AMA Recap — ZKSpace CIO Explains Value of James Rodríguez Zurda NFT Collection
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Recently, ZKSpace CIO Isaac Lee has been invited to participate in a series of live broadcasts held by Huobi NFT, Longkui Community, Mintverse, etc. to introduce the Zurda NFT Collection of James Rodríguez. We are so excited to see everyone’s enthusiasm towards the collection! Below is a summary of frequently asked questions and answers to help you learn more about ZKSpace, the value of the Zurda NFT Collection, and the sport NFT trends.
Part I Introduction
Q1: Hi, Mr. Lee. We are so pleased to have you here today, sharing your ideas on NFTs, layer2, and most importantly, the details of the 1,500 James Rodríguez Zurda NFT Collection. As the ZKSpace Chief Information Officer (CIO), can you give us a brief introduction to yourself and the ZKSpace team?
A1: Thank you. Yes, of course. I’ve been studying and working in the blockchain industry for several years. Like many, I started with Bitcoin and grew interested in zero-knowledge proof and layer2 when Ethereum congestion became a real and serious issue. Then I joined the ZKSpace team. Together with a bunch of developers and other professionals eager to solve the scalability problem and revolutionize the industry, we built the zk-rollups-based AMM DEX ZKSwap in early 2021, which evolved to a full-featured layer 2 protocol called ZKSpace after a massive rebranding campaign in December last year, just a week before the Christmas.
As of now, ZKSpace consists of three major products — AMM DEX ZKSwap, payment service ZKSquare, and an NFT minting center and marketplace called ZKSea. It features an all-new-look user interface and supports low-cost NFT minting, Eco Deposit, and Fast Withdraw with optimized efficiency. We aim to implement EVM-compatible ZK-Rollups and bring the community more layer 2-based products in the future.
Q2: It’s only been around 100 days since you celebrated the one-year anniversary of ZKSpace, and surprisingly, you’ve made such progress. As you are launching the James Rodríguez NFTs, can you tell us more about your partnership with this Columbian football legend?
A2: You are right, and we are continuing our innovative work at ZKSpace and seeking to introduce some exciting features this month and in early Q3, but we can discuss these later. Back to our strategic partnership with James Rodríguez, who is one of the greatest Colombian offensive midfielders of all time.
Having a magical left foot and being able to play anywhere behind the front line, Mr. Rodríguez is regarded as one of the most creative players in the game. His list of honors includes two Champions Leagues, two FIFA Club World Cups, and a World Cup Golden Boot. He is also a sports influencer with nearly 50 million followers on Instagram.
We started to reach out to Mr. Rodríguez several months ago. After learning the nature and advantages of ZKSpace, Mr. Rodríguez agreed to let us help mint key highlights from his illustrious career spanning three continents into non-fungible tokens while celebrating his outstanding contribution to the game. And that leads to where we are now. With adequate preparation, we’ve decided to launch the presale round of the James Rodríguez Commemorative Edition NFTs on ZKSea, the layer 2 NFT marketplace of ZKSpace, in the near future.
Part II: Exploring the Value of James Rodríguez NFTs
Q3: Sounds so exciting! Mr. Lee, as the presale round is approaching, are there any more details you can tell us about this NFT collection?
A3: Sure. Mr. Rodríguez has just announced the partnership with ZKSpace via his Instagram.
The collection has been named Zurda, left foot in Spanish, which is one of the reasons Mr. Rodríguez has been famous in the past years.
Zurda NFTs are based on exquisite artwork digitally hand-painted by professional artists. The NFT collection will be made up of 4 different rarities comprising 1 Platinum, 10 Gold, 400 Silver, and 1,089 Bronze, with each piece entitling the owner to a commemorative moment in Rodríguez’s career, and top-ranking pieces to be given signed memorabilia, whitelist spots for future NFTs issued on ZKSea, stake-to-earn bonuses, and even the chance to have a video call with James Rodríguez himself.
Among the moments captured for the NFTs are his celebrations playing for the Colombian National Team at the 2014 FIFAifa World Cup against Uraguay, Greece, Japan, and the Ivory Coast and during the 2016 American Cup. Also featured are some close-up shots of his stylish leg tattoos and of legendary goal celebrations such as when playing for Argentina’s Banfield against Uruguay in 2010, and a successful free-kick for Real Madrid in 2015.
