Q&A: The Gazette Interviewed ZastrowBradley About His $Ape Marketplace Proposal. Check It Out Here:

An Ape Marketplace has been a topic of discussion at the Ape Coin DAO for weeks.

Recently, various teams have submitted different ideas for an official ApeCoin marketplace for Yuga Lab NFTs. Some of these marketplace ideas have been submitted by major players in the NFT space while others have been submitted by longtime Bored Ape Yacht Club members.

One of these marketplace ideas dubbed “X Marketplace” was submitted by Bored Ape Yacht Club member ZastrowBradley.

“Our proposal is unorthodox,” ZastrowBradley wrote in his AIP. “We already built the marketplace to show the community what they are getting. There is no guarantee of our proposal passing but we bet on the community and our belief in the value we bring.”

Further, ZastrowBradley wrote that X marketplace’s fee will be 1% and that 100% of all the fees collected from the marketplace will be burned.

“Our proposal directly helps the ApeCoin DAO mission by adding value through an increased use case and the burning of APE,” ZastrowBradley wrote in the proposal.

ZastrowBradley is asking the DAO for 12,500 $APE fee for a six-month term and 500,000 $APE to use as listing rewards on X marketplace.

Read the full X Marketplace proposal here: https://forum.apecoin.com/t/aip-87-nft-ip-marketplace-yuga-labs-otherside-partner-nft-collections-ecosystem-fund-allocation/7708

While ZastrowBradley is the Co-Founder of X Marketplace, the project has several BAYC members on the team including MachiBigBrother. Check out X Marketplace’s full team below:

The Bored Ape Gazette reached out to ZastrowBradley to find out more about X Marketplace. Check out the Gazette’s full interview with him below:

1. How did you guys get together and build this marketplace? What’s the projects backstory?

“Some of us have been friends for a while (19yrs) and it really started in 2017 when we first got into NFTs, specifically Cryptokitties and CryptoPunks. Fast forward to 2021 and that’s where we first became members of BAYC - and been down the NFT rabbit hole ever since. X Marketplace (x.xyz) was born from the same frustration as everyone else: OpenSea and that we could do better. So, we built one. One where the fees are lower and the community benefits.

From our community involvement with BAYC, X Marketplace was an early supporter of $APE. Although not widely known, we were the first NFT marketplace to integrate $APE as a form of payment. We did this 2 days after $APE launched: https://mobile.twitter.com/Xdotxyz/status/1504463443214012422?s=20&t=pwdoBobkwwHKPIepOv2G6w

The first NFT sale conducted in $APE was also done on X Marketplace not long after: https://mobile.twitter.com/Xdotxyz/status/1505466561485697029?s=20&t=pwdoBobkwwHKPIepOv2G6w. This beat Fvckrender’s auction by a few hours.

Our support and belief in $APE is why we first put up a Marketplace proposal in mid-April with it being knocked back by the ApeCoin Board because we wanted to integrate into apecoin.com and provide revenue back to the DAO. So, we took on board the feedback, spoke with Apes, rebuilt the website and launched this proposal at the end of July.”

2. Why should the DAO pick you and your team?

“The people behind every marketplace proposal are impressive, and we believe we are no exception with strong TradFi, FAANG, Cryptocurrency and NFT business past experience on our resumes. We think the community should pick us and our team because of the strength of our proposal. Actions speak louder than words of course which is why we’re not asking the community to “trust” us in building a marketplace but to “try” us with the marketplace we already built for the proposal. Pick the team who doesn’t just say they’re supporters of $APE but who have a track record of already being first mover supporters and have risked the investment of their own resources in building the marketplace for the proposal. Pick who “does” and not who “says”.”

3. What differentiates your marketplace from the others?

“There are 3 key differentiators with our marketplace:

It’s already built. No broken promises, No delays and no wondering what you will get. It’s there and the community can try it out right now today: apecoin.x.xyz.

It’s more than just NFT buying/selling. We built tomorrow’s marketplace today. We built for the NFT economy which includes IP licensing as well as NFT buying/selling. This is also live, free and available to use on apecoin.x.xyz today. Every single transaction on our marketplace benefits the $APE ecosystem because every single transaction burns $APE. Discounts on $APE listings are a great start but realistically not every transaction will be conducted in $APE. Let’s build something where the ecosystem benefits 100% of the time.”

4. In 2 sentences, how would you pitch your marketplace to the community?

“No pitch is required because it’s already built. We encourage everyone to try it out themselves at apecoin.x.xyz and let us know what they think.”

5. What should $Ape holders know about your marketplace?

“Two additional points:

Friendly reminder that the current URL of apecoin.x.xyz is temporary and will have the community vote on the final URL. This is within our AIP. One additional benefit to our proposal is that it’s a 6 month term. Regardless of whether the community chooses us, we strongly recommend that all proposals (not just MPs) have a defined term to hold them accountable and provide an incentive for successful AIP owners to submit subsequent renewal AIPs to continue a relationship. Evergreen agreements require the community to take action to remove a project which increases the risk of mediocrity or poor expectation management. Successful AIP owners work for the community and anyone who claims confidence in delivering should have equal confidence in asking for a renewal every 6 months.”

6. What’s your long-term vision/ plan for an $Ape marketplace? Where do you see this going in 1 Year? What about 5 years?

“We believe that we already built a marketplace that is forward thinking. A marketplace that only provides opportunities to buy/sell NFTs is fast becoming “outdated”. That’s why we built a marketplace for the NFT economy: IP Licensing as well as buying/selling NFTs. But that’s only a potential stage 1.

We believe IP licensing can evolve further. Most IP licensing opportunities do not require complex contracts. Working with web3 solutions like openlaw.io; we can see IP licensing evolving to where basic agreements are all done on-chain.

The ultimate evolution of IP licensing would be if users could separate the IP into a different tradable asset (NFT). This would require partnership with Yuga, for example, but in theory a BAYC could be wrapped into a contract that emitted two NFTs back to the user: A non-IP BAYC NFT that allows for all the normal benefits of BAYC ownership like airdrops, access, merch and PFP usage. The IP NFT would then represent the IP ownership which could be sold. The process would be reversible by sending both NFTs back to the contract which then returns the original BAYC NFT.

More broadly, and simpler to execute, would be to extend the “Marketplace for the NFT Economy” to include the next ring of creators: Bespoke Creators - those who offer services like creating a 3D model or skateboard of your BAYC. There’s also Affiliated Creators those offering products/services that are linked to the community but is distinct: WAKE & BAYC or the limited edition M&Ms from Kingship. These are different types of creators - but they also deserve a marketplace. Bringing the entire APE community together, not just the NFT holders or APE holders but everyone who participates.”

7. Do you have anything else you’d like to add or say?

"We support Apes and $APE. If the community votes for another marketplace proposal we of course respect that, all we ask is that people at least try out our marketplace prior to voting. We’re the only proposal that allows you to “try before you buy” and if you have feedback on your experience please reach out as we’d love to hear from you.”

The Bored Ape Gazette sent similar questions to each of the four proposed Marketplace creators via Twitter. So far the Gazette has only received responses from X Marketplace and Snag Solutions. Stay tuned for Snag Solutions Q&A article tomorrow night!

For more information on all of the proposed marketplaces, check out the Gazette’s APECOIN DAO-N LOW #2 newsletter here: https://boredapegazette.substack.com/p/apecoin-dao-n-low-2?utm_source=%2Fprofile%2F19652980-the-bored-ape-gazette&utm_medium=reader2