This week’s guest on the Cardano NFT Column is a minting platform that is expanding into diverse facets of this technology, helping artists and developers leverage the benefits of blockchain and NFTs: NMKR.io (formerly NFT-MAKER).

Last week’s guest was the founder of the first algorithmically-generated art in the form of NFTs on Cardano.

This initiative is a point of reference for NFTs on Cardano and every week or two we will invite someone to answer some questions and give us an update directly from within the Cardano community.

Considering that many of our readers are new to the crypto space, we will have a mix of simple and technical questions.

Cardano NFT project: NMKR.IO (formerly NFT-MAKER)

Hi, glad to have you here. Please tell us something about your team, where are you from, what are your backgrounds?

Our team is spread around the world, with most of our members based in Switzerland and Germany. 

Patrick Tobler, our CEO and Founder, has been involved with several successful Cardano NFT projects launched with the support of NMKR and is an iconic thought leader within the NFT and crypto space. He has a computer science background. 

• Sascha is our Tech Lead with a background in information technology.
• Max is our Tech Lead with a background in software development.
• Fahim is our Design Lead with a background in interaction design.
• Kristian is our COO with a background in media production as a director.
• Chris is our CMO with a marketing background in Esports.
• Ann-Kristin is our CFO with a background in financial services.
• Peter is our Gaming Lead with a background in games development.

In addition, we have 15+ wonderful members from all around the world with diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Please introduce NMKR. Where did the idea come from, and what services do you provide to users?

The idea of NMKR was born out of the necessity of accessible tools for minting Cardano NFTs. The need for these tools became apparent after the rise of popular Cardano NFT projects. 

We saw the potential for NFTs to change the way people interact with digital content and we provide an easy-to-use platform called NMKR Studio that enables anyone to create, manage and mint their own Cardano NFTs with minimal technical knowledge. 

What are your thoughts on the Cardano NFT ecosystem so far, and where do you see it heading in the future?

Cardano is one of the most valuable blockchains for NFTs due to its scalability, security, and low transaction fees. Within the Cardano NFT ecosystem, we have seen the rise of incredible projects such as SpaceBudz or ADA Ninjaz, and the rebranding of NFT-MAKER to NMKR. These are just a few examples of how the Cardano community is continuing to grow and innovate.

We believe that the future of the Cardano NFT ecosystem is bright and we are excited to be a part of it.

You rebranded NFT-MAKER to NMKR. Tell us why.

NMKR (pronounced as N Maker) is a strategic rebrand of NFT-MAKER to reach new audiences with NMKR products and bring improved experiences for users in the decentralized economy. 

The transition to Web3 will require us not only to specialize in NFTs but also to provide a variety of other utility cases on blockchains for our customers. Our customers have been asking for more than just crypto-collectibles – they want real-world utility cases. The Web3 world is coming, and we’re ready to support our customers in realizing their projects.

We will continue to mint NFTs the same way we did. However, with recent technical capability advancements, we want to do more and help others realize their dreams of building blockchain products or services or integrating blockchain into their existing ones. We are on a mission to make decentralization even more usable. 

In the near future, we will tackle real-world problems with blockchain technology. We see the gaming space and beyond as an incredible opportunity for making a true contribution. 

How are you planning to accomplish that idea?

The NMKR Studio (formerly NFT-MAKER PRO) at the core of NMKR products will provide easy-to-use development APIs and no-code building blocks for modular development needs on multiple blockchains and support various Web3 use cases. Moreover, NMKR Studio will be the backbone of our ecosystem products. We are confident that this will be a successful product in sustaining other use cases because the underlying API technology of NMKR Studio has already minted over 1 million NFTs on Cardano.

Tell us more about the other projects you have lined up.

Through NMKR Games, our brand is also looking to cater to gaming audiences by focusing on gameplay first and game development powered by blockchain technology. The NMKR Store is like a marketplace that is being designed as a platform to support gaming use cases, such as Games Access for players but also for selling and trading collectibles.

NMKR is aiming at the blockchain-based gaming sector

The additional NMKR Agency will help artists and companies launch blockchain-related projects through a conglomerate of experts. We think this is the perfect way to introduce new people to Cardano and blockchain technology in general!

What are your thoughts on the Web3 gaming space and how will NMKR fit in it?

One of the things we criticize about NFTs in games is that they are mainly used for pushing hyped-up land sales or play-to-earn gaming. We don’t associate with the play-to-earn model as it doesn’t create any utility and is completely unsatisfying for most users. Instead, at NMKR, we focus on game developers who build fun-to-play games and even monetize them. 

An example are access tokens, which are NFTs that give digital rights and protect the creative vision. Therefore, every time a game gets sold off in a secondary market, the developer gets compensated or even receives royalty payments every time it’s resold. This blockchain gaming concept hasn’t existed before and we are happy to be leading it. 

Our leadership firmly believes that utilizing NFTs as access keys to web games or live gaming streams is yet another use case and could be bigger than we can imagine.

Overall, the Game Launchpad initiative aims to prove that this kind of concept can work, and with this MVP, we will welcome the community’s opinion, like why they think this could be a better alternative to centralized platforms like Steam. This will be a great learning opportunity for us and we will make any iterations wherever necessary. 

You also have your own fungible token called $NMKR. Tell us more, what is its utility and how can people get their hands on it?

$NMKR is a utility token that connects our ecosystem and grants a user the rights to vote on changes within our ecosystem. This means they can make decisions like whether or not an NFT project should be verified as being real, and even adjust reward parameters. When staked by users their trust score increases depending upon how much was committed.

The $NMKR token is an important part of this platform

We first got $NMKR listed on a centralized exchange called LCX. The $NMKR token is also available for trading and swapping on several major Cardano-based decentralized exchanges (DEXs) including SundaeSwap, Minswap, MuesliSwap, and WingRiders. The total supply of $NMKR is capped at 10 billion.

Thank you kindly for your contribution. Any closing remarks? Where can people get in touch?

Even though NMKR is looking to be blockchain agnostic, Cardano will always be a strong focus. We are building our ecosystem on Cardano because we believe in the project, the technology, and most importantly the community. We want to make sure that everything we do is in line with the Cardano ethos and helps further the adoption of the protocol.

People can get in touch with us by email or by joining our Discord group. Phil Isenmann is our support guru! He’ll answer any of your relevant queries and help you find what you’re looking for.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of the people interviewed are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cardano Foundation or IOG. Moreover, this content is for educational purposes, it doesn’t constitute financial advice.