Metalink, the Web3 communications platform, has agreed to collaborate with NFT market OpenSea in launching three official channels. These channels will focus on announcements and support as well as user feedback.
Today’s news comes after a difficult month for OpenSea. OpenSea was forced to address angry users who complained about an “inactive list” exploit that allowed for valuable NFTs to be sold unwittingly at a lower price than their actual value. OpenSea was also confronted with scammers on Discord posing to be employees of the company.
Despite issues with customer service and PR, the company still posted the best month in terms of sales, posting a record $5B in NFT trading volume. NFTs are tokens which exist on Blockchain networks such as Ethereum and are used to indicate ownership of an asset.
Only holders of Metalink’s NFT collections are allowed to access OpenSea channels at the moment. Metalink only supports nine NFT collections: the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Doodles and Cool Cats.
Metalink founder Jake Udell stated that his platform was designed to provide a safer alternative to Discord in a Rug Radio TwitterSpace hosted by Farokh Sarmad (Farokh.eth) on February 15.
He said that the app was originally created as a private chat application for CryptoPunks. Metalink now aims to be “as open as possible.”
Udell said that he was struck by the fact that 15% of CryptoPunks owners signed onto Metalink with crypto wallets. He realized that his site could be more than a private chatting platform.
Stevey Tromberg (OpenSea’s new chief of community) said on the same Twitter Space that he was looking at it as an experiment.
Tromberg stated in a statement that OpenSea’s Metalink channels would “have dedicated community support personnel from OpenSea spending just a few hours per day in Metalink. All of them will be marked as verified OpenSea Staff.”
Metalink’s deal comes at a time when Discord, the NFT community’s most popular chat platform, has been a playground to hackers and scammers. Discord does not appear to be interested adding HTML3 integrations. In November, its CEO pulled out of a possible metamask wallet integration after anti-NFT Discord Nitro users threatened to cancel their subscriptions.
However, Discord servers for NFT communities such as the Crypto Chicks or Fractal.io were hacked. This has made some collectors hesitant about using the platform in general for Web3 activities.
Farokh stated in the Twitter Space that discord had brought “so much anxiety” to his life, and added that he was “bullish on Metalink as an NFT platform.”