22/07/2021 Rolexes in DeFi? NFT Marketplace 4K Raises $3M to Combine NFTs and Luxury Goods

4K, a novel marketplace that issues non-fungible tokens (NFTs) paired with luxury items held in storage, has raised $3 million in a seed round of funding that was led by Electric Capital, Crosscut Ventures, Collab+Currency, ConsenSys and IDEO CoLab Ventures. 

Testing of the 4K platform also kicks off Tuesday, as the company aims to issue digital deeds to luxury items such as Rolex watches and rare sneakers. Those deeds can be used to earn yield within the burgeoning decentralized finance (DeFi) realm, the startup said.

Bringing real-world assets into DeFi is viewed as a highly lucrative addition to the world of crypto lending. DeFi refers to finance that is based on blockchain technology and that doesn’t rely on a central intermediary such as a bank.

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With 4K, customers send a physical item to be authenticated and stored in a secure storage facility. Once an item is stored, the customer receives an NFT, which has the potential earn interest, 4K CEO Richard Li says. If a customer sends the NFT to 4K, the physical item is sent to the address provided by the redeemer. 

NFTs come in three flavors, Li said – digital art, digital items from virtual reality platforms, known as “the metaverse,” and digital property rights, which is the part 4K is interested in. 

The platform is hoping to attract crypto-curious sneakerheads, watch aficionados, wine connoisseurs, trading card experts or collectors of any other investment-grade physical goods. 

“If you bring physical aspects into crypto, which is purely digital right now, that introduces an entirely new asset class and dynamic to the ecosystem,” Li said in an interview.

“We can NFT anything and bring it into the digital world,” he added. “Imagine an NFT of a real-life horse and bringing it into [digital horse racing platform] ZED RUN; or if you NFT’d a Michael Jordan rookie card and brought it into NBA Top Shot.”

By the same token, how might someone with a million-dollar Rolex collection go about getting a loan against it? “Do I go to a pawn shop?” Li said.

In terms of storing customers’ valuables, Li said 4K will be using independent auditors and high-security vaults based in the U.S. to begin with. Everything will be 100% insured, he said. 

So if a limited edition Omega Moonwatch or some Travis Scott Air Jordans have been sent to 4K to be held in storage and NFTs have been sent to the owner’s wallet, where can the customer then go to use that collateral?

It’s a little early for Uniswap, Li said, pointing to next-generation NFT platforms like NFTX, NFTfi and Taker. Uniswap is an exchange where customers can trade digital tokens.

“It’s going to be very interesting when you start getting yield on your digital NFTs and physical items. It will happen,” Li said.

Arts

https://www.coindesk.com/rolexes-in-defi-nft-marketplace-4k-raises-3m-to-combine-nfts-and-luxury-goods

Interesting NFTs
Brave Samurai
This is the second collaborative piece that I have created with the very talented Dutch artist, @eattheart23. Here, a samurai warrior stands guard, honour bound to protect his master even to the death.
#90241
By OthersideDeployer
The Moth Catcher
In this psychologically bed-headed portrait, a creature sets in a trance; his eyes devolved and vestigal, his third eye open but hardened and in a form resembling a Sharingan. The imagery therefore expresses an awareness existing in corporeal introspection. The creature’s mind sprouts, on the left side, an emerging face, grinning. To the right side of the head, red tentacles and fingers intertwine–a collaboration of invertebrate and vertebrate consciousness cooperatively handling paint brushes of the sort used to build an oil painting. The neck and throat bristle with random thorns, as from a rose or the upper portions of a beak sprouting from its flesh. The neck itself disassociates into layers of membranous material, terminating upon an abstracted base of convoluted forms composing its body. The nose is virtually non existent, more a sinus reiterative of the shape of the third eye. Set against the exposed teeth peering out of thick, meaty cheeks, a skeleton-like impression results. That impression sets behind a visceral set of lips and tongue, which is the creature’s prime seat of awareness. Sensual, organic, the tongue organ hangs, meaty, and with consciousness of a sea cucumber. It illuminates at the tip, drawing the attraction of a nearby moth–with mystery of purpose.
Really Remote Working Part 1
Created during the lockdown period whilst being confined to the same place every day, this piece is part of a series of imaginary places that I dreamed of being able to work from.
Genesis
José Delbo sent me his striking pencil sketch and powerful inked work, which I then interpreted in oil on canvas. I wanted to create a very painterly piece with obvious brush marks etc, but I was also aiming for a nostalgic feel, a kind of 1980’s superhero comic book look, the kind I grew up with. My goal with this animation was to try to recreate, in part, the creative process that both artists went through with the visual information I had. I was able to showcase my painting process more accurately as I could take photographs of my progress throughout. Consecutive images could then be layered like brush strokes over José’s drawing to create the impression that this was one continuous artwork from pencil, to ink, to completed painting. The representation of the line sketch at the beginning, then pencil/ink and lastly the paint layers being applied demonstrate both artists’ struggle for the right lines, tone, form, and colour until the work is finally completed. As the oil was still wet with each photograph the glare of my studio lights can be seen in the brush strokes. Eventually, the figure emerges and as it does, our hero comes to life, looking directly at the viewer -- but is he grimacing in approval or disgust? We will never know for sure as just before he can say anything, white paint is brushed across the canvas entirely and the process begins again. Only the bat is quick enough to escape.