ConsenSys announces layer-two NFT platform, Palm, to compete with Flow

With a possible billion-dollar nonfungible token drop and a high-powered, multiproject collaboration in the works, the Ethereum ecosystem may finally be ready to compete with NFT-centric blockchain Flow. 

In a press release today, Ethereum software developer ConsenSys announced Palm, an environmentally friendly NFT scaling solution. Palm will be a sidechain designed to be “fully connected” to Ethereum, sporting faster settlement times, lower fees and an especially light carbon footprint — a noted bugaboo for artists as of late.

Ethereum’s community — one of the chain’s advantages over the faster, more efficient rival NFT chain Flow — is also on full display in the release. ConsenSys announced a lineup of ecosystem-building partner powerhouses for Palm, such as NFT social media platform Nifty’s and experimental NFT mining project Meme.

Likewise, Palm will come out of the gate with significant infrastructure in place from partners Infura, NFT metadata storage via Protocol Labs, and a partnership with decentralized exchange Uniswap, which may soon be announced as the home of the forthcoming PALM token initial exchange offering.

The question is: Will this be enough to overcome Flow and its wildly popular, industry-altering NBA Top Shot collectibles?

New Top Shot record

A Zion Williamson Holo MMXX @NBATopShot just sold for $115,000.

That’s the largest all-time Top Shot sale for any player not named LeBron James. ✅

Serial: #28/50
Buyer: MCEnterprise
Seller: @Block_J_
Last purchase: $7,000 on Jan. 18
ROI: 1,461% pic.twitter.com/kfucfVkpeo

— MomentRanks (@MomentRanks) March 23, 2021

All about the IP

Technical and ecosystem differences aside, the battle between the NFT platforms will ultimately be fought over the quality of the intellectual property and the licensing they can attract. 

So far, the Ethereum community has been fed a thin diet on that front. Ethereum-native platforms have been fighting for NFTs from C-list celebrities, sports has-beens or never-weres, and niche — if highly devoted — fandoms.

We sold out 100/100 editions of my recent NFT on @rariblecom for a total of 45.4 ETH! I have donated part of it to @SaveTheChildren and gave away $10k to one of the bidders Thanks to all stay tuned for next one.. I put my ❤️ into it! https://t.co/AeE5CwLSlc pic.twitter.com/94pidkfcpB

— Lindsay Lohan (@lindsaylohan) March 7, 2021

Flow, meanwhile, has been one of the driving forces behind NFTs entering mainstream consciousness, primarily due to the massive success of National Basketball Association-licensed NBA Top Shot.

The project seems to break its own records weekly, is being discussed regularly on ESPN and sells out like clockwork the moment it releases new packs. If you’ve been seeing NFTs on the nightly news, Top Shot is to thank.

Flow’s lead isn’t unsurpassable, however, as Palm’s opening salvo in the platform wars could be every bit as lucrative as Top Shot: a meatspace-meets-blockchain physical-and-NFT art mashup called “The Currency Project” from legendary British artist Damien Hirst.

“The Currency” brings the currency

First reported by Cointelegraph, The Currency Project consists of 10,000 physical “bills” painted by Hirst five years ago and currently in storage. Each bill will have slightly different features — and therefore, rarities — and will be tied to an NFT, meaning it’s conceptually similar to algorithmically generated NFT art projects, from a collector’s perspective. 

Calculating the possible value of The Currency Project is ultimately educated guesswork. One method might be to look at similar projects: Using investment funds designed to track a basket of NFTs, one back-envelope estimate puts the current aggregate market value of all 10,000 CryptoPunks — one of the earliest and most popular algorithmically generated NFT projects — at $500 million. Likewise, a more recent algorithmically generated project, Hashmasks, managed to raise over $10 million for just over…