
If he held his Shiba Inu tokens till today, he would hold $56 million worth of them
“I feel like God has done me a favor. I wouldn't want to be the guy who walks around saying I made my money, becoming a millionaire from from a shitcoin. Honestly, I wouldn't feel comfortable being that guy.”
- Ori Levi
If He Could Improve Something In The Space
Make crypto legal. Stop fighting against it
The NFT Ecosystem In 3 Years
More mature
Games will have NFT use cases to them
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