If you are someone who’s always on the lookout for newer and better NFT platforms for viewing, buying, selling, referencing, and/or creating NFT arts, the name Artrade probably already rings a bell. Especially with all the buzz surrounding the project’s ongoing ICO.
Sure, there are already a plethora of marketplaces out there such as OpenSea and Rarible that give you access to the global NFT market. France-based Artrade, however, claims to be a more evolved version of these run-of-the-mill platforms. It is essentially a combination of a social network and an NFT marketplace.
Not only that, but Artrade also promises to bring a host of additional perks that you don’t typically get on conventional NFT marketplaces. Powered by Solana, the platform aims to become the first in the world to launch an NFT mobile app. The development of the app is currently in progress and the team expects to launch it sometime during Q1 2022, followed by the listing of the ATR token in major exchanges.
We’ll delve into all those aspects in a while — but first, let’s get started with a brief overview of the problems Artrde is trying to solve.
Pain points in the NFT industry
Just like 2020 was the year of DeFi, 2021 would forever be remembered as the year of NFTs. The market for non-fungible tokens grew rapidly last year to surpass $41 billion, which is particularly impressive considering that the centuries-old conventional art market is barely worth $50 billion.
Despite this phenomenal growth, however, the NFT industry is still pretty nascent and leaves a lot of room for improvement. Some of the major pain points affecting NFT users, as well as the market, include:
Problems affecting users
- Lack of easy ways to create, purchase, or view NFTs.
- The tools that already exist for creating or buying/selling NFTs need a certain level of technical know-how. This has adversely impacted the reach of the industry.
- The vast majority of NFT marketplaces and platforms only accept cryptocurrencies for payments.
- Most marketplaces charge hefty fees that not all users are comfortable paying.
Because of these factors, the NFT market has so far mostly attracted connoisseurs.
Problems affecting the market
- The market is heavily fragmented due to the lack of interoperability.
- The barrier to entry for new artists is often very high due to high costs.
- The technology fueling the growth of the NFT market is often criticized for being too energy-intensive.
How Artrade tackles these pain points
The primary objective of Artrade is to lower the NFT market’s barrier to entry so it can be a truly democratic industry offering equal access and opportunities for everyone including artists, buyers, sellers, connoisseurs, as well as new and existing users with little to no exposure to crypto and NFTs.
Artrade will be available as web and mobile applications. The app itself is very intuitive given that it borrows heavily from popular social media apps that most users are already familiar with. For example, the app fetches you a news feed displaying collectibles in Pinterest-like galleries.
Getting started is easy too. You just have to:
- Download the app (or access it via a web browser on your PC/Mac).
- Sign up via your Instagram or Twitter account. Alternatively, you could also use an email address to sign up.
- Use Artrade’s native wallet or connect a third-party wallet to your account.
Simple as that!
Solutions on offer
For starters, Artrade offers a feature called NFT Live that enables you to create an NFT directly from your smartphone. You can customize your newly created content by adding effects (GIF, emoji, filters, etc.). Needless to say, that’s as convenient as it can get.
From the point you make your content available for sale on Artrade, it exists as an NFT on the platform. This feature will initially be available for only those users with more than 10,000 Twitter or Instagram followers.
And it’s not just the ease of creating an NFT, but you can also easily display them in a virtual gallery for your followers and others to see.
Similarly, you can also browse the work displayed by other artists, follow the artists you like, share their work, interact with other users, indulge in healthy discussions — basically, the app lets you do pretty much anything you can do on your favorite social media platforms.
NFT Real is another exciting feature promised by the platform. This feature makes it possible for users to sell an NFT associated with a physical asset. Using this feature, you can create a series of NFTs associated with any real-life object such as a painting.
Here’s a quick demo of what the Artrade app promises to offer:
And when it comes to buying or selling an NFT, Artrade has more to offer than conventional NFT marketplaces. That’s because, unlike most platforms, Artrade accepts both fiat and crypto for payments, which means you can still buy an NFT even if you don’t own any crypto (or do not want to spend from your crypto stash).
Artrade fees
Artrade promises to charge no more than 2.5% in commission on any NFT sale taking place on its platform. It’s on par with what industry leaders like OpenSea currently charge.
However, the platform promises to start its journey as an “almost free platform” to encourage more and more users to come on board. After one year, it may gradually start charging a commission.
User-security on Artrade
Artrade promises to take the utmost care of user security. That is why every time you buy or sell an NFT on the platform, you will have to authenticate your transactions via your Instagram/Twitter/email account.
Additionally, you will also require securing your account by adding a 2FA or faceID. Note that FaceID or GoogleAuth is required for each login, as well as while buying/selling/transferring funds or NFTs.
ATR token and the Artrade ICO
ATR is the native token on the platform that glues together the individual components in the broader Artrade ecosystem. The total supply of ATR has been capped at 1.8 billion tokens.
ATR is a BEP20 token that comes with multiple use cases, including:
- The proceeds from the ATR token ICO will be vital for the development of the Artrade ecosystem and its global expansion.
- Users can hold ATR in their accounts to earn daily interest. The best part is that you do not even need to lock your tokens for a pre-specified period. In fact, you can withdraw the tokens any time you want.
The ATR token will be used to reward users every time they import an NFT and display it on their profile. The value of the NFT will determine the amount of the reward (interest) paid to the user.
- Artrade will offer special discounts on fees if a user buys an NFT using the ATR token.
- ATR also serves as a governance token. By holding ATR, you gain voting power to participate in the project’s decision-making processes.
Artrade ICO
A total of 900 million ATR tokens (50% of the total supply) will be issued in the ICO that will take place in three phases. In the first phase, the token was priced at $0.02 whereas, in the subsequent phases, the price increased to $0.03 and $0.04 respectively.
Payment methods include both fiat (bank transfer) and crypto (ETH, USDT, BUSD, BNB).
A total of 150,000,000 tokens were issued in the first phase with a vesting period of six months. Phase-2, which ended on Jan. 20, made available 300,000,000 tokens with a vesting period of four months.
The third phase of the ICO, scheduled to end on Feb. 15, has a supply of 450,000,000 tokens.
So far, the ICO has raked in a sizable $4.5 million from the ICO.
Artrade is also using the services of Synaps, a specialized technical service provider, to create a secure tunnel and implement the KYC/AML along with other regulatory procedures.
Roadmap and conclusion
So far, the Artrade team has done a decent job sticking to its promised roadmap, which is another key factor that gives it the kind of legitimacy that you would expect from a project this ambitious and elaborate.
As you can see, if the team can stick to this roadmap, Artrade could indeed emerge as a game-changer in the NFT space. Of course, we will have to wait some more to get a firsthand account of the app. We will get back to you with more details once that happens.
For now, it appears to be a serious product that could simplify and add value to how NFTs are created, consumed, shared, as well as purchased/sold.
If you want to learn more about the project, the Artrade whitepaper is a good place to start.
If you are intrigued and considering participating in the ICO, hop over to the Artrade ICO page.
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