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Why are these five projects most worthy of attention in the NFT field

Read this article in 37 Minutes

This article will introduce five projects, delve into the products, and analyze where they are ahead of others

Original title: "Fantasy Venture NFT Portfolio"

Original author: Andrew Steinwold

Compilation: 0x13, Rhythm BlockBeats

Turner Novak, a partner of Gelt VC, summed up his promising projects into a "fantasy VC portfolio" in 2018. Inspired by this, I decided to Also create a "dream portfolio" for the NFT ecosystem. Note that this article does not include companies with investable NFT assets, as that is what my company, Sfermion, covers.

This article is mainly for fun and should not be taken very seriously. Please don't take offense if I don't include an item. There are many excellent projects in the NFT field that I want to invest in, but this article is much longer than I thought, so they are not included.

This article will introduce five projects, delve into their offerings, and explain why I think they are excellent. These projects will be added to my venture capital portfolio and I will re-evaluate their performance in the next few years.

Again, this article is written for fun, not for serious business.

First of all, if you are too lazy to read a long article, you can simply read the following points to understand why I think they are first-class projects .

OpenSea: The Amazon of NFTs, and possibly Facebook (but when Facebook is cool)

SuperRare: The artists on the platform have been strictly screened

Async Art: ultra-high-end programmable encryption art

NFTfi: global lending Platform

Larva Labs: two geniuses in the laboratory

OpenSea

My love for OpenSea goes without saying. Whenever I think about the future of OpenSea, I really only think about two things:

(1) "Who will invest Are they?"

(2) "How does this affect their listing?"

I can safely say that as long as they continue to work hard, I believe OpenSea will become the first NFT-related "unicorn" (a companies valued at $1 billion).

So, what are they doing?

OpenSea is the number one place for all NFT trading

Provide trade activity information

It is a place where people show off NFT

There are rich data resources

It is a place where you can check what NFTs are in other users' wallets

I am currently writing A whole blog, just focus on why I am so bullish on OpenSea, here I will tell some main points.

OpenSea was founded in December 2017 by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah as a crypto commodity backed by Y-Combinator Peer-to-peer marketplace.

This is a more accurate description, but OpenSea is much more than that. Their "ranking" page acts as a CoinGecko for NFTs: users can see how all projects are performing based on transaction volume, number of holders, average price, etc.

OpenSea's "New" tab allows users to discover all types of NFT new items.

The "Activity" page serves as the transaction activity source of the ecosystem, allowing users to see in real time who is buying what and who bought it How much.

The "Create" tab is probably the most important because it allows anyone to open a storefront: users can create their own NFT and sell it.

If OpenSea disappears tomorrow, the entire NFT ecosystem will be in total chaos. Most NFT projects host their NFT images and metadata on OpenSea (all but fully on-chain projects like Avastars).

In fact, most websites displaying NFT-related data today pull data from OpenSea’s API. Many NFT projects link their "marketplaces" to OpenSea so their developers can focus on specific products rather than building marketplaces.

If being a Y-combinator company wasn’t impressive enough, OpenSea has grown from Founders Fund, 1confirmation, $4.1M raised from incredible investors including Coinbase Ventures, Blockchain Capital, and others.

How does OpenSea make money

I ask this simple question all the time, especially in an age where billion dollar companies are completely unprofitable. OpenSea makes money by charging a 2.5% transaction fee on traded NFTs. This is the lowest fee in the industry, as most platforms charge between 10%-20%. Even if OpenSea decides to increase their fee to 3.5%, which is the lowest fee in the industry, both can increase their revenue by a lot.

What OpenSea needs to improve

This question is tricky because I feel like OpenSea is always five steps ahead of me. Whenever I reached out to Devin or another team member to ask if they would release feature X, he would send back some mock-up of the exact feature being built. If I contact the team and tell them a link is broken or data isn't showing up, it's fixed within an hour. When Cryptovoxels founder Ben Nolan ran a package sale and "broke" the entire OpenSea, it was back up and running within minutes. Their team is like a cloud of masters.

What OpenSea can add

OpenSea could add a "wallet follow" feature so users can monitor other users' activity, which is something I often try to do. They could also add a direct message (DM) feature, since a lot of people, myself included, use Twitter to negotiate deals these days. It would be much easier to add this feature directly on their platform.

Similarly, they can also add a project chat room function, allowing the project to manage its own community directly on OpenSea, Not on Discord. Just adding these two features (DM and community chat room) can instantly turn OpenSea into a social platform, adding huge value.

Of course, being a social platform as well as a marketplace adds all these new troubles, but in my opinion, this starts with It's worth it in the long run.

