There is no denying the fact that the wave of cryptocurrency adoption sweeping the globe right now has given rise to a growing list of defunct brands that have made their way onto 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 as a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace rather than a file-sharing service.
LimeWire’s comeback appears to hinge largely on its brand power, underpinned by the company’s belief that its early 2000s fame will allow it to break through in the competitive Web3 ecosystem. In its new iteration, the platform will be running as an alternative to the popular OpenSea NFT marketplace, focusing on music-related collectibles.
In this regard, it is worth mentioning that LimeWire has recently announced a partnership with Algorand’s parent company, while also revealing its plans to launch its own LMWR token for commercial adoption in the short term.
In fact, recent months have seen a whole host of other beloved old brands make comebacks of a similar nature. That said, while LimeWire’s resurgence certainly has a positive undertone, many in the industry believe the move may simply be an attempt to cash in on the file-sharing site’s reputation in the hope of a quick payday.
Reactivations galore
In line with what LimeWire is doing, there have been at least half a dozen other old-school names that have tried to carve out 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 fight, albeit with much ridiculous public.
It is incredible how you took decades of good will nostalgia and removed it with a single tweet.
— Eric Bailey (@ericwbailey) March 16, 2022
Winamp will be auctioning off its original and iconic skin as a unique NFT on OpenSea, with bidding starting in mid-May, as part of the move. The project also plans to sell more than 20 of its popular illustrations, each of which will be replicated a total of 100 times to create a total of 1997 NFTs, a nod to the year the music service went live. Each of these NFTs is priced at 0.08 Ether (ETH), bringing the cumulative total of 1997 NFTs to about $527,000 at the time of writing.
Similarly, RadioShack, a major electronics store that went bankrupt a few years ago, announced that it will re-enter the market as a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange. In its current form, RadioShack’s website runs a basic derivative of Uniswap with a radio-based graphical interface, allowing users to trade various Ethereum-based tokens, including ETH, USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), and Polygon (MATIC), among others.
MoviePass was a startup that gained wide notoriety back in 2018 thanks to its offer, in which subscribers could access unlimited movie screenings for a measly sum of just $10. As a consequence of its business model, the company had to go out of business just a year later. However, it is now trying to make a comeback by incorporating blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies into its setup.
What’s in a brand?
To get a better idea of whether the entry of these formerly prestigious brands into the cryptocurrency sector is a serious proposition or just a quick buck scheme, Cointelegraph spoke with Pavel Bains, CEO of the crypto gaming blockchain ecosystem. Random Bluzelle. He pointed out that most of the companies in question don’t even have their original owners on board anymore, adding:
“It’s just people who want to make some money riding this wave and thinking that using a big name is the way to do it. Where they fail is that young people don’t have any relationship with these brands. I don’t think brands don’t have any impact as people will just shrug their shoulders and move on. Cryptocurrencies and NFTs are past the time for some bandwagon to deter their image.”
A similar point of view is shared by Chase Layman, CEO and co-founder of blockchain gaming studio Attack Wagon, who told Cointelegraph that while some of these companies may have long-term intentions of jumping into the blockchain space, most of them are simply in it for the quick media coverage and are very likely to abandon their projects after earning some money.
Elliot Hill, director of communications for Verasity, a protocol for esports, video entertainment and digital content management, is a little less skeptical. He told Cointelegraph that most brands are organically 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 has already been shown to some extent through the hugely successful relaunch of BitTorrent and the issuance of tokens on the Tron network back in 2019.”
Furthermore, he opined that blockchain, at its core, is a decentralized database technology. Therefore, any company, business or organization that uses centralized databases could use them to improve security, reporting, traceability and transparency.
Lastly, Piotr Zalewski, CEO of Euronin, a cryptocurrency trading and payment platform, told Cointelegraph that no forward-thinking company wants to be left behind, especially companies related to the music sector. “Most of the labels see that music has just passed its evolution in sales as vinyl, cassettes, CDs, MP3s and now NFTs. I think it is a desire to be part of the future and not a hype and cymbal work temporary”.
Is all advertising good?
As the saying goes, “all press is good press.” However, Lyman believes that when big brands make fun of what the real developers associated with this industry are trying to build, it deters and distracts from projects that truly have the potential to one day change the world for the better, adding :
“Although we need more eyes for blockchain technology, we also need more people to take it seriously. If these big brands were to back strong crypto projects instead of introducing what looks like a gimmick, then the belief and fervor for blockchain could grow.” Worldwide.”
In his opinion, most of these old-school brands have not yet fully grasped the possibilities that crypto technology presents and are therefore in it short-term. “I don’t see their efforts helping the legitimacy of the blockchain,” he said.
Hill is also of the opinion that there are certain types of support that reduce the credibility of the cryptocurrency industry in the eyes of the public. In this regard, he pointed to projects that have paid heavily for celebrity endorsements for the sole purpose of increasing token sales. That said, he noted that business adoption is fundamentally different from these ad-driven cycles, adding:
“We’re seeing real businesses, with real customers, adopting blockchain or cryptocurrency technologies to advance their business needs and improve their processes. There will be a time in the future where businesses using a blockchain-based solution on blockchain will be as common as those on the internet. Endorsement won’t be necessary because it will be an obvious business need to have some blockchain-based component.”
In Zalewski’s view, there is no such thing as “bad publicity or adoption,” at least in the grand scheme of things. He believes the mistakes of previously unrelated famous companies that don’t know the ins and outs of this space will help shape the long-term direction of the market. “The fact is that the mistakes made by these companies will allow other companies to learn and therefore enable faster and more efficient adoption.”
While there seems to be a healthy amount of debate regarding defunct brands entering the cryptocurrency fray, there is no reason to believe that consumers will instinctively trust a project like LimeWire 2.0 just because it has some historical prominence attached to it. your name. So it will be interesting to see if this trend continues for a long time, and if so, how it affects the digital asset industry in general.