Blur founder Pacman puts the NFT market war into perspective

In this episode Hashing It OutPacman, founder and main contributor to non-fungible token (NFT) market Blur, joins Elisha Owusu Akyawa to discuss how Blur caught the attention of the NFT market.

The tides in the NFT ecosystem changed in December 2022, when the newly launched NFT Market overtook OpenSea as the largest NFT trading platform by trading volume. Pacman describes this as a similar situation to the development of the general token market.

He explains that Blur has created a marketplace that puts professional traders first, a niche not covered by popular platforms that favor a simple user experience to attract newcomers. According to Pacman, this focus makes Blur a platform for the “highest growing segment” in NFT.

Riding the wave of newfound popularity, the NFT market launches a token distributed to the community via airdrop. Pacman claims that the token was required to give the community direct access and ownership of the platform.

“That’s one of the things that really excited us as developers in Web3, because in Web2 there’s a clear demarcation platform and end user, and they’re usually somewhat against it. End users don’t really have any control over the platform.”

Another hot topic in the NFT space is the issue of royalties. This has led to a split approach by the major NFT platforms to ensure creators receive royalties. The two main platforms, OpenSea and Blur, have adopted systems that place new collections in a position where it is necessary to download one over the other. According to Pacman, Blur is asking creators to block OpenSea to collect royalties as a short-term solution that will lead to a more unified approach in the future.

Related: StoryCo co-founders explain how community storytelling can impact franchise IP