Popular 2000s peer-to-peer file sharing service LimeWire, is set to make a comeback more than a decade after shutting down.
The platform is set to relaunch in May, not as a pirate paradise, but as an NFT marketplace for art, music and other digital collectibles.
In a press release on Wednesday, the new LimeWire said it will focus on rare items and limited edition releases, rather than attempt to be a mainstream marketplace like OpenSea.
They plan to list items in dollars, rather than ETH or other cryptocurrencies, in an attempt to be more friendly to non-savvy people.
“The issue with the NFT market is that most platforms are decentralized,” Julian Zehetmayr told CNBC. “If you look at bitcoin, all the exchanges are making it really easy to buy, trade and sell bitcoin. There’s no one really doing the same in the NFT space.”
“We’ve obviously got this great mainstream brand that everybody’s nostalgic about. We thought we needed to build a real mainstream user experience as well.”
The company also plans to release its own token (LMWR) later this year, giving holders access to exclusive content.
LimeWire was a very popular service in the 2000s, but was sued to the ground by the Recording Industry Association of America over music piracy. The service was officially shut down in 2010 after a federal judge ruled that it had caused copyright infringement on a “massive scale.”
Last year, LimeWire’s intellectual properties were acquired by Austrian brothers Julian and Paul Zehetmayr, and it is the two who want to transform it.
