Glass video NFT platform moves to Solana
Glass – the Arweave utilising video NFT platform – has officially moved its application layer from the Ethereum to the Solana network. Arweave will still however be utilised for the storage of the videos.
In celebration of this, they announced that they were “sacrificing” a y00ts NFT.
But why did the Glass team decide to make such a major move? And what will happen to all the NFTs that were already present on the Ethereum network?
Let’s dive in and have a look!
hey fam we just launched the new glass on solana
for good luck we are sacrificing a @yootsnft to the degods
drop your solana address for a chance to win????https://t.co/HGVZce7GCY
— GLASS.XYZ (@glassprotocol) September 26, 2022
The Glass Migration
Glass’ mission has always been to bring the next 1 million users into the crypto space. In their eyes, the best way to achieve that is through video content services. And according to this tweet, it is also the reason why they are moving Glass from Ethereum to Solana.
According to the Glass Twitter account, their team has been in discussions with both smaller and larger content creators, as well as collectors and fans of the platform. All of this while trying to figure out how to better bridge the gap between the legacy Web2 video content creation world and the modern Web3 one.
They found that the main issues were cost, speed and the user experience (UX) on Web3. By their move into the Solana network, they have addressed these issues en-masse.
Cheaper
According to their finding posted on Twitter, buying an NFT on Glass while still on the Ethereum network cost the buyer $2.50-$50, while utilising the Solana network means that that is reduced to just 0.04731 cents. As for the content creators, creating a video now costs $2-3 compared to the previous $25-200 that they would have to spend on Ethereum gas fees.
Faster
Purchasing a video NFT on a Solana-based Glass means that the transaction now finalises in just a few seconds. Ethereum transactions on the other hand can take much longer (minutes-hours).
Improved User Experience
According to Glass, the User Experience on Solana is a lot better than on Ethereum, partly thanks to the Phantom wallet and their innovation in Web3 UX. From their personal experience, the Glass team found that it is easier to onboard people to Solana, while a general culture of good UX is prevalent on the network.
What about my Ethereum video NFTs?
So what happens to everyone that used Glass’ platform in its early days, having purchased, collected, or minted NFTs while on the Ethereum network?
Don’t worry, as they are still there. After all, it is kind of the point of Blockchain for it to hold the data perpetually. That is of course if the data is not too large. When it comes to Ethereum audio/visual NFTs, it is usually the case that the metadata is saved on the Ethereum network, and in turn that metadata points to the location of the actual data file. If that data is hosted somewhere impermanent – like on someone’s private server or Dropbox – that data file can simply disappear. And your once purchased NFT will now be a dead link. Fortunately, Glass used Arweave to store everyone’s NFTs, so they will be there forever, even if Glass shuts down their support altogether.
That’s the beauty of Arweave!
As for the Ethereum NFTs, you can still get to the Ethereum Glass website and UI here.
In a statement on Twitter the Glass team had this to say:
We’re incredibly grateful for the Ethereum community and will continue to host eth glass.
All the Ethereum NFTs are still available at “https://eth.glass.xyz/”
In the future we hope to bridge these communities.
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