LimeWire, the now-defunct peer-to-peer file-sharing firm, is coming again to life. The corporate was picked up by Austrian entrepreneurs Julian and Paul Zehetmayr, and they’re relaunching it in Could as a user-friendly NFT market “for artwork and leisure, initially targeted on music”. LimeWire can also be anticipated to launch its personal crypto token, LMWR, later this 12 months.
A Large Identify in Distributed Computing
Again within the day, LimeWire made a reputation for itself as some of the fashionable peer-to-peer file-sharing providers on the market. All through the 2000s, LimeWire grew to become fashionable as a result of it allowed tens of tens of millions of month-to-month customers to share music, films, and any sort of recordsdata or media totally free.
This recognition, nevertheless, didn’t come with out its share of controversy. After a really lengthy authorized battle with the Recording Trade of America over allegations of piracy, a US District Courtroom discovered the platform induced copyright infringement, and the corporate was compelled to stop all performance for its platform.
A Crypto Makeover
Austrian entrepreneurial brothers Julian and Paul Zehetmayr purchased the rights to the corporate and are engaged on LimeWire’s resurrection, as co-CEOs, with plans to make use of the platform in a means that immediately connects artists and followers.
As a substitute of transferring into the streaming business like lots of its peer-to-peer cousins, similar to Napster, LimeWire is getting a crypto makeover. The transfer is akin to that of BitTorrent and its acquisition by the crypto start-up TRON.
Though retaining its authentic identify, this iteration of LimeWire has no relation with anybody from the unique firm. In sustaining the unique identify, the co-CEOs hope to capitalize on LimeWire’s earlier fame.
The entire thought behind relaunching as an NFT market is to create a instrument the place “you’ll be capable to create, purchase, and commerce NFT collectibles with ease”.
Julian Zehetmayr stated in a statement:
It’s necessary to notice that we’re not relaunching LimeWire as an alternative choice to streaming platforms, however fairly as a further channel for artists to promote unique music and artwork on to collectors.
LimeWire plans to record costs in US {dollars} on the platform, and customers will be capable to buy tokens utilizing bank cards. The corporate has already partnered with the start-up Wyre to facilitate funds.
The corporate additionally has plans to launch its personal crypto token native to the brand new LimeWire ecosystem. Its launch will begin with an preliminary providing to buyers in March and an invite-only personal sale in April, adopted by a public sale in 2022.
A Completely different Time, A Completely different Strategy
LimeWire’s influence on 2000s web tradition is not any overstatement. It arrived at a time once we had no streaming providers, and peer-to-peer file-sharing platforms have been the go-to place to get the most recent tune or dig out a cult movie.
Its influence was so vital that the corporate’s identify nonetheless resonates at the moment. Nonetheless, after the corporate’s controversial demise, there was little hope of it ever coming again. At the least, that’s, till the Zehetmayr brothers picked it up, dusted it off, and revitalized it with a brand-new method to file-sharing: an NFT market.
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