There is no denying the fact that a wave of crypto adoption is sweeping the world right now, resulting in a growing list of dormant brands making their way into the digital asset market in recent months.
Just two weeks ago, the once-popular music platform LimeWire announced that it was making a comeback, albeit in the form of a market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) rather than a file-sharing service.
The return of LimeWire rests largely on its brand strength backed by the company’s belief that its fame in the early 2000s would allow it to make its way into the competitive Web3 ecosystem. In its new iteration, the platform will be offered as an alternative to popular NFT marketplace OpenC, which will focus on music-related collectibles.
In this regard, it is notable that LimeWire recently announced a partnership with the parent firm behind Algorand, as well as its plans to issue its own token, LMWR, for mainstream commercial adoption in the short term.
In fact, over the past few months many other old and beloved brands have made a comeback of a similar nature. That said, while the revival of LimeWire certainly has a feel-good undertaking for it, many in the industry believe the move is intended to piggyback on the file-sharing site’s reputation in hopes of quick payouts. There may be an attempt.
resurgence in abundance
In line with what LimeWire is doing, there are at least half a dozen other old-school names that have tried to make a revival of a similar nature. For example, WinAmp, a popular media player for Microsoft Windows that was sold to AOL in 1999 for $80 million, is now entering the NFT arena, albeit with many ridicule,
It’s unbelievable how you took decades of good memories and shredded it all with a single tweet.
— eric bailey (@ericwbailey) 16 March 2022
Winamp will auction its original and iconic skin as a one-of-one NFT on OpenSea, with bids starting in mid-May as part of the move. The project also plans to sell over 20+ of its popular artwork, each of which has been replicated 100 times to make the total of 1997 NFT – the year the music service entered mainstream circulation. Each of these NFTs comes with a price tag of 0.08 Ether (ETH), bringing the cumulative total of 1997 NFTs to approximately $527,000 at the time of writing.
Similarly, RadioShack, a major electronics store that went bankrupt a few years ago, announced that it would once again enter the market as a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange. In its current form, the RadioShack website runs a native derivative of Uniswap with a radio-based graphic interface, allowing users to swap various Ethereum-based tokens, including ETH, USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT) and Polygon (MATIC). can do. among others.
MoviePass was a venture that gained widespread notoriety in 2018 due to its offering in which customers could gain access to unlimited movie screenings for just a modest amount of $10. As a result of its business model, the company had to close shop after only a year. However, and now it wants to make a comeback by incorporating blockchain and crypto-enabled technologies in its setup.
What’s in a brand name?
To get a better idea of whether the entry of these iconic brands into the crypto arena is a serious proposition or just a quick cash grab plan, Cointelegraph spoke to Pavel Bains, CEO of the game-fi blockchain ecosystem Bluezel. He pointed out that most of the companies in question no longer even have their original owners, adding:
“It’s just people who want to ride this wave and make some money and think that using a recognized name is the way to do it. Where they fail is that the youth have no exposure to these brands. Not concerned. I don’t think unaffiliated brands will have any effect because people will just switch them off and move on. Crypto and NFTs are some bandwagon jumpers past the point of maligning their image.”
Chase Layman, CEO and co-founder of blockchain gaming studio Attack Wagon, shares a similar view, who told Cointelegraph that although some of these companies may have long-term intentions to jump into the blockchain space, most of them are simply It has the possibility of quitting its projects for quick media coverage and after earning some money.
Elliot Hill, director of communications for VeraCity, a protocol for esports, video entertainment and digital content management, is a little less skeptical. He told Cointelegraph that most brands are systematically waking up to the huge opportunities offered by NFTs and other blockchain-based assets. He added:
“In the case of traditional peer-to-peer companies like LimeWire entering the space, there are certainly benefits to exploring a blockchain or NFT based solution, and this is already the case with the hugely successful relaunch of BitTorrent and token issuance. Medium has been proven to a certain extent. The Tron network is back in 2019.”
He further added that blockchain is, at its core, a decentralized database technology. Therefore, any company, business or organization that uses centralized databases can use them for better security, reporting, traceability and transparency.
Lastly, Piotr Zalevsky, CEO of Eurocoin, a cryptocurrency trading and payments platform, told Cointelegraph that no pioneer company wants to be left behind, especially those associated with the music sector. “Most firms see that music has surpassed its growth in sales in the form of vinyl, cassette, CD, MP3 and now NFT. I think it is a desire to be part of the future and not a temporary promotional act.”
Is all publicity good publicity?
As the saying goes: “All press is good press.” However, Lyman believes that when big brands make fun of the actual developers associated with the industry, it detracts from and detracts from projects that may actually someday have the potential to change the world for the better. are, adding:
“While we need to keep an eye on blockchain technology more, we also need more people to take it seriously. If these big brands will support strong crypto projects instead of looking like gimmicks, then there will be trust and confidence for blockchain. Enthusiasm can grow globally.”
In his view, most of these old school brands have not yet fully understood the possibilities presented by crypto technology and are, therefore, in it for the short term. “I don’t see their efforts helping the legitimacy of blockchain,” he said.
Hill also believes that there is some form of endorsement that undermines the credibility of the crypto industry in the eyes of the public. In this regard, he pointed to projects that have paid heavily for spectacular celebrity endorsements only to increase token sales. That said, he said enterprise adoption is fundamentally different from such hype-driven cycles, adding:
“We are seeing real businesses, with real customers and clients, adopt blockchain or cryptocurrency technologies to advance their business needs and improve their processes. There will come a time in the future when it comes to using blockchain-based solutions. Companies that have access to the Internet will be just as normal as companies using the Internet. It won’t need support because it will be an obvious business that should have some blockchain-based component.”
In Zalevsky’s opinion, there is no such thing as “bad publicity or adoption”, at least in the broader scheme of things. He believes that the errors of unrelated formerly well-known companies that do not know the specifics of this space will help shape the direction of the market in the long run. “The fact that the mistakes made by these companies will allow others to learn and therefore enable faster, more efficient adoption.”
While there is a healthy amount of debate about the entry of passive brands into the crypto arena, there is no reason to believe that consumers would instinctively trust a project like LimeWire 2.0, given some historical prominence attached to its name. Therefore, it will be interesting to see if this trend continues in the long run and if so, how it affects the digital asset industry at large.
