Social media personality and YouTuber Logan Paul has announced a new venture, developing a blockchain-based marketplace with a unique twist. The new company has raised $8 million in funding and is already drawing curiosity and skepticism, with an interesting plan to democratize the ownership of rare and collectible items for everyday people.Paul’s career as a YouTuber and social media personality kicked off in the mid-2010s on YouTube and Vine. He has since appeared in film and on television, including in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and YouTube’s film series The Thinning. He also made a debut on WWE SmackDown in 2021, and in recent times has been pursuing a career in boxing. However, Paul’s career has been marred with controversy, including the infamous suicide forest controversy in 2017 which led to widespread backlash.Paul’s new company, Liquid Marketplace, was announced on Twitter just this week. Paul claims the company aims to “fractionalize expensive assets,” allowing anyone to co-own a chosen valuable or collectible. Users can buy tokens, held on the Ethereum blockchain, which represents a stake in the physical item. The goods themselves are stored by Liquid Marketplace in a physical vault. The company also takes responsibility in authenticating and appraising the items, according to their website.
Paul’s interest in collectibles was highly publicized last year, when an investment in first edition Pokemon cards went awry. The cards, which were purchased for $3.5 million, were unboxed in the presence of employees from the Baseball Card Exchange (who had previously verified the items.) It then turned out that the cards were fake, leaving Paul with a massive loss. However, Paul has since acquired genuine Pokemon cards, including what is described as the rarest Pokemon card in the world which sold for $5 million.
The concept of tokenizing physical goods and storing them in a vault is bound to gauge some interest from blockchain enthusiasts. The marketplace appears to resemble the style of NFT marketplaces, though tying tokens to tangible goods arguably adds extra legitimacy to the value. However, some commentators argue that tokenizing physical items will lead to ownership disputes. Liquid Marketplace claims that the tokens amount to genuine co-ownership and not shares, but how this works in practice is a different matter.
In a philosophical sense, if thousands of people claim a stake of ownership in an item, but they have no meaningful access to it nor control of it, then one doesn't own that item in a meaningful sense. This seems to be a big issue, contradicting the motivations of "real life" collectors. However, people who are already excited by NFT marketplaces might find this an alluring concept.
Source: Kotaku