Trading platforms dedicated for crypto collectibles, mainly erc721 tokens, are nothing new by now.
Crypto collectibles have been gaining traction ever since they were first created on the Counterparty layer released in January 2014, where collectibles were minted with a known and limited amount and proven ownership. Those tokens, Rare Pepes, were the first of these to come to market. Since then, the vast majority of collectibles were created on Ethereum, mainly due to their ability to be traded through smart contracts, and their ability to take on unique features. In the case of crypto kitties, this was to “have kids” by combining to different kitties to create new ones. MLB (Major League Baseball) recently went into partnership with blockchain game development company Lucid Sight, which is very exciting for space, because it indicates a trend towards adoption in real-life use cases, and because of baseball cards
Based on the prospects for further growth in this market, several trading platforms for these collectibles have gone into development and funding; here is a brief overview of some of these platforms.
Codex Protocol
Returning to the original use of blockchain as a ledger, Codex is a decentralized asset registry. With a native token used to verify and modify the stored data. The app is already live on platforms such as live auctioneers, mainly in the field of instant crypto payment integration into the site. According to the joint press release, the core abilities are slated for later release. The focus here is on the exiting 6B dollar industry of luxury items, with added emphasis on crypto collectibles.
Portion.io
Predicting that crypto collectibles will morph into a sector of the art market, portion.io intends to provide a full spectrum of services complementing both collectors and artists. For artists, that means increased visibility and exposure. While collectors enjoy a decentralized marketplace for their items, blockchain certificates that provide proof of ownership preventing legal issues, and a range of financial services. These services include loans backed by collectibles, as well as a proof of funds mechanism, in order to solve one of the problems faced by auction houses, nonperforming buyers. The Portion platform token - PORTI, imparts revenue sharing to the holder, based off commissions and fees charged by the platform, as well as the ability to pay platform fees using the token. The roadmap states that real art will also be introduced into the platform in 2019, a beta version for the trading platform itself is in place.
ECOMI
With Alfred Khan as head of content licencing, ECOMI focuses on brand name crypto collectibles for their marketplace,as well as branching out to a branded card-shaped hardware wallet as part of the offering. Apart from the proposed crypto collectible marketplace, other fixtures relate to the items themselves, such as gamification and AR powered by the smartphone. Despite showcasing a star manager from the content licensing industry, responsible for the collectible merchandise for the likes of Yugi-hu, TMNT, and Pokemon, ECOMI seems to have primarily missed its roadmap targets for of the second half of 2018.
