This is a Mirror version of a thread (see below) I wrote about the ZORA Protocol back in March 2022. Publishing here for posterity (writing NFTs!)
Thread condensed in bullet form:
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OpenSea is the most commonly used NFT marketplace today It gets a lot of flack for being closed source, hard to remix, and non-responsive to community feedback
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Did u know that http://opensea.io is just a frontend application that allows you to interact with the underlying Wyvern protocol which provides the rails for how assets are bought/sold? OpenSea is a *platform* that allows you to interact with the Wyvern *protocol*
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There are 2 BIG issues with the Wyvern protocol 1. Its contracts are not immutable. That means OpenSea can change the rules of how the Wyvern protocol works This is the same as Twitter/Facebook changing their API endpoints and killing any project that was built on top of it
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- The Wyvern protocol keeps off-chain order books This means the settlement of the complicated web of transactions (buys/sells/transfers/proxy calls/etc.) occurs behind closed doors They do this to allow you to list NFTs for free
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WE LEARNED IN WEB2 THAT NOTHING IS FREE In exchange for gas savings, you are giving up full transparency into the protocol interacting with your digital assets This is the antithesis of the permissionless, trustless, decentralized systems web3 is supposed to be building
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OpenSea has provided a crucial service to the web3 ecosystem However, their continued reliance on the Wyvern protocol represents an existential threat if the company is taken over by leadership with “bad” intentions The web3 community cannot allow this to be the standard
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If only there was a permissionless, free to use, immutable marketplace that lived fully on-chain… …one that enabled instant/trustless royalty payouts, and provided a curatorial incentive so that trusted parties (like OpenSea) could still have a role in this ecosystem
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Are you aware that @ourZORA already built this? Did you know that @viamirror @catalogworks @prtyDAO and @glassprotocol (among others) have already integrated the ZORA protocol? Let's turn our attention to ZORA:
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ZORA has deployed a modular NFT marketplace protocol that will survive as long as the underlying blockchain They're building the NFT marketplace version of a hyperstructure What's a hyperstructure? I’ll provide a summary – but read this for more detail:
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A hyperstructure is a protocol that runs “for free and forever, without maintenance, interruption or intermediaries” They are uniquely enabled by blockchain technology Traditional infrastructure like roads, bridges, and telephone poles break down over time…
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...in contrast, you could send 1,000,000,000,000 transactions to the ZORA Asks V1.1 Module and it will behave predictably without fail for as long as Ethereum exists You can look at this module right here, it's not going anywhere:
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ZORA is playing the long game Their smart contract architecture provides modules that can be trusted to remain stable over time, while enabling protocol augmentation through the deployment of new modules Link to architecture mapping (scroll down):
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What would shifting the ecosystem's reliance on the Wyvern protocol to the ZORA protocol accomplish? 1. Value accrual flows to the protocol layer (creators) and away from the applications layer (platforms) Platforms can still add fees, but the underlying protocol is free
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- With a free to use, permissionless protocol layer, platforms must now compete to attract users They do this through offering competitive marketplace fees, curatorial services, and fostering like-minded communities The Golden Age of curation begins
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Platforms jockey to gain trust/reputation as NFT markets continue to be flooded with new participants, projects, and marketplaces The ZORA Finder's Fee (+ soon to be released hosting fee) creates incentives for large platforms like OpenSea to move onto the protocol themselves
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Remember that the ZORA protocol is free, so OpenSea sees no hit to their business model (providing a trusted/curated NFT marketplace in exchange for a % of each transaction) Niche marketplaces emerge offering custom experiences targeted to tighter audiences
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The battle for NFT marketplace “market share” moves from who has the best distribution (OpenSea atm), to who has the best content and UX Marketplace competition in the NFT space moves from the battleground of systems to the battleground of ideas
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Value creation + influence flows back to creators, while the sway that VC funded players like OpenSea hold is checked FYI ZORA is also VC funded. They just happen to be using that funding to create a free to use NFT marketplace hyperstructure Take that as you will
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web3 has the potential to change the rails we use to facilitate human-to-human interaction It’s better that no one owns those rails (ZORA), than a company we are trusting to be "good" (OpenSea) ZORA will be decentralizing control over their market modules in the coming months
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If you want to start using the ZORA protocol right now (you do), move your NFT activity onto http://zora.co The site is ZORA’s *platform* that allows you to interact with the underlying ZORA *protocol* Protocols > Platforms
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Or you can build your own platform and create a custom curated experience for your audience @ZORAEngineering provides great docs to do this: https://github.com/ourzora/create-auction-house… I'm building one right now:
https://twitter.com/0xTranqui/status/1516542700148781058?s=20&t=hChqhvVuLbWVYNGhawDMfA
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One last thing as if this wasn’t enough reason to start using ZORA Remember the thing about Twitter/Facebook API endpoint control being one of the fatal flaws of web2? Currently the most commonly used NFT Indexer API is OpenSea’s and it goes down all of the time
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ZORA has quietly been building the world’s most powerful NFT Indexer (ERC721 specific) Their public request for comments just ended When this comes out (weeks? months?), everyone with an internet connection will be able to quickly/freely access data on every NFT ever
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@ourZORA is powering the internet renaissance. To learn more, here’s some great ZORA focused resources:
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In closing, thank you to @ourZORA @ZORAEngineering for everything you have built so far
s/o to @js_horne and @dg_goens for founding this team
Best of luck on the mission to bring permissionless digital infrastructure to the masses. I hope to build with you someday