Finally, OpenSea can add better historical data. For example, I can currently see how many wallets own a particular NFT, but I cannot see how that number has grown over previous days, weeks, or months.

To summarize why I am optimistic about OpenSea:

Almost everyone who holds NFT trades on their platform

Everyone uses OpenSea to search wallets

OpenSea has added data, so the information buyers and sellers need can be easily grasped

They are an experienced team and the project is updated quickly

If a technical issue arises, it is dealt with immediately, no matter how big or small.

There is an incredible total addressable market size in the market (NFTs include artwork, video game items, virtual worlds, domain names, collectibles, etc.)

OpenSea's semi-decentralized infrastructure means anyone in the world can access it

Once they add DM functionality and a project chat room, they will Will instantly become a social media platform

OpenSea is like Coinbase (trading), CoinGecko (data) and Etherscan/Twitter (social barometer, users can check someone wallets to determine whether they should be followed).

SuperRare

< img src="https://image.theblockbeats.com/upload/2020-11-30/fa8ffce1c3fe6572ccc1130949415113d60e36c1.png">

When you see people on social media raving about how a product or service has changed their life, that's a sure sign let's dig in .

SuperRare was founded in April 2018 by John Crain, Charles Crain and Jonathan Perkins. Many people equate NFTs with encrypted art, and in this case, SuperRare is in an excellent position. Now that many people are new to the NFT field, they may first pay attention to SuperRare and think that this platform has become popular overnight, but this is far from the case. After years of running-in and uninterrupted hard work, the team has achieved today's status. You can clearly see this to be true if you look at SuperRare's sales figures shown below.

Through this effort, SuperRare has become a top playground for crypto artists and collectors.

SuperRare will not just let anyone join their platform. They screen the artists exclusively to make sure they are of a high standard. When I first entered the NFT space, I thought it was a bad decision not to let everyone in, but I now fully agree with their approach. I just now understand that with so many NFTs being minted, screening will be necessary to avoid low quality and information overload.

The SuperRare website is as simple as a gallery. The Marketplace tab is where all the action is: users can see artwork, artists, prices, and all sorts of information. The "Activity" page updates the sales situation on the platform in real time for users.

Then, we have the Notifications and Profile pages. The "Profile" page unlocks the most powerful feature of NFT - sociality. The two numbers "Follow" and "Followers" on the page turn SuperRare into an art and social platform. By socializing the experience, the platform becomes more sticky.

One of my favorite parts of SuperRare is its Top Collectors and Top Artists pages. By examining these two pages, users can quickly understand what is going on in the broader crypto art scene. If SuperRare wanted to truly dominate the crypto art data scene, they could start showing sales on other crypto art platforms, but admittedly, this would cause some user exodus to these other platforms. With SuperRare's current dominance, there's no need to.

SuperRare raised about $1.4 million in their seed round, but I don't know how much they've raised before money. Let's say $250,000. That puts their total funding at around $1.65 million.

How does SuperRare make money?

SuperRare takes a 15% fee on all primary sales and a 3% fee on secondary sales. These fees are slightly higher than other crypto art platforms, but SuperRare can do it because of its dominant position. For comparison, here are the primary and secondary fees for other NFT platforms.

Async Art: 10% for one sale, 1% for second sale

MakersPlace: 15% for first sale, 2.5% for second sale

KnownOrigin: 15% for first sale, 3% for second sale

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What needs to be improved for SuperRare

SuperRare has a search function, I hope it can be improved optimization. I wish that when I type in an artist's name, it will go directly to their portfolio, not their profile. It would be even better to have their profile as the first search result, followed by their work below.

I also hope that the bidding tools on SuperRare will improve. Now, there is no sale with an auction timer counting down, it would be much more convenient to have one. I find that when I enter a bidding war, I tend to spend more when I see the timer counting down and I know other bidders are looking at it too. The more people spend, the better it is for SuperRare and their artists.

SuperRare can add content

I think the direct message feature would be nice. Currently, users frequently DM artists on Twitter to discuss sale prices for artworks listed on the platform. SuperRare can also move closer to the social aspects of NFTs. I don't know exactly how, but I think enabling social behavior around NFTs is very necessary. Of course, social interaction creates other problems, like user engagement conflicts, etc., but I think it's worth it in the long run.

To summarize why I like SuperRare:

They have become the top encrypted art platform

There is a huge market for encrypted art, and SuperRare is already the leader

This team has proven that they have tremendous perseverance, as they have been working hard for many years

People are literally exclaiming online: "This product changed my life!" This is A very rare and promising sign.

