LimeWire (LMWR): The NFT Marketplace Rebirth of a File-Sharing Platform

In recent years, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have catapulted from relative obscurity to soaring popularity. In 2021 alone, trading in NFTs spiked to over $17 billion, increasing 21,200% from 2020. However, many still struggle with understanding the intricacies of NFTs. Newcomers can find it hard to get on board and start creating. LimeWire offers a possible game-changing solution to this problem. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the LimeWire NFT marketplace and its LMWR token.

Key Takeaways:

• LimeWire is an entertainment-focused NFT digital collectibles marketplace. It’s a relaunch of the now-defunct peer-to-peer music-sharing software that was popular back in the 2000s.
• Bybit now offers the LMWR/USDT Spot trading pair.

What Is LimeWire?

LimeWire is an entertainment-focused NFT digital collectibles marketplace, actually a relaunch of the now-defunct peer-to-peer (P2P) music-sharing software popular in the 2000s. 

LimeWire’s initial plan was to focus solely on music. However, it has since evolved its services to cater to all kinds of content creators, providing them with a platform to grow their fan bases and build recurring revenue streams through their own content. 

History Of LimeWire

For the uninitiated, LimeWire was first released on May 3, 2000, as a P2P file-sharing program designed to allow users to upload and download files through desktop software. Users were given access to thousands of MP3, AVI, MPEG and JPG files, culminating in tens of millions of users and over $20 million in annual revenue in 2006. The LimeWire software was installed on 18% of all computers in circulation, making it arguably one of the most prominent music and video sharing platforms of the 2000s.

As a result of its growing popularity, the LimeWire platform became a target of lawsuits from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America®), bordering on copyright infringement of music by labels RIAA represented. These lawsuits and a further countersuit made by LimeWire resulted in a lengthy legal battle between the two parties from 2006 to 2010. On Oct 26, 2010, a judgment was passed causing LimeWire to cease all operations and deactivate its file distribution functionality. 

The Rebirth

LimeWire relaunched in May 2022. This time, however, it specializes in NFTs. With a new LimeWire team on board, and brothers Paul and Julian Zehetmayr at the helm (after buying intellectual property rights to the company), LimeWire was relaunched in hopes of forging a new path. Described as “serial founders,” the Zehetmayr brothers also co-founded Stack Holdings, a Software as a Service (SaaS) company with the primary goal of automating complex processes. 

Now, they aim to position LimeWire as a marketplace accessible even to newbies. The LimeWire management team also includes crypto veterans, many of whom previously worked for the European cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda, backed by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures.

The new LimeWire has taken on a whole new scope, and is nothing like the original LimeWire company of the 2000s. While it has kept its name and domain, the LimeWire NFT marketplace plans to revolutionize digital collectible ownership and trading in the music and entertainment industries.

LimeWire's Plan

The Zehetmayr brothers have been planning to bring LimeWire back amidst a fast-moving world of digital collectibles, music and entertainment since they first bought the intellectual property rights to the company in 2021. LimeWire later confirmed on Twitter that the platform would be built into the first genuinely mainstream-ready digital collectibles platform. It’s now available and accessible to just about anybody, both creators and buyers.

The LimeWire NFT marketplace is wired for users to collect, trade and enjoy exclusive content from their favorite creators without worrying about blockchain technicalities. By taking care of custody and blockchain transactions, LimeWire lowers the entry barrier for mainstream users to purchase and trade NFTs.

Creator Economy

Instead of competing with existing streaming services, LimeWire provides another channel for creators to create membership-based communities, engage with their loyal fans directly and sell content exclusively. They can even earn royalties each time their content is traded among fans, which helps guarantee that creators will be fairly rewarded for high-performing content. Users can buy and trade music-related assets, such as cover art, unreleased demos, exclusive music releases, artist interviews, backstage content, and music-related digital artwork accompanied by audio or video content.

LimeWire NFTs

LimeWire has its own exclusive collection of 10,000 Originals NFTs. Holding onto a LimeWire Originals NFT enables you to attend invite-only events and parties organized by LimeWire, earn monthly LMWR rewards, enjoy early access to NFT drops and exclusive access to LimeWire merchandise, and more.

What Are Some of LimeWire's Long-Term Goals?

The LimeWire NFT marketplace hopes to put creators fully in charge of their content, offering them flexibility and control. The company’s vision is to to reach beyond the music industry and become the go-to collectible marketplace for arts and entertainment. 

