Two entrepreneurs, Paul and Julian Zehetmayr, have decided to resurrect the LimeWire site, according to Decrypt. Next May, the two brothers want to relaunch the service in the form of an NFT purchasing platform: users will be able to buy and/or sell musical works and collectibles created by artists.
LimeWire, one of the most used peer-to-peer software in the 2000s
LimeWire was peer-to-peer (P2P) software where users could download various content (music, videos, movies, images, video games, etc.). It worked through a decentralized network system to avoid overloading the servers, each user who uploaded a file then shared it to the community. P2P has long been used by the general public to illegally download content that is not freely available.
In a cookie-free world, trust is key to the customer experience
Yet P2P sharing is legal in some cases. If the transferred files are open access data such as public domain videos or open source software or if companies wish to share a large volume of data without overloading their servers, there are no restrictions.
LimeWire has mainly built its notoriety through the illegal downloading of songs. In 2006, the company was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) which defends the interests of copyright in the world of music in the United States. After several fines, the P2P software shut down in October 2010. It was subject to a legal injunction from the RIAA.
This is what LimeWire’s homepage looked like just before it closed in 2010. Screenshot: Idcr99 / Flickr.
Towards a return of LimeWire as an NFT platform
Two investors specializing in the creation of software have set themselves the objective of giving a second life to LimeWire. To achieve this, the download platform is adapting to the innovations of 2022 to turn into a service for purchasing NFTs, the famous non-fungible tokens.
Users will be able to acquire or sell works or objects related to music (exclusive recordings, sample bank, demos, etc.) the majority of whose income will go to the creators. According to the two co-founders, creators will retain complete control over their creation, as the new version of LimeWire “ is a platform designed for artists, not against them “.
In recent years, many companies have become interested in NFTs to the point of opening their own purchasing platform. This is the case of the Chinese giant Alibaba, social networks like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, or even video game publishers like Electronics Arts (EA).
At this time, we do not know which blockchain will be used by the platform in order to operate. However, transactions will be made in dollars and LimeWire will be equipped with its own crypto wallet.