Q4: Amazing! How to get on the whitelist? Are there any fast tracks?
A4: Yes. For users who want to avoid the hassle of public minting, we’ve prepared multiple whitelist campaigns.
- Fast-track VIP access: deposit the purchase fee of 0.12 ETH to ZKSpace L2 wallet, hold it before the presale, submit your address, then you will get a whitelist spot directly. Fast-track VIPs can secure whitelist spots in the most relaxing way. Make sure that your L2 wallet has at least 0.12 ETH before the presale, or your whitelist spot might be canceled.
- Discord activities: join ZKSpace Discord server, hang out with other James Rodríguez fans and earn ZURDA coins to acquire whitelist spots.
- Twitter airdrop: we will airdrop whitelist spots occasionally to Twitter followers.
- Joint Airdrops with Partners: We have reserved some whitelist spots for ZKSpace partners, so you can search on the Internet and find the projects or influencers giving JR whitelists away.
- AMA Airdrops: Some whitelist spots will be dropped in AMA sessions. For example, we offer 5 whitelist spots for Huobi NFT community members joining the AMA with us.
Q5: Looks like there are many ways to get on the whitelist, but it has to be done quickly. First come, first served. What benefits do you offer to the whitelist users?
A5: Good question. Users on the whitelist are able to mint one of the Silver and Bronze James Rodríguez mystery box NFTs at a price of 0.12 ETH, 20% lower than that of the public sale. During the public sale round, the prices begin at 0.15 ETH for Silver and Bronze. The Gold and Platinum NFTs will be sold in the form of an auction.
Here is a comprehensive chart differentiating the price, quantity, type, and benefits of the Zurda NFTs of James Rodríguez.
More details can be found in our latest official announcement.
Q6: This is so cool! Talking about sports NFTs, what do you think of the hype?
A6: I think the merger of sports and NFTs is inevitable. NFTs are fast emerging as an effective way for athletes and sporting organizations to connect with their fanbase and build hardcore online communities, allowing people to trade memorable moments of players on the blockchain, win exciting gifts, and benefit from the added value of the NFTs in the future.
In launching the Commemorative Zurda Edition collection, James Rodríguez will join a list with the likes of Manchester City, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain F.C., Arsenal, and the Italian and Argentinian National teams in exploring the overlap of digital assets and professional sports.
This emerging trend is underpinned by strong market growth from top performers such as NBA Top Shot, Vayner Sports Pass, Topps, and many more, the success of which brought together the multi-billion dollar sports industry and an exciting blockchain sub-sector in NFTs whose paths would inevitably converge.
Q7: You are right. There are reasons why the Sport NFT sector will continue to grow. In 2021, NBA TopShot had over 1.1 million subscribers who traded over $800 million of NFTs, according to Dapper Labs, the organization behind the platform. I’m sure that the James Rodríguez Commemorative “Zurda” NFTs collection will solidify the legend’s fan base and, most importantly, help promote the sport while highlighting the benefits of NFTs, crypto, and blockchain.
Although there are similarities between existing sport NFTs and the James Rodríguez Edition, I do notice that ZKSea is an NFT marketplace based on Layer 2. Does this make any difference?
A7: Yes. A lot of differences compared with Layer1 NFT marketplaces, I would say. First of all, don’t complicate this concept. Layer 1 refers to the blockchain mainnet such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, while Layer2 is used for blockchain scalability built under the mainnet.
It is undeniable that with increasing demands for Ethereum transactions, the Ethereum chain often becomes congested, resulting in high gas fees and a long confirmation time. By utilizing Layer2, all these problems can be solved without breaking the integrity of Ethereum.
Among all Layer2 solutions, ranging from state channels, side chain, Plasma to Optimistic Rollups, ZK-Rollups, etc., we’ve chosen the ZK-Rollups technology, which can reduce the gas fees to a great extent, support higher TPS, and is believed to be securer than Optimistic Rollups.
Under the new fee structure implemented on April 28, 2022, most transaction fees on ZKSpace decreased by 50% or more, and user costs became over 90% lower than the Ethereum mainnet. For instance, it takes only 2U to mint an NFT on ZKSea.
