Sparkles is delighted to announce the launch of v2.0 of its NFT marketplace.
The initial release of the Sparkles NFT marketplace was done as a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), to provide the Songbird community with a safe place to trade NFTs.
Given the inherent risk associated with P2P trading and having noticed community members unfortunately being caught out by some of these with unknown counterparties, the Sparkles MVP provided a trustless and safe environment for users to list, buy, sell and transfer NFTs.
As an MVP, the platform was not feature rich, but provided the fundamental ability for simple buying and selling mechanisms and has seen over 35 million SGB (over $2m) worth of trades over 30,000 unique sales. In the interests of ensuring a best user experience, Sparkles adopted a phased approach in developing and releasing features, to instill user confidence that features being used can be relied upon.
With Sparkles being an NFT marketplace “built by the community, for the community”, community ideas and feedback has been imperative in building Sparkles v2.0.
Whilst maintaining a phased release with features (many more are currently under development and are yet to come), emphasis has been given to listening to community suggestions for a better user experience, improving the Sparkles marketplace and giving you the best possible NFT experience on Songbird and Flare Network. There is much more to come, but the most common suggestions have been prioritized with you, the community, at the forefront of our mind.
In this article we will discuss some of the new features and functionality of Sparkles v2.0, which maintains Sparkles’ position as the leading, most openly accessible, and premium NFT marketplace on the Songbird (and soon Flare) Network.
Make Offer
So, you have seen an NFT you like, it is listed for sale, but you think that the price might be a little too high.
With Sparkles v2.0, you can make an offer on that NFT for what you are prepared to spend.
Not only that, but the Sparkles v2.0 make offer feature uses Wrapped Songbird (WSGB). This not only means that you can make an offer on an NFT, but you can also leave your WSGB delegated to an FTSO provider, allowing you to continue earning delegation rewards, whilst simultaneously letting an NFT owner/seller know that you are interested in buying their NFT.
Current ‘Top Offers’ are displayed both on an NFT item page, as well as on NFTs at a collection level, and within a users’ profile.
This allows NFT owners to quickly identify and accept any offers on the NFTs that they have in their profile. In addition, other perspective buyers have the ability to see what offer they should make to be in prime position when browsing NFTs at a collection level. Furthermore, users can review all current offers on an NFT by utilizing the ‘Offers’ tab on an NFT item page.
Sellers can be confident that any offer they receive on their NFT can be fulfilled. If there is an offer that cannot be fulfilled because the offeror does not have the required WSGB, then that offer is removed from Sparkles.
Enhanced Searching
One of the most recurrent pieces of feedback we received from the community in respect of the usability of the Sparkles MVP, or indeed any NFT marketplace, related to the user experience of searching and browsing NFTs and collections.
We have taken that on board as a key community request and have substantially improved this function by including filtering and sorting (see: Filtering and Sorting NFTs below) as well as an enhanced, smarter search function.
Now, when using the search function, Sparkles will intuitively suggest NFT items, collections and profiles based on what you type, making navigating the marketplace a much smoother experience.
Filtering and Sorting NFTs
People have varying tastes and want NFTs for different reasons. Some may prefer the aesthetics of an NFT with a particular trait, whilst others may be more interested in NFTs with rarer traits.
Either way, Sparkles v2.0 has you covered by providing a detailed and accurate filtering system for collections at a blockchain level.
It is incredibly important that such filtering systems are accurate, ensuring users can be confident that they are not being misled through the provision of incorrect information.
As such, Sparkles avoids hardcoding collections and their traits onto the marketplace, which can lead to human error, by instead pulling and indexing NFT traits directly from collection metadata on the blockchain, exactly as intended by collection creators and in the spirit of the blockchain, presenting this data on Sparkles and allowing accurate filtering.
In addition to simply being able to filter NFTs by traits, Sparkles v2.0 has the added benefits of being able to sort and search NFTs at a collection level, such as finding a particular NFT by its token ID, being able to view NFTs from lowest to highest listed price and volume and vice versa, or alphabetically, or only those NFTs which are listed for sale, through to applying minimum and maximum price ranges.
The new filtering and sorting functionalities can also be used in tandem, providing users with an enhanced and superior experience when browsing collections to find their perfect NFT.
Rich, In-depth Analytics
Some users buy NFTs purely for their art, however other users enjoy trading NFTs, and any serious NFT trader enjoys having the data to support and allow for informed decisions, quickly and conveniently.
Along with better searching, filtering, and sorting functionality, analytics were another highly requested feature addition from the community.
As such, Sparkles v2.0 incorporates a ‘quick look’ analytics bar for collections, as well as additional, more detailed analytics tools, at both an NFT item and NFT collection level.
