Non fungible tokens (NFT) representing diamonds have made their strategy to the OpenSea market. Up to now, there have been fairly a number of makes
Non fungible tokens (NFT) representing diamonds have made their strategy to the OpenSea market.
Up to now, there have been fairly a number of makes an attempt to tokenize diamonds and different valuable stones and metals. However Icecap founder and CEO Jacques Voorhees says the issue with earlier makes an attempt was they handled diamonds as fungible commodities, which they don’t seem to be.
He instructed Cointelegraph that when he first heard about NFTs from his son Erik Voorhees (CEO of ShapeShift), all of it got here collectively. “They’re as totally different as a snowflake,” he stated. “All of the efforts to attempt to create fungibility with a non fungible merchandise, have ended up failing. And regardless that they’ve thrown blockchain expertise at it, they nonetheless have but to fulfill with success.”
“I’ve seen this going again all the best way to 1972 when the West Coast Commodities Trade tried to create fungibility and diamond futures contracts. The factor lasted about three days and the market fell out as a result of the contracts weren’t truly related.”
NFT representing a diamond. Supply: Icecap.
Eric Voorhees promised to purchase a diamond
Earlier than they’re tokenized, all diamonds are licensed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and are then despatched to the Gem Certification & Assurance Lab (GCal) , which audits the GIA certificates and offers a assure:
“So if it is ever discovered that their grading was not correct, they may pay the distinction in value after which they again that up with an precise insurance coverage coverage that covers them in case they need to pay out on that.”
The issue that Icecap solves is that it’s at present virtually unimaginable for retail buyers to promote diamonds with no steep low cost as there isn’t a secondary market. Based on Voorhees, that is an untapped $10 billion alternative, even when initially will probably be a small area of interest market, principally inhabited by crypto millionaires and early adopters. Voorhees says that Erik, who invested within the firm, additionally promised to purchase a diamond on the OpenSea market.
Icecap doesn’t foresee regulatory points
After thorough consultations together with his attorneys, Voorhees doesn’t imagine that the NFTs representing diamonds current a regulatory problem:
“They’ve seemed intently at what we’re doing and precisely how we’re dealing with the title switch and the way we’re dealing with the gathering of gross sales tax points like this. They’ve requested numerous questions. Their conclusion is that plainly there isn’t any regulatory problem proper now.”
He added the attorneys had suggested to proactively attain out to the entire potential regulatory businesses in any case.
Erik Voorhees stated lately that now could be the time to spend money on “actual property”. Based on Jacques Voorhees, ShapeShift could allow buying and selling of NFTs quickly.