The Co-founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, Tyler Winklevoss, announced in a Medium post that Gemini has expanded into ‘Non-Fungible Tokens’ after purchasing Nifty Gateway. In a post made on Medium by Winklevoss, he shares details about the company’s first acquisition.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT), which some refer to as ‘nifty’ or ‘nifties,’ are digital assets that are stored on a global blockchain unlike digital assets that are secured on centralized or local databases. Winklevoss described “nifties” as cryptographic tokens that follow ERC-721 standard, a class of unique tokens. According to the classification of ERC-721, They have a minimum interface and the digital tokens can only be managed or traded when a smart contract is implemented.
In the post, Winklevoss describes Gemini’s mission to build bridges in the emerging digital economy, calling cryptocurrency the future of money. He states that this motivated the company to purchase the popular non-fungible token management platform, Nifty Gateway.
Winklevoss explains NFTs in the post for readers by drawing comparisons with fungible digital currencies like Bitcoin(BTC)trade, and that unlike them, each nifty is unique and cannot be interchanged. According to Winklevoss, this makes nifties “perfect digital” form factors for crypto-collectibles and other miscellaneous purposes such as crypto-art, a combination of storage of Bitcoin with an artistic take.
Why Nifties?
The Medium post further elaborates why Gemini chose nifties by discussing that although there are many real-world collectibles for people, giving examples of baseball cards, Tamagotchi pets and others, there are also examples of emerging digital collectibles within platforms of popular online games such as Overwatch, Fortnite, and World of Warcraft. These platforms tend to generate large capitals with their features where players can buy and exchange skins, special moves and other game-related items.
Winklevoss talks about how he believes that soon real-world collectibles and the newer digital collectibles will eventually merge and be stored on single blockchains in the form of nifties. He further elaborates to readers why the company chose Nifty Gateway in particular: as stated in the post, Nifty Gateway is a reliable and easy platform to purchase nifties with traditional payment method of debit or credit card.
For context, Winklevoss talks about the founders of Nifty Gateway, Duncan Foster and Griffin Foster, the twin brothers who created the platform facilitating nifty sales for crypto application and games. Coincidentally or not, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are also twins who started several business ventures together, including of course the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.
He concludes the post by saying that their passion for nifties and cryptocurrency made them compatible to fit with the Gemini family and that they can leverage Gemini’s brand.
