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Loopring (LRC), a decentralized exchange (DEX), is catching a fresh bout of interest today as its much-vaunted partnership with GameStop’s (NYSE:GME) upcoming NFT marketplace is now official.
The future of #NFTs are here + they're powered by #Ethereum's second layer💙
Loopring L2 x @GameStop
Power to the players.
Power to the creators
Power to the collectors.#L222🌀https://t.co/0gdvKLivfp— Loopring💙🏴☠️ (@loopringorg) March 23, 2022
To wit, Loopring’s official Twitter account has now posted the following message via a linked blog post:
“We’re thrilled to announce that the long-awaited GameStop NFT Marketplace (beta) is now LIVE, with the full NFT Marketplace coming shortly, built atop none other than Loopring L2!”
GameStop is now expected to offer its own confirmation of this seminal development via a Form 8-K filing with the SEC. Earlier today, Twitter users began posting screenshots showing that the ability to link Loopring wallets with GameStop’s NFT marketplace has now been activated.
Wallet connected! 🏴☠️ ⏻ #GME #GMEforever pic.twitter.com/YvpubEB1aE
— 🏴☠️ CAP’N ⏻ SVΞN 🏴☠️ (@Cousin_Sven) March 23, 2022
And, Loopring coin’s price is responding appropriately, having soared over 40 percent at the time of writing:
Why Does Loopring’s Partnership with GameStop Matter?
For the uninitiated, Rollups are a Layer 2 (L2) solution that aggregates and processes transactions outside of Ethereum’s main blockchain. These processed transactions are then bundled and posted on the main chain, thereby sidestepping Ethereum’s notoriously difficult scalability problem and the associated prohibitive transaction processing fees (gas fees).
Loopring uses a new type of Rollup, dubbed the zkRollup (zero-knowledge Rollups). A zero-knowledge proof makes a claim regarding the accuracy of a particular data set without actually sharing that data. This is essentially done by generating proofs based on cryptographic computations for each batch of transactions. Since zkRollups do not require a challenge period, as the validity proofs have already verified the legitimacy of the underlying transaction data, transactions can be processed very quickly. In fact, Loopring claims that it can process over 2,000 trades per second.
Users can mint NFTs on Loopring L2 for under $1. In fact, over 1 million NFTs have already been minted on the Loopring platform. However, there are other solutions that allow users to mint NFTs virtually for free. For instance, Validium L2 allows very cheap minting of NFTs but stores data off-chain. This creates a tradeoff between transaction efficiency and security. Loopring has tried to adopt a much more balanced approach to this dilemma. Minting NFTs on Loopring L2 is certainly a lot cheaper than on Ethereum L1. However, it is still expensive when compared with some of the other NFT-focused platforms. To counterbalance this downside, Loopring offers an almost unmatched degree of decentralization and security, allowing full recovery of funds via designated “guardians”.
Loopring now joins Immutable X as an official partner of GameStop on its NFT-related initiative. As a refresher, Immutable X became an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) partner for GameStop’s NFT platform back in early February, enabling “zero gas fees for trading and minting NFTs in a carbon-neutral environment”.
We had noted at the time that the requisite Form 8-K filing from GameStop contained crucial links to Loopring. That speculation has now panned out.
With GameStop’s NFT marketplace expected to attract millions of transactions per day in the not-too-distant future, Loopring benefits from the attendant exposure as well as increased demand for its L2 wallets.