Apart from NFT marketplaces, digital asset exchanges, and payments that ZKSpace has already included, Layer2 technology can also be used in domain name services, crypto city/land building in the metaverse, and so on and so forth.
Q8: Before we enter the final part of the Live Q&A and Whitelist Giveaway, would you like to share any new features or campaigns we can expect from ZKSpace in the following weeks?
A8: Sure. We are currently integrating with fiat onramp solutions, allowing users to make fiat-to-crypto deposits directly to ZKSpace. You will be able to access cheap and fast Layer 2 services with your debit or credit cards.
We have also upgraded our NFT marketplace by adding sort & filter buttons and a page for viewing all collections. Now users can easily find the items that they are looking for by sorting them by time, trend, tokens, sale types, and so on. We also added a page where users can browse all the collections created on the platform. If you are a seller, your own collection should be spotted more easily by your buyers. If they go to your profile, they will be able to see all the items in your collection too, which is a good improvement for displaying your work.
In June, the 3.1 version of ZKSpace APP, available in Spanish, Indonesian, Russian, and Traditional Chinese, will be released with newly synchronized features allowing users to make L2 transfers, deposit or Eco Deposit from L1 to L2, and withdraw or Fast Withdraw money from L2 to L1. You will be able to receive payments from others by both QR codes and links.
Part III. Frequently Asked Questions from users
Q9: User experience is such an important aspect. What are the efforts that ZKSpace is making to enhance the user experience, especially for new users?
A9: ZKSpace is a Layer 2 project with a relatively higher entry barrier than Layer 1. For example, knowledge-wise, users need to distinguish the difference between Layer 1 and Layer 2, and transaction-wise, fees will incur when transferring assets from Layer 1 to Layer 2.
To lower the entry barrier for our users, we have created multi-language tutorials to give users a better understanding of our products and Layer 2 technologies. We also added functions of Eco Deposit which will only cost 2U for users to store their Layer 1 assets in Layer 2. And we are constantly improving our products to further enhance the user experience. Also, the handling fee on Layer 2 is much lower than that of Layer 1, which is quite a plus.
Q10: Will there be more collaborations with other athletes in the future?
A10: Our BD team is working on it. Besides sports, we are also actively exploring opportunities in other areas. Since we have already cooperated with fashion brands like Coach and Shu Uemura, there might be more collaborations in the future, so stay tuned! As of now, if you purchase the Zurda Collection, there’s a chance for you to win the whitelist spots for the following NFT collections, so don’t wait around!
Q11: What kind of token do users get from stake-to-earn? Are tokens used for games or staking?
A11: What you get is our $ZKS. We are selling the Zurda NFT Collection of James Rodríguez, and you can pledge this NFT on our platform to mine for the platform token $ZKS. $ZKS can be used to pay for the platform fees and other fees incurred while trading. $ZKS is listed on Huobi, OKX, Gate, and other exchanges.
For clarification, stake-to-earn doesn’t mean we’re taking away the NFT you purchased, it just means that the NFT will be pledged for a period, during which you can mine for $ZKS, so it will not have any impact on the NFT held by users.
Q12: What are the chains and wallets supported?
A12: We currently support Ethereum and will expand to other public chains in the future. For wallets, we support MetaMask, WalletConnect, imToken, TokenPocket, MathWallet, and TrustWallet.
More to come
We are working our best for the benefit of all buyers, including the chance to video chat with James Rodríguez, receive his autographed jerseys/photos and etc, and we highly recommend you get whitelisted to purchase the masterpiece you like at a discounted price. For more first-hand information, you can join our Discord community and follow our Twitter to keep yourself updated.
We appreciate everyone’s love towards the James Rodríguez Zurda NFT Collection, therefore we are planning to host more AMA sessions in the coming weeks to answer all of your questions. Announcements will be made prior to all sessions, so stay tuned and we look forward to seeing you!
About ZKSpace
The all-new ZKSpace platform consists of three main parts: ZKSwap, the innovative Layer 2 AMM DEX utilizing ZK-Rollups technology, payment service ZKSquare, and an NFT minting center and marketplace called ZKSea. With an all-new-look user interface, NFT support, unlimited token listing, smoother withdrawal and optimized efficiency, ZKSpace aims to implement EVM-compatible ZK-Rollups and bring the community more layer 2-based products in the near future.
Stay Tuned
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