Async Art

Asynchronous Art (also known as Async Art) is a programmable art platform launched in February 2020 by Conlan Rios, Nathan Clapp and Lisa Liang. This art platform changes the game by allowing artwork to morph based on what they call "layer changes."

This means that a work of art can respond to the external environment. For example, if an artwork featured an image of a sailboat in sunlight, you could connect the background layer NFT to another "state", such as a stormy background. When it rains, the storm background can be activated so that the sailboat in the sun becomes a sailboat in the storm.

I like this sentence very much, Async Art fully expresses the art in "Harry Potter". In the film Harry Potter, the paintings talk to the characters and react to the outside world. Now we have this Harry Potter type of artwork that allows for endless possibilities.

Async Art also tells stories about artists and their art through the Featured page. Their latest feature delves into the story of artist Micah Johnson, even including a short video. Although the video is only one minute long, it does a great job of telling us about the artist and his inspirations.

Their platform is also one of the best for working closely with artists and collectors. I don’t know of any other platform that strives to build such a strong relationship with users like Async Art. I believe this is due to the high-end nature of their artwork, and the fact that programmable artwork is difficult to create. These programmable works of art take longer to create than non-programmable works because instead of a single NFT, they are composed of multiple NFTs that change based on different inputs or factors.

Async Art has fewer works than other art platforms, because programmable works take longer than ordinary encrypted art time to make. This may work in their favor, as works on Async are naturally more scarce, but there is a catch. The problem with this is that Async naturally has fewer NFTs available for sale compared to other art platforms due to the smaller total amount of artwork.

I can follow SuperRare and see multiple amazing new artworks every day, but on Async , there are few works of art, which means that there is less content to talk about. This is partly good for Async because people love scarcity, but partly bad because attention spans are short on the internet and people always want more content.

How does Async Art make money?

Async Art charges 10% on one sale and 1% on secondary sales. These fees are some of the lowest in the crypto art world. Again, below are the primary and secondary sale fees of other NFT platforms for comparison.

SuperRare: 15% for the first sale, 3% for the second sale

MakersPlace: 15% for the first sale, 2.5% for the second sale

KnownOrigin: 15% for the first sale, 3% for the second sale

I expect these costs to decrease over time. Unless one of these platforms builds a strong network effect, they can start to dictate their own fees without looking at their competitors.

Async Art needs improvement

Their site layout is a bit confusing and it's hard to search for a specific artist or artwork. Bidding tools on Async are also a bit lacking, requiring users to countdown to their auctions on Twitter. Async seems to be focused on building amazing tools for artists, but they have to make sure their user experience is top-notch to match these incredible tools.

Async Art can add part

I would like to see a better search function for artists and artwork. I've been pushing the social angle of NFTs, so I'd also like to have a direct message feature where artists and collectors can have a direct conversation. Direct communication is currently only available on Twitter, Discord, email, etc., so it's good that they can grab that.

To summarize why I like Async Art:

They revolutionized the art game by enabling programmable art

They are excellent at building lasting relationships with artists and collectors

Async Art is regarded as an "ultra-high-end" art platform, which is a favorable position for an art market with global influence

Of course, the Async Art team are stellar. I know Conlan and Nathan very well, and although I don't know Lisa, I've heard a lot of praise for her

NFTfi

Note: I am an investor in NFTfi.

I don't know if anyone reading this has had this problem, but I keep getting rejected for mortgages, Because the vast majority of my net worth is in cryptocurrencies. Lenders (at least here in the US) do not accept cryptocurrencies as collateral for real assets. With the introduction of NFTfi, this problem no longer exists!

NFTfi by Stephen Young in 2020 Launched in June, it is a marketplace for NFT mortgages. This gives another use to the millions of NFTs that are passively held in wallets.

It is difficult for us to understand how big the potential market for a platform like NFTfi is. In the physical world, it is quite difficult for people to take out loans using commodities as collateral. Using your house as collateral is probably the most common and easiest, but getting a loan still involves jumping through tons of paperwork and hoops. Another common item that is often used as collateral for loans is expensive artwork. This is generally for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, so it's not as common as home mortgages, but it's also a category of other commodities that people use as collateral for loans.

What if we could get loans on various items like computers, computer desks or kitchen appliances? NFTfi opens up the lending market, allowing people to use literally any NFT as collateral. Imagine being able to use everything from a house to your kitchen refrigerator as collateral for a loan. This loan market is completely open, and participants can decide whether to make loans against certain commodities.

