The popularity of NFTs is sky high these days, but trading them can be prohibitively costly due to expensive gas prices, especially on Ethereum. However, there is one company that is addressing all of these problems and it is, of course, Immutable X.
The team behind Immutable X is composed of experienced blockchain and game industry veterans. They have worked on some of the biggest projects in this space. The team has a strong belief that NFTs will shape the future of the gaming industry, and they are working hard to make that a reality.
Background
Immutable X is a partnership between game developer Immutable and scaling startup Starkware so let’s take a look at both of their founding teams.
Immutable
Immutable is an Australian game developer created in 2018 by brothers Robbie and James Ferguson who both were recognized in Forbes 30 under 30 for their success with startups, gaming, and blockchain.
Robbie dropped out of the University of Sydney which is one of the top universities in Australia and he went on to work on blockchain data analytics at KPMG. He’s a Thiel Fellow and he co-founded Immutable in 2018.
James also went to the University of Sydney but graduated with degrees in both finance and law. He then worked as a co-founder for a couple of startups as a business development manager and as a front-end developer.
Immutable has also made some pretty impressive hires throughout their team including:
- a Principal Product Manager and a Senior Business Development Manager who both came from Google
- a Head of Studio Engineering from EA and Microsoft
- two Strategy and Ops Leads, one from McKinsey and the other from Bain
- a Partnerships and Content Lead from Twitch
Immutable has the backing of notable investors including Naspers, Galaxy Digital, and Coinbase.
Starkware
Starkware is a startup founded in 2018 and its focus is on ZK-rollups which is a scaling solution for Ethereum. The founders have deep academic expertise in cryptography.
President Eli Ben-Sasson has been researching cryptographic and zero-knowledge proofs for over 20 years. Chief Architect Michael Riabzev has a Ph.D. in computer science and experience working in Intel and IBM, and Chief Scientist Alessandro Chiesa has a Ph.D. from MIT.
Starkware is one of the biggest names in the crypto industry given that it provides the scaling technology for several notable blockchain protocols. It recently raised 50 million dollars at a 2 billion dollar valuation in November 2021.
Starkware also has the backing of top investors like Three Arrows Capital, Sequoia, Coinbase, and Vitalik Buterin himself.
One can see that Immutable X’s team is very strong. It can be said that the founders are still relatively young so they do have a lot to prove via execution.
What Does Immutable X Do?
Immutable X – let’s talk about what it does and the value it brings.
Immutable X provides the backend technology that allows companies to build and manage NFTs on Ethereum.
How Did They Get to this Point?
Immutable was formerly a firm known as Fuel Games. They created headlines by developing play-to-earn games Etherbots, Gods Unchained, and Guild of the Guardians.
Gods Unchained is a collectible card game that is essentially the blockchain version of Hearthstone, becoming one of the first games on Ethereum to attain significant popularity. Chris Clay, the former director of Magic: The Gathering Arena, heads up the project.
In August 2019, the gaming business known as Fuel Games was rebranded to Immutable. Their focus shifted to building a blockchain platform that allows companies to create their game marketplace or NFT application within hours.
Partnership with Starkware
Immutable collaborated with Starkware after experiencing scaling issues on Ethereum. Starkware leverages a newer version of ZK roll-up that employs stark proofs rather than snark proofs.
While one may not be clearly superior to the other, the most significant distinction is that stark proofs do not need to begin with a trusted setup, making them more secure and drawing approval from the Ethereum foundation.
Immutable X is Born
In April 2021, Immutable X was launched to combine Immutable’s understanding of game development and NFTs with Starkware’s scaling technology. This produced the current dominant platform for minting and managing NFTs on Ethereum.
Why Choose Immutable X?
Immutable X provides a platform that makes it easier to create, manage, and transfer NFTs.
Build with Ease
Immutable X’s background in game development with NFTs gives it industry experience that sets it apart in product creation. This has focused the team’s attention on ensuring that NFTs are simple to create.
In a November 18, 2021 interview with Co-Founder Robbie Ferguson, he revealed that Gods Unchained generated 20 million NFTs in three days, more than any other Ethereum gaming project.
This is why Immutable X was developed as an API-based system, allowing gamers and content providers to develop their products and NFTs in a matter of hours.
Developers can also use Immutable’s SDKs to integrate it into their existing platforms such as Android, iOS, Unity, and Unreal for a more seamless experience.
High Scalability
Immutable’s main engine, the Starkware ZK roll-up scaling solution, runs the entire show and is what allows Immutable X to scale up to 9000 transactions per second while maintaining Ethereum’s decentralization.
As a result, Immutable X provides instant trading massive scalability and zero gas fees for minting and trading NFTs.
Given that NFTs now make up about 30% of Ethereum’s network traffic, this is a significant market. Immutable X is one of the most well-positioned enterprises to take advantage of this opportunity.
Wide Accessibility
Through a common global order book, Immutable makes NFTs more readily available by allowing for liquidity. This is just jargon for saying that any NFT can be traded in any of the marketplaces built on Immutable X.
Users will be able to purchase and sell NFTs based on very particular criteria, thanks to Immutable, which allows for metadata-based ordering.
Immutable is building its NFT marketplace as well which allows smaller companies to list their NFTs there without having to build their marketplace.
Wrap Up
In summary, Immutable X is the leading NFT minting and management platform that provides a host of benefits for users including ease of use, high scalability, and wide accessibility. Thanks to its partnership with Starkware, Immutable X can offer a secure and decentralized solution that is perfect for businesses looking to create their own NFT marketplace or application.
