⚪Zora

NFT-Centric Layer 2 OP Chain powered by OP Stack Bedrock

Introduction

Zora is stepping up as one of the pioneering OP Stack chains to join the Superchain. It transitioned from an NFT minting platform and community to rolling out an L2 scaling solution. It empowers users with the liberty to innovate or collect without any boundaries.

Dive in to discover more about Zora, the NFT-centric L2 ecosystem championing both artists and collectors.

Vision

Zora's mission is crystal clear: to forge a Layer 2 solution for NFTs that's engaging, straightforward, and pocket-friendly for both creators and aficionados. They're on a quest to dismantle entry barriers and craft a user-centric experience 🎟️.

Their ambition?

To arm artists with avant-garde tools, enabling them to mint diverse content, be it videos 🎥, melodies 🎵, visuals 🖼️, HTML, or even entire web portals 🌐.

The emphasis?

Eradicating financial or structural roadblocks ⛔, paving the way for boundless artistic exploration.

The firm has often drawn parallels between its services and well-known platforms like Shopify or WordPress, known for their user-friendly interfaces for creating e-commerce sites and blogs, respectively. However, Zora applies this ease and accessibility to the sphere of NFTs and the burgeoning Web 3.0 economy.

Usage

For Users, Why Use Zora?

So as a user, you might be either a collector or an artist who is looking for tools to let them mint their collection and sell their art.

What are the benefits of using Zora?

Revenue split model

Zora recently updated its revenue split model for NFTs created using their platform. It plans to charge collectors a flat minting fee of 0.000777 ETH per NFT minted (regardless of mint price) and then split that fee with creators to incentivize them to release projects through Zora and on the Zora Network.

Creators will now receive a minimum of 42.9% of the mint fees earned from free mints

Zora is 25 times cheaper compared to Ethereum to interact with

You know this pain point if you have experienced the NFT market on Ethereum Mainnet, with extremely high gas fees and minting costs. The Rollup design of Zora makes it cheap to use and offers you higher security and reach compared to using other L1s while being a Layer 2 chain on Ethereum, check here.

Toggle for the steps:

Lazy Minting in a few steps

1. Connect to zora.co by providing a - verification signature with your wallet.

2. Click the "+" Button in the top right corner of the page to initiate the creation process, this will take you to zora.co/create.

3. Upload your desired file, choose an existing collection to add to or create a new one, select Zora Network as your deployment network, input the project name, etc.

4. Finalize-Click the "Create" button and approve the creation with a gasless verification signature from your wallet; remember, the NFT won't actually be minted onchain until the first collector comes along!

Useful Links

ZoraZora

https://docs.zora.co/docs/zora-network/introdocs.zora.co

If you are interested in going more in-depth in the documents of Zora, here is the link

More Money For Creators: NFT Minting Platform Zora Initiates New Revenue Splitcoindesk

The Bankless Guide to Zora NetworkBankless

How Secure/Decentralized is Zora?

To go in-depth into the security and Decentralization of Zora check L2 Beat’s comprehensive report 👇

Zora - L2BEATL2BEAT

For Devs

NFT Collection Minting

though the Minting of collections are much easier now with the new updates you can still access all the documentation for creating NFT collection for both ERC-1155 and ERC-721.

What is the difference between ERC-1155 and ERC-721?

ERC-1155 can support an endless number of tokens within a single smart contract, whereas ERC-721 necessitates the deployment of a new smart contract for each type of token.

https://docs.zora.co/docs/zora-api/query-formatting

Link to smart contract docs here

Zora API

The ZORA API makes it easy to retrieve NFT metadata, monitor on-chain events, analyze sales activity, and so much more.

You can test out the API without needing a key. It’s free to use right now.

Link to the docs here.

Zora Dev Kit (ZDK)

The ZDK makes it easy to access the Zora API without having to know GraphQL.