Another factor I like about NFTfi is its simplicity. After users enter the website, they will be guided to click on "loan" or "borrow". From this point on, the platform is very intuitive. When the user clicks on the NFT under the "Loan" option, they can enter the loan amount, repayment amount, and loan term. After entering the parameters and sending out the quotation, the other party will receive a notification and can accept the conditions or simply ignore them. This ultra-simple approach to the loan process opens the door for users of all skill levels to participate in the platform.

Since NFTfi went live in June, their loan volume has been growing rapidly.

I predict that 2021 will be the year of the rise of NFTfi, and predict that its total accumulated loans will reach tens of millions of yuan.

How NFTfi makes money

NFTfi makes money by charging a 5% interest fee on loans, which I think is very fair to market participants. It removes the barrier for anyone to borrow because they only pay the specified interest, there are no hidden fees, and this 5% fee is so low that it doesn't overwhelm the lender.

NFTfi things to improve

NFTfi has already executed its primary use case, NFT collateralized loans, very well. The technology works, and it has users. The only thing NFTfi needs to focus on right now is bringing more users to the platform. There needs to be more assets available for loan collateral, and they need more users who have excess cryptocurrencies and want to make money passively. The main issue preventing wealthy cryptocurrency holders from lending more is educating them on what value they should be lending to the different NFTs. If you're new to the NFT space, it's hard to give users a fair loan because finding "fair market value" is hard.

The part that NFTfi can increase

I would like to see basic statistics related to my account, such as profit and loss, number of lending, total value of lending, total value of lending, etc. Not only does this information help users better record, but over time, this data can also be derived for other platform uses and become more valuable. Once the platform has more users and data, NFTfi will be able to give wallet data and provide credit ratings, so users can make better decisions about who to lend to if they know that a borrower has repaid all their loans.

To summarize why I am optimistic about NFTfi:

It allows users to borrow and lend with NFT

It allows users to earn income by lending cryptocurrency

It mines a Absolutely huge potential market size (NFT = everything, so NFTfi is a mortgage platform for everything)

The design of the platform is simple and easy to understand

The market is open, and users can choose how much loans to provide

The fee is very low, which encourages the enthusiasm of users

Of course, the founder Stephen is also very Smart and talented people

Larva Labs

Well, I know what you're thinking. "Larva Labs is not a startup it's some type of software development studio!" You're right, from what I understand they don't want or need to raise money for what they're building, but if they do need investment, I would literally beg them to take my money.

Larva Labs was founded in 2005 by two geniuses, Matt Hall and John Watkinson, and since its inception, Larva Labs has been Working on various types of software. To get an idea of how diverse their skills are, check out their website, which discusses the various projects they've worked on.

Large network infrastructure

Genomics analysis software

8-bit RPG

Art project on blockchain

Largest legal filing opens Source Library

Endless Driving Game

Android app AppChat

Two different version of the new Android home screen experience.

Motion Tracking Dance Studio

Application with Google Androidify

To say that these two men are very talented is the most understatement of this century. They are geniuses once in a century. So, how do they relate to the NFT ecosystem? They created the first NFT project on Ethereum called CryptoPunks. They then created another well-known and highly valuable NFT project called Autoglyphs.

When Matt and John first created CryptoPunks, NFTs hadn’t even really become popular. The ERC721 standard that allows people to easily create NFTs does not yet exist, and previous NFT projects were built on the Bitcoin blockchain using Counterparty. These previous NFTs were limited to a memo picture named Rare Pepes. Counterparty and Rare Pepes didn't gain popularity and lost their use value. Fortunately, Matt and John continued their hard work and launched CryptoPunks in June 2017.

CryptoPunks are a series of 10,000 unique pixelated characters on the Ethereum blockchain. Every CryptoPunk is completely unique and includes traits of varying rarity. The project has been a huge success, and today CryptoPunks are a highly sought after collectible. In April 2019, Matt and John launched their next NFT project, Autoglyphs. Autoglyphs, the first on-chain generated art on Ethereum, are highly sought after collectibles.

Larva Labs needs improvement

Matt and John don't really need to make any improvements. The products they create can be called works of art, not just software with specific functions.

What Larva Labs can add

Their existing products and supporting web pages are very good. The only thing Larva Labs should do is launch their next NFT project.

To summarize why I am optimistic about Larva Labs:

Matt and John are both incredibly smart

They have an amazing track record of success (1st NFT project on Ethereum and 2 successful NFT projects)

Whatever they build, it tends to be extremely thoughtful

The projects they launch don’t require huge teams or Too much maintenance, because their projects are more like "art" (unlike games or virtual world platforms that need constant updates)

This is my "Fantasy NFT Portfolio". I'll write a review in a year or two and summarize what's going on with the startups and studios on this list.