The nemesis of your old family computer, LimeWire, is back and stronger than ever as a music-based NFT marketplace.
12-years after its plug was pulled, LimeWire is about to be resurrected as an online marketplace for non fungible tokens.
A pair of Austrian brothers, Paul and Julian Zehetmayr, have paid for the rights to LimeWire with the intention of repurposing the peer-to-peer music sharing platform to sell music NFTs, as per Bloomberg.
“We highly appreciate the strength and energy around the LimeWire brand and what it meant for a whole generation of people,” the brothers told Decrypt, “and we could not be more excited to bring it back to life in the fast-moving world of digital collectibles, music, and entertainment.”
The updated platform will accept digital currencies crypto and fiat, and will have Bitcoin and Ether wallets available for users thanks to payment gurus Wyre Inc.
If you were around in the mid 2000s, LimeWire was the obvious alternative to legally downloading music. You’d be almost guaranteed to download a a crippling virus in the process, but the website was a piracy staple regardless.
However, the Zehetmayr’s LimeWire will do things quite differently. The brothers have put anti-money laundering checks in place to run a completely legal, US currency-based, online market.
Many artists have already sold their music as NFTs including Snoop Dogg, Nas, and Kings of Leon, with a percentage of revenue from streams going to the NFT owner.
So if they’re selling a practical form of NFT, rather than a $1,000 image that could literally be screenshot, LimeWire could make the greatest comeback since Elon Musk’s hairline.
