NFTs & the journey so far

The NFT(non-fungible token) frontier has witnessed massive adoption since the auction sale of Beeple’s collage, Everyday at a record-setting $69 million back in March 2021. As the news filtered in, the pioneering blockchain platform for this asset class, Ethereum has emerged as the hub of NFT projects enabling minting, auctioning, trading, collateralizing and aggregating marketplaces.

NFTs have since found applications in several industries such as commodity trading, sports, music, gaming, collectables and many more. In the Persistence ecosystem, its flagship DApp Comdex: a high seas commodity trading and financing platform built on PersistenceSDK, has been facilitating the interchain exchange of NFTs representing physical commodities against RFTs (Refunged NFTs) representing real-world fiat deposits, making it the first non-standard inter-blockchain communication (IBC) transaction back in April 2020.

Other blockchain platforms like Solana, Algorand, NEAR, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), etc have caught on to the trend and are currently bootstrapping various collections of NFTs in the form of art, audio, video, meme and even in-game objects. Internet of blockchains, Cosmos is also riding on that wave of adoption, marking its debut in the NFT ecosystem.

Interoperable protocol for next-gen financial products, Persistence is leading Inter-chain NFT adoption within the Cosmos ecosystem through assetMantle – a framework for NFT marketplaces. Although in its beta phase, assetMantle has become the first decentralised NFT marketplace to launch in Cosmos interchain ecosystem, providing a plug-and-play interface to easily launch NFT stores with.

Introducing assetMantle

Seeking to disrupt the limiting infrastructure for NFT trading platforms and barriers in interoperability of assets issued on different marketplaces- a major factor impeding the mass adoption of NFTs, assetMantle has positioned itself as a pivot for NFT marketplaces, providing elements and tools for the creation of individual marketplaces that are interoperable. AssetMantle also green-lights NFT interoperability across chains, enabling the creation (minting) and transfer of NFTs (such as digital art, collectables, identities, commodities, real-world assets, etc) across various blockchains through IBC, a protocol that enables blockchain interoperability.

AssetMantle is part of Persistence’s interNFT initiative- one that it kicked off after receiving a grant from the Interchain Foundation to develop Interchain Standards for NFTs and Metadata. The NFT modules on the Persistence SDK follow the InterNFT standard, enabling features like the split of NFT metadata and mutation logic from ownership token and transfer logic, singular representation of NFTs across the interchain universe, unified wallet for NFTs issued across marketplaces and interchain connected blockchains, customisable metadata structure, identification and resolution through DIDs and commoditization.

AssetMantle’s main selling point is the opportunity it provides to artists and creators to set up dedicated marketplaces or storefronts for a specific category of NFTs- think a fully decentralised Shopify of NFTs. Rather than listing their creations on a general marketplace like OpenSea, creators can create personal marketplaces within the marketplace to mint and launch specialised NFT assets, compliant with the interNFT standard, enabling them to be transferred across different chains independent of wallets and app implementation making it a truly interoperable NFT.

What problem is assetMantle solving?

The growth of the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) ecosystem has been massive since the first quarter. However, mainstream adoption of the innovation has been marred by a retinue of problems, including high minting and transfer costs (a major entry barrier for retail NFT collectors), non-interoperability and limited on-chain and customizable metadata support. Persistence has identified all these challenges and is looking to pilot assetMantle blockchain application as a sovereign solution.

How is assetMantle solving problems within the NFT ecosystem?

• Multiple Independent NFT Modules

AssetMantle marketplace features several independent modules for NFT assets such as minting, mutation and burn logic tool-stack on one hand and a wallet for asset storage and ownership transfer on the other hand. Each of these modules operates independently and can be deployed on different blockchains.

• Singular Representation/Instantiation

NFTs belonging to a specific marketplace within assetMantle are represented/instantiated by the same, immutable hash across several chains.

• Cross-chain Interoperability

AssetMantle is being bootstrapped on the Cosmos interchain ecosystem, with the marketplace featuring interoperability functionalities that will enable artists and creators to mint on Cosmos and transfer their assets for trading on other IBC connected chains. This functionality will fill the gap of multi-chain composability in the NFT ecosystem.

• Low Minting and Transfer Costs

Despite pioneering the current NFT momentum, Ethereum is slowly losing its appeal as the preferred network for this asset class due to high gas costs across transactions like minting, burning and asset transfers. AssetMantle makes a significant shift to the Tendermint Core consensus engine which uses the exponentially more efficient dPOS consensus mechanism instead of Ethereum’s POW. This significantly lowers the transaction costs eliminating the entry barriers, making the marketplace a level playground for creators and collectors.

• Green Energy and PoS Infrastructure

The assetMantle chain adopts the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus for the validation of transactions, meaning that it consumes significantly less energy to process transactions, unlike the PoW consensus algorithm. Creators on assetMantle mint ‘greener’ NFTs in comparison to NFTs on Ethereum and other PoW chains.

• Friendly UI/UX

AssetMantle boasts of a user-friendly interface, such that artists and creators can easily set up and customise their storefronts. Collectors will also be easily able to locate collections of their favourite creators from across chains. AssetMantle web application also enables Web2.0 integration, doing away with the complexities of Web3.0 providing a smooth on-ramp for newer NFT consumers and producers.

• Support for Multiple Asset types

Users can mint and trade a wide range of supported assets, including images, audio, video, AR/VR, 3D, etc.

• Native Token

AssetMantle will roll out a native token for the marketplace to pivot the activities within it. The token will also empower users with voting rights to take part in decisions or updates that affect the marketplace. More details on the Tokenomics, utility, governance are to be rolled out soon.

• Inter-chain NFTs with Native Implementation

AssetMantle is aimed at encouraging the adoption of cross-chain NFTs with native implementation since the NFT module is implemented at the native application logic level and not at the smart contract level. Leveraging the chain’s native interoperability protocol, artists and creators can easily transfer NFTs between chains rather than using permissioned smart contract bridges.

Conclusion

AssetMantle enables support for interesting NFT experience for artists and collectors like: ledger hardware wallet support and easy plug-and-play mechanisms to create their own stores, native implementation and interoperability, secured minting, mutation and burn execution and interoperability with private chains, commoditisation and many more. With these benefits, AssetMantle picks up the game-changing mantle for NFT assets and marketplaces.

About AssetMantle
AssetMantle is a multi-tenant NFT marketplace framework that enables creators and collectors to securely mint, own, and trade digital assets on its fast-finality blockchain. The AssetMantle no-code toolset allows creators to create customized assets and marketplaces permissionless-ly . Likewise, collectors can own the assets minted across these marketplaces and compatible chains in a singular wallet with minimal gas and a lower carbon footprint. Built on the interNFT standard, AssetMantle implements an end-to-end stack of open-source modular tools that developers can modify to fit advanced use cases. 

contribute to interchain NFT standards; currently being spearheaded by us & the interchain foundation: https://github.com/interNFT/nft-rfc/tree/main

Vision
Build an open-source, community-driven framework for inter-chain NFTs and metadata standardization by contributing to the ‘interNFT standard’. 

Mission
Provide a platform that enables a diverse set of NFTs use cases that extend beyond arts and collectibles and can potentially change the representation of rights and ownership of real-world assets like real estate and other commodities. 

AssetMantle is always on the lookout to connect with individuals or organizations who wish to take advantage of the opportunities present in the blockchain space and want to learn more about AssetMantle. If you wish to get in touch, please do not hesitate to reach out.
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