Learn About LooksRare, Community Driven NFT Marketplace

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9 Jan 2024

At the peak of NFT popularity in 2021 and 2022, various NFT platforms such as OpenSea, NiftyGateway, Rarible and others have become very well known. Then, in early 2022, a new NFT platform emerged called LooksRare. Since its launch, LooksRare has managed to achieve trading volumes that surpass OpenSea, reaching 2.9 billion US dollars! What makes LooksRare able to compete with OpenSea? In this article, we will take a deeper look at what LooksRare is and explore the exciting features of this platform.

Article Summary

👀 LooksRare is a community-based NFT platform operating on the Ethereum blockchain . This platform was founded by two anonymous co-founders with the nicknames Zodd and Guts in January 2022.
🪂 After its launch, LooksRare achieved significant weekly trading volume, almost three times that of OpenSea. This is partly due to the LOOKS token airdrop .
🪙 LOOKS is the LooksRare platform token and is an ERC-20 standard token designed to encourage ecosystem participation.
💎 LooksRare has various features such as Bulk Buy, Gems, Staking , YOLO, and Community Raffles to increase user engagement.

What is LooksRare?

What is LooksRare? LooksRare is a community-based NFT marketplace founded on the Ethereum blockchain . LooksRare actively provides trading rewards to traders , collectors and creators to encourage participation on the platform. However, as of September 2023 , trading rewards have been discontinued and replaced with a different reward approach.

With the motto "by NFT people, for NFT people", LooksRare distributes 100% of trading fees ( trading fees ) as rewards to LOOKS token creators and stakers.

Following its launch in January 2022, weekly trading volume on the platform continued to increase, reaching around 2.9 billion US dollars, almost triple OpenSea's volume for the same time period.

Source: Token Insight

One of the factors for the increase in trading volume is the airdrop of LOOKS tokens, the LooksRare platform token. Users can claim LOOKS tokens for free if they make NFT transactions on OpenSea worth 3 ETH during the previous six months and list the NFT on LooksRare.

LooksRare charges a 2% fee for NFT trading. This fee is cheaper compared to OpenSea which charges 2.5%. However, in April 2023, the platform launched LooksRare V2 which cut NFT trading fees from 2% to 0.5%.

Who is the Founder of LooksRare NFT Marketplace?

LooksRare was launched by two anonymous co-founders with the nicknames Zodd and Guts in January 2022. They plan to compete with OpenSea with additional uses through the LOOKS token as a user incentive.

To gain users and high trading volume, LooksRare copied SushiSwap's approach of launching a “ vampire attack ” on Uniswap. The difference is, LooksRare distributes free tokens to drain liquidity from its competitor, OpenSea.

How to Use LooksRare?

You can visit the LooksRare website at https://looksrare.org/ . Then, to buy and sell NFTs, you need to connect your crypto wallet first. A popular crypto wallet is MetaMask . However, you can also use various other crypto wallets using WalletConnect.

In general, LooksRare looks similar to other NFT marketplaces and is easy to use . To buy an NFT, you can search for the collection in the search field then click 'buy' or make an offer.

The same as selling NFTs on LooksRare, you can click "Sell" on the homepage , then select the NFT you want to sell. After that, you can set the price and duration of the offer.

However, in the NFT minting process , LooksRare is different from most other NFT marketplaces . This platform relies on Manifold as a tool for the NFT minting process . Manifold is a platform for creating and mining NFTs . To mint NFTs, you can start by clicking the 'Create Collection' option on your profile, then you will be directed to the Manifold site. Then, follow the provided guide.

Features on LooksRare

source: LooksRare

Bulk Buy : A feature that allows users to purchase more than 70 NFTs in one transaction.
Fixed price listing : You can set the NFT price in USD so the price doesn't have to be in ETH.
Gems : Feature in LooksRare to get prizes. You will receive rewards by registering items from eligible collections and completing certain tasks each season. At the end of each season (usually a month), Gems can be exchanged for LOOKS.
Staking : There are two types of staking on LooksRare, namely Standard Method (rewards in the form of LOOKS and WETH) and LOOKS Compounder (WETH rewards are automatically converted into LOOKS). To start staking on LooksRare, you can visit the official site here.
YOLO : A game that involves combining NFTs, ETH, and LOOKS added by players in each round. At the end of the round, a single winner is determined randomly. The greater your contribution, the greater your chances of winning.
Community Raffles: A lottery system to win NFTs where you have complete control. You can determine the rules, prizes, and winners. More information can be read here.

Advantages of LooksRare

Low Fees: LooksRare charges a platform fee of 0.5%. This is cheaper than OpenSea which charges a 2.5% platform fee .
Platform Rewards: Users can earn LOOKS tokens through staking , trading, and NFT listing .
Option to Bid on the Entire Collection: This approach is beneficial for large investors.
Rewards Features : LooksRare has several features that offer additional rewards to users such as YOLO, Community Raffles, and Gems.

Disadvantages of LooksRare

One Blockchain: LooksRare only operates on the Ethereum blockchain which could potentially result in higher gas fees compared to platforms that support multiple blockchains . However, with LooksRare V2, gas fees can be reduced by up to 30% compared to V1.
Founder Anonymity: The identity of LooksRare's founder is not disclosed.
Doesn't Support NFT Minting: There is no NFT minting feature on LooksRare, so it requires a third party like Manifold. The lack of support for NFT minting may be hindering NFT artists and creators.
“Wash Trading” Issues: There are risks regarding asset price manipulation on LooksRare that could encourage fraudulent activity. The practice of “ wash trading ” may result in the value and popularity of NFTs on the platform being overestimated.

Update LooksRare V2

source: LooksRare

In April 2023, LooksRare has updated to LooksRare V2. In this update , there are several important updates including the following:

LooksRare's focus will be more on on-chain gaming in the future.
Cutting platform fees. LooksRare's platform fee is now 0.5%, down from 2%.
No more Trading Rewards. Instead, the reward will be added to the LooksRare Treasury.
Changes to tokenomics.
Of particular interest is the LOOKS token buyback , where 50% of the platform fees will be allocated to buying LOOKS on the crypto market . The remaining 10% is for LooksRare Protocol Rewards and 40% is put into treasury.

LOOKS Token

LooksRare has a platform token called LOOKS and it is an ERC-20 standard token. LOOKS tokens can only be used on the LooksRare platform. LOOKS is designed to encourage ecosystem participation, so users must participate to enjoy rewards in the form of LOOKS and other digital assets.

LOOKS has a maximum supply of 1 billion LOOKS tokens. As of October 27, 2023, there are already 948,380,305 LOOKS or 94.84% of tokens circulating on the market. Based on Coinmarketcap's market cap , LOOKS is in 308th place with a market cap of almost 69 million US dollars.

Currently, (27 October 2023) the LOOKS price is at the level of 0.072 US dollars with a daily trading volume of almost 5 million US dollars.

Conclusion

LooksRare, as one of the new generation NFT platforms, created a huge stir when it launched in early 2022. In fact, LooksRare's trading volume can rival OpenSea. However, this initial success appears to have been driven by trading incentives. Unfortunately, the products and services they offer fall short of maintaining the same level of user engagement that OpenSea has.

Even though LooksRare released a new version, LooksRare V2, LooksRare's market growth does not appear to have shown a significant increase. This is of course influenced by several factors such as the global condition of the cryptocurrency market.