The ZDK also offers guides for

• Getting NFTs for an Address

• Getting Collection Data

• Using the ZDK

• Filling an OpenSea Order

Check the whole subpage here.

For Investors

Funding received

In May 2022, Zora secured a $50 million investment in a funding round spearheaded by Haun Ventures, establishing a company valuation of $600 million.

As of June, Horne revealed that Zora had attracted approximately 130,000 users. For the latest number of Daily Active Addresses check our metrics page.

Specialized development tools

Additionally, in previous discussions with Decrypt, Horne explained that Zora's revenue stream is derived from offering specialized development tools for sale. These tools assist other enterprises in tailoring Zora's no-cost protocol to suit their specific needs, a strategy reminiscent of the one employed by Linux distributor RedHat.

Onchain Profit

This is what the chain makes in profit onchain each day. It quantifies profitability by comparing the revenue generated from L2 gas fees collected to the costs associated with data & proof posting onto the Ethereum blockchain. See current metrics here.

Top contracts on Zora

To find the most active projects on Zora it is best to explore the blockspace usage and look for contracts that have the highest consumption of gas or the highest transaction count. See current blockspace analytics here.

Technology

Under the hood, Zora Network is built on the OP Stack (Bedrock release), ensuring high-speed transactions with new blocks created every 2 seconds.⚡

Check out our Page about OP Stack for a short summary of OP Stack 👇

OP Stack

Zora Network also plans to integrate with Optimism Superchains.

If you do not know exactly what that is check out our short summary of that 👇

Superchain

While NFTs are in focus, there haven't been changes made to the OP Stack modules to enhance NFT capabilities at the protocol level. Except for an important one!

Why does Zora have their own L2 rather than being a dApp?

To answer this question, we need to delve into the details and, first and foremost, understand the primary advantage of running your L2: control over the sequencer. For those who may not be familiar, the sequencer is a vital component of any Layer 2, responsible for gathering pending transactions and bundling them into L2 blocks. This block-building process also provides the benefit of collecting users’ gas fees.💸

But what is the advantage?

Jacob, one of the co-founders of Zora, elaborated on a podcast that having control over the sequencer provides platform-level superpowers. These superpowers can, for instance, be utilized to abstract gas fees even further for users and enable features like 0 gas fee mints.

Role of the Superchain🌉:

As a side note, while there are no reasonable solutions for fully decentralized sequencers developed yet, there's no need to worry excessively about it. Sequencers are unable to manipulate or sign transactions to steal funds from users.

The Superchain’s bridge security model ensures both the integrity (safety) and continuous operation (liveness) of chains. While the proof system vouches for the chain's validity, users can directly submit transactions to L1, ensuring uninterrupted service. So, if an OP Chain sequencer acts up, users can easily switch to another reliable OP Chain.

Furthermore it...

• Accelerates activity

• Makes the chain a part of the Public Goods Infrastructure

• Simplifies development

• Builds towards an interoperable crypto economy

Roadmap

What's next for Zora?

DAO creation

Zora envisions creating a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) with token-based membership, leveraging governance token sales to raise funds. This aims to foster a decentralized community to decide for Zora's future.

Featured Content

Zora's launch on growthepie with launch date's metric snapshot

Official Pages and Links

ZoraZora

The Marketplace of Zora Platform

growthepie.comgrowthepie_eth

Zora metrics page on growthepie.xyz

Zora - L2BEATL2BEAT

Security of Zora

Documentation

https://docs.zora.co/docs/zora-network/introdocs.zora.co

Zora Network Introduction and how contract deploying info

https://docs.zora.co/docs/smart-contracts/creator-tools/introdocs.zora.co

Creating NFT Collection guides and contracts

Must-Read Articles

More Money For Creators: NFT Minting Platform Zora Initiates New Revenue Splitcoindesk

A comprehensive report of all the aspects of Zora

The Bankless Guide to Zora NetworkBankless

How to use Zora

Videos and Podcasts

X Accounts to Follow

@ourZORA

@js_horne