Zora Marketplace

Zora Marketplace Review

Zora Marketplace has been active since 2020 and it is based on the ETH-blockchain.

Their core vision seems to be that they are empowering the creators. As an example from their old website where creators have not been given the full benefit of their work, they mentioned the resale price of certain sneakers (Yeezys in particular). These were rare, but costed "only" around USD 200 in the initial sale. However, certain buyers managed to buy up a large part of the available sneakers, then selling them for 2-3x, sometimes 10x, their own purchase price. But none of this ultimately lands in the pocket of the creators of the sneakers.

The NFT-sale structure is partly a solution to this. By empowering the creators to create their own markets, the proceeds end up where they belong. 

In order to use the Zora Marketplace, you need to connect a crypto wallet. Any Ethereum wallet is apparently compatible with the platform. 

What is an NFT Marketplace?

An NFT Marketplace is a marketplace for NFTs. So far so good. But what is an NFT?

NFT is an acronym for “Non-Fungible Tokens”. Something which is fungible is replaceable. For instance, one kilo of 24 karat gold is – at least in theory – replaceable with any other kilo of 24 karat gold. When something is non-fungible, it means that it is unique, and not replaceable with any other item out there.

Although NFTs are conceptually similar to cryptocurrencies, these digital assets might represent antiques & artworks, collectables like trading cards, and other items with unique features. These tokens are stored cryptographically in a blockchain network for authentication and validation. Even when transacting, each token is sold as a whole, unlike cryptocurrencies which are divisible into smaller units. NFTs lose their value when split into smaller portions, however, they can be duplicated by the artist and each additional copy can be sold separately (but the total number of duplicates will then always be known).

Zora Marketplace Focus

As mentioned above, Zora Marketplace focuses on empowering creators to create their own market, instead of pouring proceeds of their work into slick resellers' pockets.

Layout of Zora Marketplace

Different NFT Marketplaces present their NFTs, the latest bid and the remaining time of an auction etc. in different ways. What you are most comfortable with viewing and using is up to you and no one else. The following picture is a print screen from Zora Marketplace's browse section. The default setting seems to be that the most recently minted NFTs appear first. It is possible to use the general search field to find NFTs, but we can't seem to find any sorting or filtering tools. These will surely be added in the near future to facilitate the user's navigation among all available NFTs.

If you zone in to one of the specific NFTs, in this case the NFT called manhattan sunset created by the @jstn, the page layout is as follows. Here you can see that the creator has given prospective buyers two different options, either "Buy now" or "Place a bid". There's also a Proof of Authenticity -field through which you can view the NFT on something called IPFS, which is Zora Marketplace's file system (InterPlanetary File System). Finally, there's a brief history of the specific NFT.

Zora Marketplace Fees

When you buy an NFT somewhere, it is customary for the relevant NFT Marketplace to charge a fee for enabling the sale. This fee is typically a percentage of the NFT's sale price and is normally paid by the buyer. This can be compared with how regular art galleries normally take a share of the sale of any paintings etc. hanging in the gallery when a sale is executed.

Unfortunately, we have not been able to find what fees Zora Marketplace charges a buyer when purchasing an NFT. We have asked the marketplace about this and we will update this review with the correct information as soon as we have received it from them.

Zora Marketplace Payment Methods

A few of the NFT Marketplaces out there accept deposits and payments via credit or debit card, and some even accept PayPal-deposits.

Zora Marketplace is not one of them. In order to use this particular platform, you will need to get ETH first. You can do so on almost any of the crypto exchanges in the world, Binance being one of them.