Blur co-founder Pacman, who recently revealed that he is 24-year-old Tieshun Roquerre, talked about the creative copyright dilemma. Blur charges zero platform fees and creates long-term value for traders.
Fix your seat for blur
It has been just over four months since Blur was launched as a free, Non-Fungible Token (NFT) marketplace aimed at ‘professional’ NFT traders. Its no-frills user interface and advanced features such as ‘floor sweeping’ across multiple markets, fast ‘exactly reveal’ and portfolio analytics tools have quickly made it a favorite among fast-paced traders looking to get the best deal and maximize profits.
Blur’s popularity increased last month with the launch of the native BLUR token, which is continuously distributed to its users via aidrop in the form of maintenance packages for several months as a reward for trading activity. The token allows its holders to participate in the platform’s governance protocol and profit from the community-owned market.
Various data aggregators and user-generated dashboards show that Blur has outpaced OpenSea, the top NFT market in terms of trading volume, in recent weeks. According to DappRadar’s February Industry Report, Blur accounted for 64.8% ($1.32 billion) of NFT market share last month, with trading activity ‘largely driven by platform-farming NFT whales. And while OpenSea remains the leader in daily user numbers, Blur’s rapid rise has scared OpenSea enough to change its creative royalties and platform fees to stay competitive, according to the data.
Crystal clear vision of the blur sphere
Blur co-founder Pacman, who revealed last week that he is 24-year-old developer and investor Tieshun Roquerre, says OpenSea’s shortcomings were what initially motivated him to create a platform for more advanced NFT traders.
Pacman set out to develop a platform for NFTs, which he likened to Binance, aimed at courting more advanced NFT traders. He also cites decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap and Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao as inspiration for Blur’s tokenomics and growth strategy. The platform raised $11 million in startup funding led by Web3 investment giant Paradigm in March 2022, which helped lay the foundations for its ambitious roadmap. It also plans to increase decentralization while taking the NFT space to the enterprise level.
MIT and Y Combinator alumni, along with her pseudonymous co-founder Galaga, assembled a team of 10 builders from the fintech and commerce worlds to bring the vision to life. Pacman says his initial choice to use a pseudonym gave him the opportunity to pull back the veil on Blur’s mysterious inner workings at any point.
The copyright controversy grows
Part of Blur’s quick successor has been its ability to capitalize on the wishes of professional traders. Blur has become a highly liquid, fast-paced trading platform, charging no commissions and allowing its users to reimburse discretionary royalties to creators. While this model appealed to a more experienced audience, it also plagued many developers, creators, and collectors who believed the NFT market was slowly turning agencies and profits away from artists.
Roquerre has expressed mixed feelings about creator copyrights, emphasizing their importance, and also lamenting the changing NFT landscape in response to the prolonged crypto winter. He notes that market attitudes towards enforcing creative royalties began to shift in the summer, as many marketplaces, including Sudoswap, began removing royalties to trigger remaining trading volumes. Soon, even the most common platforms like Magic Eden and LookRare started making royalties optional, creating an environment where fees had to be lowered so that marketplaces could stay competitive.
Roquerre states that Blur encourages traders to honor creative royalties by offering more BLUR token rewards to traders who list NFTs with full royalties during the second token airdrop. “It didn’t work perfectly, but it did have an impact on copyright enforcement,” says Roquerre.
Ultimately, Blur was locked in a battle for weeks with its best rival, OpenSea. OpenSea has taken a firm position in honoring creative copyrights. However, it recently changed its policy as Blur began to dominate the NFT market share.
Blur plans a community-driven future
Although Blur does not charge any platform fees, its success has surprised some analysts, who argue that Blur collects user data. The assumption is based on Blur’s privacy policy, which states that it collects information such as browsing history, email addresses, and work history that can be used to create a consumer profile. Roquerre denies that the platform collects user data and says its privacy policy is ‘pretty standard’. He adds that all of the data he collects is visible to everyone on the Blockchain. Still, it promises to update its privacy policy to make its purpose clear to users.
He also explains that his relationship with Paradigm dates back to 2018 when they invested in one of their previous projects, Namebase. Paradigm is also an investor in Uniswap, where Blur seeks inspiration when creating its protocol and tokenomics.
As you follow on Kriptokoin.com, Blur took a more decentralized approach to expanding its platform in February, allowing BLUR token holders to participate in the management of the platform and control the value accrual and distribution of the protocol. The Blur Foundation was also established to support the growth of the community. Ultimately, Roquerre says the future of the platform will be heavily influenced by its community, which has access to a treasury that holds 39% of the total BLUR token supply.
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