As compared with the music field, LimeWire believes the film industry is still at an even earlier stage regarding NFTs and sees tremendous potential for filmmakers, producers and studios of every size creating digital collectibles.

If this happens soon, LimeWire intends to become the pioneering marketplace, further expanding its offerings and ecosystem.

Will the LimeWire NFT Marketplace Be Eco-Friendly?

For those wondering about LimeWire's unique selling point as an NFT marketplace, you'll be glad to know that it’s committed to being eco-friendly through its NFT minting process and blockchain provider.

Minting NFTs has become synonymous with greenhouse gas emissions as it burns fossil fuels, coal, natural gas and petroleum for energy use.

In 2021, 90% of all NFT transactions occurred on the Ethereum network. Each transaction produced 103.42 kilograms of carbon dioxide and about 47 million tons in carbon emissions as of the end of the year.

In contrast, LimeWire takes a more eco-friendly stance by using Algorand as its blockchain provider. Algorand is an open-source, decentralized blockchain network that’s carbon negative and maintains a lightweight, energy-efficient footprint.

With the Algorand blockchain, users will be able to mint their digital assets to NFTs without having to worry about damaging Earth’s ecosystem. 

LimeWire vs. Other NFT Marketplaces

LimeWire is poised to become the first genuinely mainstream-ready collectibles platform. This has left many NFT enthusiasts wondering how LimeWire intends to achieve this — and what specifically the company will be doing differently to make sure they deliver.

LimeWire management hopes to make sign-up quick and easy, with straightforward KYC (know your customer) information requirements and U.S. dollar pricing. An average music fan should be able to easily access the platform.

LimeWire vs. OpenSea

To use OpenSea, you need digital currency to carry out transactions. For this reason, OpenSea requires you to have a crypto wallet — or create a new one, which will then be connected to your OpenSea account. As a newbie, this entire process might be a little overwhelming. 

To solve this problem, LimeWire has created a system that enables you to use a credit card or cryptocurrency such as USDC, BTC, ALGO and ETH to pay for subscriptions. These choices make it easy for beginners, significantly lowering the entry barrier to the collectibles marketplace. 

LimeWire vs. Magic Eden

Anyone can become a creator on Magic Eden. As a result, there’s a lot of plagiarized content, and rip-offs of popular projects like the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Although LimeWire is also advertised as a platform for everyone, the company has measures in place to prevent copyright infringement. LimeWire has said it will either bring artists onboard itself, or make sure they verify that they’re the copyright owners of their music. LimeWire even made a deal with Universal Music Group to license some of its content. 

LimeWire vs. Solanart

LimeWire offers a vast option of NFTs and gives you the cross-blockchain advantage by bridging its platform with the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. Solanart, on the other hand, only allows a smaller selection of NFTs as compared to LimeWire — and some of these assets aren’t even recognized across other platforms (aside from Solana).

LMWR Tokenomics

Source: LimeWire

LimeWire has a total supply of 1 billion tokens. It successfully raised $10.4 million in a private sale of its native token, LMWR, in a round led by Kraken Ventures, Arrington XRP Capital and GSR Ventures. In its recently held public sale, LimeWire raised $17.75 million.

LMWR tokens are distributed as follows:

• LimeWire Ecosystem Fund: 43%
• Team: 18%
• Private Sale: 12%
• Public Sale: 10%
• Strategic Round: 8%
• Liquidity: 5%
• Advisor: 4%

LMWR Price Prediction

The LimeWire token (LMWR) launched on May 16, 2023 at $0.436892. It soon surged to its all-time high (ATH) price of $0.602655, before declining to its all-time low (ATL) of $0.138545 on May 19, 2023. Despite the drop in price just a few days after its launch, expert analysts from DigitalCoinPrice believe that LMWR’s price will rise to close 2023 at $0.43, surpass its all-time high by 2025 at $0.71 and reach $2.05 by 2030.

Where to Buy LMWR

Looking to get your hands on LMWR tokens? Bybit now offers the LMWR/USDT Spot trading pair. To get started with trading LMWR, simply sign up for a Bybit account and navigate to the LMWR/USDT Spot trading page.

The Bottom Line

LimeWire's relaunch as an NFT marketplace has redefined how music is created, traded and collected in a way that’s easy and accessible for users. With LimeWire, artists can also retain full control over their music and directly engage with their fans. With prior brand recognition as a former peer-to-peer music service, LimeWire's take on NFTs is poised to take music ownership and trading to the next level. 

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