As a part of our business trip to NFTs we have the next super rare destination called SuperRare NFT marketplace. Today’s task is to trade NFT art on this marketplace and find opportunities for creators and collectors.
NFT art marketplace as a starting point
We have already discussed the nature of real art vs. NFT art marketplaces. Briefly, the NFT art marketplaces are unique because:
- artworks are digital assets but not tangible things;
- artworks have unique NFTs and these non-fungible tokens are the proof of genuine ownership;
- in most cases you can buy NFT art with crypto currency;
- an NFT artist gets royalties (sometimes, up to 30% 😲) from each sale of the artwork;
- NFT art is more adaptive for digital world and grow its value with effective use of digital tools and media.
Since the NFTs got massive interest from the audience in recent months, we are exploring each art marketplace to understand how is easy (or not) to make business there. We have already spoken a little bit about OpenSea, NBA Top Shot and Rarible. Today we’ll go to Superrare.
Indeed, it’s super rare by name and super rare by nature.
Ecosystem of Superrare NFT or… not?
After the information of opportunities behind NFT appeared in the Internet, we can see a massive wave of NFT marketplaces. Hence, first of all, let’s understand what is SuperRare?
SuperRare is a blockchain-backed social network for art creators and collectors. This is short but extremely full description of one of the most successful NFT marketplaces, existing in the world now.
It was founded in 2018 and on company’s LinkedIn you can see the team of this #CryptoArt company (as they suggested in their description). Also, you can follow their Twitter for news about the marketplace.
At SuperRare creators can tokenize their digital artworks using Ethereum blockchain standard. This means that if you have a digital art item, SuperRare can help you to create NFT and make money out of your NFTs using the technical architecture of Ethereum blockchain. Also, it is possible to get royalties, which go back to the creator. In contrast, collectors can buy, then trade artworks and, in fact, generate mentioned royalties.
Considering the model of SuperRare NFT marketplace is it fair to say it is definitely super rare? Probably, not too much. However, some unique features it definitely has.
Start collecting at SuperRare with a wallet
Firstly, you must have a wallet. In fact, this is one of the popular logic steps behind NFT marketplaces. In order to start collecting your non-fungible tokens you must have a wallet to pay for them, for gas fee and a place, where you will save your precious digital assets.
As of July 2021, SuperRare works with Metamask, Fortmatic and Wallet Connect.
Invite-only creators at SuperRare NFT Marketplace
If you want to join this NFT marketplace as an artist, we have two news (not a joke!). Good news – it is possible. Bad news – it is not free but invite only. The SuperRare team explains:
Artists can get on our radar using this form.
SuperRare team
SuperRare is still in early access and only a limited number of artists are being invited at the moment.
We are currently receiving an enormous influx of submissions and are unable to respond to everyone who submits.
Please make sure to carefully include everything requested in the form, and make sure all links and folders are accessible.”
In other words, everyone can try own luck and submit a profile as well as digital artworks following this link.
In fact, this link will bring you to a form, created on Google Docs, where you must provide:
- Your first name and last name
- Artist website / portfolio
- Your email
- 1-minute application video with your introduction
- Link to a selection of your artworks
- Story behind the selection of artworks and reasons why should they be on SuperRare
- Confirmation of appropriate copyright
- The channel how did you hear about SuperRare
Optionally you are free to add your Instagram, Twitter or any additional websites/social links to make your application stronger.
Generally, this is quite interesting approach how to get the right artists on radar and pre-select the best one. Good art costs money. Hence, selection of the best, most trusted artists is the right way how to work transparently and trusty.
Social aspect of collecting
The main idea of SuperRare as a social platform is connection between the creator and the collector. In other words, collectors and artists should stay in touch, must have technical ability to interact and communicate about their shared passion.
As a heritage from social media and other NFT marketplaces, SuperRare shows the top collectors and who the trending artists are. It is possible to see how many pieces they’ve bought or created, and how much ETH they’ve spent or gained.
Due to smart contract, as a foundation for any blockchain art trade, you can also view history of owners as well as the art itself along with its description.
Finally, SuperRare extensively works on support of the community of creators and collectors. It is possible to join them on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Reddit. Additionally, they have over 16K of participants in the community on Discord, which is a traditional social media for blockchain-minded people.
Royalties for the Creators
To understand the nature of NFT royalties, you should know the basics. The payment of royalties is based on smart contracts. However there are technological standards of these contracts, each company creates own way how it works. And this is brilliant!
As a result, smart contracts at SuperRare not only track and identify (authenticate) seller and buyer, they have the creator on the list as well. This feature allows the original creator of the art to gain part of the resale prices. In fact, this is a digital royalty.
Then, every time an NFT art is resold, the creator gets a fee. Clear advantage of the digital royalties is transparency. Fees are associated with a specific artist as a function of smart contract code. Therefore, until blockchain exists it guarantees the creator to get an automatic royalty. This will happen even years after the digital artwork leaves artist’s possession.
In brief, royalties for the creators at SuperRare are the following:
Artist Gets | SuperRare Fee | |
First Sale | 85% | 15% |
Any New Resale | 10% | N/A |
For example, the artist have an item for primary sale for 1ETH. If it will be sold, then the artist will get 0.85ETH but SuperRare will have 0.15ETH as a fee. Later when a collector will sell a SuperRare NFT artwork for 1 ETH on any new resale as the secondary market item, he will receive only 0.90 ETH. However, the artist of the SuperRare NFT marketplace will receive the remaining 0.10 ETH as a royalty.
Finally, who are the founders of SuperRare NFT marketplace?
SuperRare was founded in 2018 by John Crain, Charles Crain, and Johnathan Perkins. They are the chief executive officer, chief technology officer and chief product officer respectively. Their office is located at Suite 401, 200 Continental Drive in Newark, Delaware in the United States.
SuperRare is fully backed by the blockchain company Pixura. All three founders have founded Pixura as well. Probably, on one day it will be great to write about Pixura as well. It is also quite interesting blockchain company with promising future and big ambitions.