LimeWire was a free P2P file sharing platformย usedย by over 50 million people monthly. The site, founded in 2000, functioned for ten years before it got shut down by federal court after a four-year battle with the Recording Industry Association of America.
Last year, Austrian brothers Julian and Paul Zehetmayr bought the rights to LimeWireโs name and are planning to adapt it to the next generation of the internet. They will create an NFT marketplace focused on music, plus art and entertainment products.
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The platform will relaunch in May as an NFT site where users will be able to buy and trade limited edition NFTs without a crypto wallet. The founders said they want to make NFTs as accessible to everyone as possible.
โThe issue with the NFT market is that most platforms are decentralized. If you look at Bitcoin, all the exchanges are making it really easy to buy, trade and sell Bitcoin. Thereโs no one really doing the same in the NFT space,โ
Julian Zehetmayr told CNBC.
โWeโve obviously got this great mainstream brand that everybodyโs nostalgic about. We thought we needed to build a real mainstream user experience as well,โ
he added.
The entrepreneur brothers also plan to launch a LimeWire token, which will enable holders to vote on LimeWire policy changes and select which artists are featured in the siteโs music charts.