Gotta catch ‘em all! Platform offers NFTs backed by real Pokémon cards

A unique NFT marketplace that is backed by physical assets has completed a live ask-me-anything session on Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel.

Digible aims to offer a crypto-focused environment for rare items that exist in the real world. This means that, if you were to buy a coveted Pokémon card, you’d be able to receive it in the form of a nonfungible token — with this platform storing it safely on your behalf.

Daniel Pustelnik, who co-founded Digible, said he became aware of NFTs back in 2018, and started to explore the wide range of use cases for this distinctive asset class. An avid collector of physical trading cards for many years, he spotted an opportunity to deliver tokenization — as has been seen with real estate.

During the broadcast, he drew an analogy to the cloakrooms seen in fancy restaurants, where you drop off your coat and you’re given a slip in return — meaning you can redeem it later. In this case, the NFT is the ticket reflecting the physical item.

“It’s a digital representation of a physical thing and those are backed one to one,” Pustelnik explained. “You can’t have duplicates, you can’t have repeats — and as soon as it leaves the ecosystem, the NFT gets burned. Vice versa, once it’s entering the ecosystem, an NFT gets created.”

Physical cards are held by third-party, insured custodians known as DigiSafes — private vaults that help give users peace of mind.

Digible also offers a traditional NFT marketplace where truly digital nonfungible tokens, which aren’t backed by something physical, can be bought and sold.

Reducing friction

According to Pustelnik, there’s a lot of friction in the collectibles world — and this prevents cards from being traded easily.

“For you to buy and sell quickly, you have to deal with shipping, getting them, rating services … there’s a lot of friction that prevents the easy swapping of assets,” he said.

An NFT version of a physical card helps to eliminate this friction — and enables those who trade in these assets to quickly facilitate swaps and liquidate their cards if they need to.

“It’s like eBay but better,” Pustelnik said.

Of course, this has no bearing on someone’s ability to have a physical trading card take pride of place in their house. If they want to get their hands on it, all they need to do is get Digible to send it to their address.

More insights from Digible here

What’s on offer

Pustelnik says Digible is starting with graded Pokémon cards — partly out of personal preference, and also because it’s one of the biggest markets. This approach also helps to counter the threat of bad actors and the risk of fakes being auctioned.

“The idea is to have sports cards, trading cards, rare collectibles like stamps and comic books as well as anything else that people would want to trade,” he said. “If you have an idea for something that could be on the platform, please let us know directly.”

Other features in the Digible ecosystem include DigiGrade, which helps sidesteps backlogs with rival grading services.

“We figured if we’re only going to be accepting cards that are graded, we might as well take the cards that aren’t graded and help people expedite that process by leveraging our connections,” he said.

Meanwhile, DigiDuel is an upcoming product that enables players to battle cards against each other in a “winner takes all” scenario — and more information about this feature will be coming soon.

Following on from the AMA, Digible revealed that it has entered into a partnership with Steve Aoki — working together on physical and digital collectibles, grading, and a number of other exciting things.

With the world of NFT marketplaces beginning to get increasingly crowded, Pustelnik believes Digible has the unique use cases that sets it apart from the competition.

Learn more about Digible

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