Users will be able to use these tools to quickly analyze various key metrics, such as average price, volume, market cap, floor price, number of owners and number of sales, not only across different timeframes, but also across both SGB and USD values.
Something OG Sparkles users will notice is that the NFT item page has also had a face-lift, including tabs providing information and further analytics on current listings and offers, past activity and the price history of an NFT. Not only that, but the NFT item page will also show you other NFTs within that collection that might catch your eye.
*Sparkles v2.0 analytics will begin afresh however, once it is launched and stable, we will seek to import the historic sales data from the MVP to v2.0 as soon as possible.
Algorithmically Displayed Featured NFTs and Collection Hotlist
One key requirement of any marketplace is that it can be trusted and that users are confident that they are not being taken advantage by the marketplace, or third parties, by strategic product placement of items, unbeknown to the user.
Therefore, rather than Sparkles choosing what should be displayed on the homepage and when, that choice is ultimately left to you, the user.
To provide openness and transparency so that you can be confident in how items are displayed on the homepage, Sparkles v2.0 utilizes algorithmic display functions to determine which NFTs are featured at the top of the page and which collections show up in the ‘Hotlist’ at any given time.
Determining factors include both current and historical metrics such as collection volume, number of items traded within a collection and highest daily sales price.
This way, you can rest assured that the free market is driving homepage items, allowing everyone to quickly see what is currently hot in the NFT space on Songbird and Flare Network.
Full Control of Collections for Collection Owners
As a content creator, having control over your content is a key factor.
Any collection contract owner will be able to customize the collection’s marketplace display images, name, description and assign it to the category which fits best.
Additionally, collection owners can make it simple for their community to find their collection on Sparkles by implementing a vanity URL.
Furthermore, collection owners can link their official collection website directly to their collection page, enabling them to easily direct current and prospective community member to their collection’s website.
Adding royalties to your collections can now be done effortlessly through the collections owner profile, along with being able to set accepted tokens once S-Assets and F-Assets are onboarded to the network.
Customizable Profile and Homepage
Just as collection owners should be able to customize their collection page, users should be able to customize not only their profile, but their entire user experience.
Users can personalize their profile by adding a custom username, profile picture and profile banner, as well as including a bio about themselves and creating a vanity URL for their profile.
Expanding on the profile page, users can tailor their Sparkles experience by customizing the displayed collections on their homepage. By using the collection ‘like’ feature, selected NFT collections will populate the ‘Liked’ collection category by default, with the option to browse other collections using the alternative category tags.
Open, Transparent & Reliable Information
Sparkles takes pride in providing an open and transparent service.
It is fundamental that any costs and fees are made clear to both buyers and sellers at the outset, and details of Sparkles’ fees are available here.
Any fees are made clear to sellers when listing NFTs, and it is made clear to buyers what an NFT’s price is. The price that an NFT is shown as listed for is the price that a buyer will pay, with no hidden fees or sales tax upon checkout.
Refresh Metadata
A feature requested by the community, users can now always make sure they have the most accurate up to date image and metadata descriptions. This is great for collections that want to have a hide and reveal party for their collections or simply to help users who made a mistake and need to update their URI.
Safety and Security
As Sparkles is being built “by the community, for the community”, ensuring the best user experience and safety of our community members is paramount.
Sparkles v2.0 introduces a reporting system, to ensure that marketplace users, collection creators and NFT buyers and sellers are as safe as possible, whilst maintaining an enjoyable experience for all.
The Future of Sparkles
Whilst we are thrilled to be able to release Sparkles v2.0, the continuous development and improvement of what we provide to the community is something that the Sparkles Team not only strives for, but is passionate about and is dedicated to doing.
The community can look forward to the on-going phased release approach, incrementally delivering additional features and functionality to the marketplace.
The Sparkles team is actively building out public APIs that will give creators and builders on the Flare blockchain the ability to streamline innovation and bring more products to enhance the overall ecosystem growth on the network. The first use of this was announced already with the Bifrost wallet using the Sparkles API to bring NFTs directly to your wallet. The team is excited to be working with other partners and encourages anyone who wants early access to reach out to our team in Discord so we can help with onboarding your app to the network.
The recent announcements of our exclusive partnership with NFT Champ allows all NFTs created on Songbird and Flare to be printed and brought to life. The Sparkles team is always looking for new partners willing to support and bring more value to the community.
Beyond that, the publication of the whitepaper, including comprehensive details on the tokenomics of $SNFT and the transition to a DAO are still to come, in addition to further information on the Defenders of the MetaSpark (DOTM) and the expansion of the Flare Realm.
In the meanwhile, we hope everyone enjoys using Sparkles v2.0!✨
About Sparkles
Sparkles is the largest open NFT marketplace on the Flare and Songbird Network.
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