Who remembers LimeWire, the now-defunct peer-to-peer file-sharing service that dominated the early 2000s? Back in its heyday, Limewire had greater than 50 million month-to-month lively customers. However issues modified in 2010, when the filesharing web site was shut down by U.S. federal courtroom after a four-year authorized battle.
For many who are nonetheless nostalgic concerning the place you downloaded your first MP3, you’re not alone.
Contemplating the rebellious nature of the platform, maybe it makes excellent sense that LimeWire is now being resurrected on the blockchain. And after months of teasing a tokenized supply, the brand new iteration of the enduring peer-to-peer service has lastly been revealed. But it surely’s vastly totally different than what you would possibly keep in mind.
The brand new LimeWire
It’s secure to say that LimeWire has undergone important transformations since its inception in Might 2000. After being shut down in October 2011, the legacy platform appeared to have been in limbo till the model rights had been acquired by Austrian brothers and businessmen Julian and Paul Zehetmayr in 2021.
In the course of the preliminary NFT increase, the 2 undoubtedly noticed the parallel between the defiant, peer-to-peer NFT tradition and that of peak LimeWire earlier than deciding on plans to deliver the model onto the blockchain as an NFT market. Now, the “new LimeWire” has emerged to assist reinvent how followers and artists share content material and work together with one another.
So, what is that this newest model of the defunct service? In essence, as defined on the LimeWire web site, the brand new LimeWire is “a platform for content creators, artists, and brands to create membership-based communities for their most passionate fans.” However how?
All of it has to do with neighborhood.
The brand new LimeWire goals to assist content material creators construct recurring income streams by offering a platform and framework for direct fan membership. In flip, followers will obtain entry to unique content material, a non-public neighborhood, the power to immediately talk with artists and types they patronize, and develop into part of their journey.
If it sounds form of like an NFT fan membership to you, you’re heading in the right direction. Primarily, LimeWire will act as a Web3 subscription platform for neighborhood constructing. And this platform will likely be catered towards music creators and shoppers.
“The new LimeWire, initially relaunched in mid-2022 as a marketplace to buy, sell and trade digital collectibles, has now evolved into a fully-fledged membership platform,” the LimeWire web site explains. “Through blockchain technology, we make exclusive content and assets ownable and tradeable, allowing fans to not only consume exclusive content but also to participate directly in the success of the creators they support.”
All issues thought of, the brand new LimeWire enterprise may show to be a stable Web3 model integration. And contemplating that neighborhood constructing has anecdotally been the responsibility of creators and collectors — and one which has existed midway between Twitter, Discord, and numerous NFT marketplaces — the advantages of this, what virtually feels to be a form of Web3-powered Patreon, appears simple.
The LimeWire token
However what’s the plan, precisely, for LimeWire to floor itself on the blockchain?
To higher fuse with the sensibilities of Web3, the Zehetmayr brothers opted to maneuver away from NFTs (no less than for the second) and recenter on one other distinguished side of the blockchain — crypto. To take action, they got down to supply a neighborhood token that might basically fund the brand new LimeWire platform and act because the lifeblood of the ecosystem.
Within the type of an Ethereum-based ERC-20 utility token, LMWR is alleged to be deeply embedded into the LimeWire ecosystem, designed to be of profit to holders whereas enhancing the person expertise throughout the platform. And with the LimeWire token public sale, which launched on Might 2, 2023, the dissemination of 1 billion tokens to Web3 neighborhood members (and undoubtedly some common traders) will seemingly maintain sufficient weight to behave as a catalyst for one thing revolutionary to return.
The truth is, inside the primary 2 hours of the LMWR public sale, Limewire raised greater than $2 million.
Subsequent comes the query of what the LMWR token would possibly really be used for. Though it’s not immediately corresponding to tokens like ApeCoin or $FWB, customers can contemplate the utility of the token as akin to that of choices in the identical vein. That’s to say that, as a neighborhood and utility token, it should seemingly be of worth and significance in every thing that LimeWire does from right here on out — particularly in terms of the fan-artist economic system.
For fans who discover the prospect of being a part of the blockchain-powered inside circle of LimeWire members akin to Elijah Blake, Cheat Codes, Soulja Boy, and Slushii alluring, investing in LMWR when it turns into tradable on numerous crypto exchanges might be transfer. However for people who is likely to be skeptical of yet one more legacy model being resurrected in Web3, the basic crypto technique of ready and watching can be a stable selection.
