Verse is a marketplace for the world’s best contemporary art NFTs.
We make great art more accessible to millions of collectors through our centralised platform. Collectors can buy in fiat currencies using Apple Pay, PayPal, and credit card, and also in crypto via USDC stablecoin deposits. All NFTs on the platform are held in one master custodial wallet, eliminating expensive gas fees for intra-platform transfers and the need to set up an external wallet. Users can withdraw NFTs to an external wallet at will.
Art collecting has historically been a privilege of the select few; the entry fee to own the world’s best artworks is sky high, and out of reach for most. This doesn’t just affect would-be art collectors, but also artists. Most artists want their creations to be owned and enjoyed by millions, not just the billionaires who can currently afford them.
Blockchain is changing things here, but while some artists are making the most of this incredible opportunity, most are not. They worry about tarnishing their brand by exhibiting their work alongside items that they fear won’t win the respect of the art world. Context is everything, and the existing NFT platforms cheapens traditional established artists’ work in the eyes of the institutional art world.
For non-crypto-native art NFT collectors, the experience provided by existing NFT platforms is also average. Setting up a wallet is hard and time-consuming, and even if you manage that, wading through the sea of non-artworks to find interesting things you like is painful.
We aim to right these wrongs, but also to empower artists to create in new media altogether. Whereas beforehand artistic creativity was constrained by what’s possible on canvas or as a sculpture, an artwork can now be anything, and anything can be owned. A journey can now be an artwork. A relationship, an idea. Art is changing, and a new platform is needed to present the masterpieces of tomorrow.
Leading NFT platforms such as OpenSea typically require users to connect an external wallet like Metamask, but this can present serious difficulties for less technical people who don’t have the time to learn about them and the necessary security. We want to make the experience of buying your first NFT simple and delightful by leveraging more familiar paradigms like paying with a credit card. Our platform can be used without an external wallet at all, making it easy for anyone to become a collector. This is accomplished by having a platform-owned central wallet that holds all purchased NFTs.
We believe in decentralisation and the right for people to own their assets. Even though initially purchased NFTs are held within a centralised wallet, users will able to withdraw them to an external wallet at any time. We want users to be able to get started with limited knowledge in blockchain, but progress in mastering decentralised protocols at their own pace. The goal is to empower both crypto newbies and crypto natives.