Panini: We Got A Bridge To Sell You
Surprising news out of Panini today: a bridge is being developed to allow NFTs to be moved to the Ethereum network and will go live by the end of the year. This will allow for self-custody and sales on “whitelisted marketplaces.”
Not surprisingly, I’ve been getting hit with tags and DMs today including some screenshots of amusing barbs thrown my way. All of which are fair considering how much I’ve talked about the lack of a bridge to a public chain being a major risk for Panini.
This is great news for Panini collectors of course, but it’s great news for all collectors of sports NFTs because having Panini customers getting a full rug would not be good for any of us trying to grow this type of collecting.
Since I’m not a sponsored PR blog and Panini doesn’t supply me with packs and promo balance (it’s a joke, guys), I have to state a few things about the announcement:
What properties will be in scope? “Move certain assets” indicates it won’t be all of them, which is no surprise if you’ve been reading my posts. I would expect at least some soccer, Bad Eggz, and maybe WNBA to be included. I think NFL and NBA are longer shots due to the expiring licenses. Maybe the pre-Prizm stuff can make it over if those had some public chain language built into the original agreements. I would be really surprised if baseball made it.
Is this a true bridge or a pseudo-bridge using reminting? I think this has to be the latter given the technical challenges of a true bridge. Does it matter? I don’t think it really makes much of a difference to most collectors. Maybe the metadata is handled a bit differently, but that’s not going to be a big point of contention.
My guess is they will remint these on Polygon, but there are several “Ethereum network” options that have cheap minting fees and cheap gas that would make sense for Panini.
The ability to switch between chains is interesting and I wonder about the mechanics of how this would work if they went with a remint approach. Would there be dupes in Panini wallets? Would they get burned and then reminted? I am curious how they approach this feature.
Sales on “whitelisted marketplaces” is intriguing. I’m curious what that actually means. Regardless, you should be able to sell or transfer wherever you want from your wallet if you actually have self-custody.
Regardless, this is a landmark day for Panini Blockchain and provides a much needed lifeboat for at least some of their customers’ NFTs. I’ll be interested in seeing the details about how they’re executing this.
Does this become a market mover? It certainly should for anyone who was concerned about Panini America’s future or their use of a private blockchain. I have to think that’s kept some money on the sidelines. I would just suggest some caution on speculating too much on this news until you know what’s in scope.
Happy for all my friends who still have Panini collections, though—this is a huge development!