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The CryptoMotors platform has a vision: Invite and entice ordinary folk into the design process for new vehicles. CryptoMotors creates NFT cars to use in the upcoming CryptoMotors racing game and other metaverse and crypto applications.
You can also collect and trade the car NFTs. Eventually, these NFT vehicles are planned to be turned into real, physical cars.
CryptoMotors is a decentralized application based out of Germany that's creating nonfungible token (NFT) cars for Web3 applications.
It was founded in 2018 and is known as the first digital automaker built on Ethereum. The platform calls itself a "decentralized car production platform" with digital, collectible cars that are designed by professional automotive designers.
The cars on CryptoMotors are NFTs, so each one is a unique digital asset that lives on the Ethereum blockchain that you can trade and collect. You can also submit your own creations with the Design Challenge feature for a chance to have your design distributed on the platform and earn royalties from the sales.
Image source: CryptoMotors
Each CryptoMotor model has a limited number of units, and once all the stock of a model is sold out, that model is never reproduced, creating scarcity.
CryptoMotors use Ethereum's ERC-721 tokens. Every vehicle created is unique and can't be replicated, destroyed or taken away because each is recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.
CryptoMotors is working on a racing game where you use your owned NFT vehicles, and eventually, CryptoMotors wants users to be able to use their cars in other virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or 2D/3D games.
The CryptoMotors racing game is in closed alpha, at the time of writing. Players eligible can enter their owned vehicles into three tracks: Sunpeak, Breachfall or Mudlands.
The project is a work in progress, but if you're a designer, collector or car enthusiast, CryptoMotors might be worth checking out.
To start interacting with the CryptoMotors platform, go to CryptoMotors.io/sign-up. Create an account using an email and password combination. You can also interact with the platform on your mobile device through a browser — we visited the platform on mobile and it's decently optimized.
Image source: CryptoMotors
To buy the digital cars, you'll need an Ethereum-compatible wallet, and CryptoMotors recommends MetaMask. You need ether (ETH) to make purchases.
Once you're all signed up, check out the features and buy cars. Creating an account also creates your own Garage, where you can view your owned vehicles.
Sign up for a Design Challenge and design your own NFT vehicle to be sold on the platform. Each Challenge describes what the participants need to design. If your design is selected, it's turned into a 3D model and tokenized by the CryptoMotors team. If you win a challenge, you'll receive one of the NFTs created for the model's line, and earn a percentage of the total sales of the model (royalties).
Image source: CryptoMotors
What makes these challenges even cooler is that every car could be physically prototyped or manufactured. If that happens and units sell, the company will give back 10% of the earnings to the community of holders of that car's NFT.
Anyone can sign up for a Design Challenge. If you're not a designer yourself, you can still view the submitted and top designs by selecting Challenge on the main navigation bar. You don't need to own a CryptoMotor vehicle to participate in Design Challenges.
The racing feature is still in development, currently in closed alpha. The top racers in each of the three tracks can be viewed by selecting Leaderboard on the main navigation bar.
You need at least one NFT car to participate in the racing. There's no fee for entering a race at this time, aside from gas fees.
Check out the video below for a preview of the CryptoMotors racing game. Keep in mind this video was released two years ago, and more recent gameplay footage was not available.
A variety of unique customizations are available for CryptoMotors vehicles. Color, decals, rims, tires, spoilers and more variations are presented as aftermarket options. Vehicle stats are adjusted depending on the modifications.
CryptoMotors doesn't have its own token. To purchase the cars on CryptoMotors, you need ether (ETH), Etheruem's native asset.
Players are rewarded with ETH, parts, decals and other items upon completing races.
Buy or swap ETH on most major cryptocurrency exchanges, including FTX.us, Binance.us, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gemini and many more.
Gemini's strongest point is its Gemini Earn program, which allows users to earn up to 7.4% interest on specified cryptocurrency balances.
Gemini has a wide selection of cryptos available for exchange on the platform. However, some notable entries from the top 20 by market cap are missing, such as Cardano and Solana.
| Deposit Methods | Bank transfer (ACH) Cryptocurrency Debit card PayPal Apple Pay Google Pay SWIFT |
|---|---|
| Deposit Fees | Cryptocurrency: None Bank transfer (ACH): None, bank fees may apply Wire Transfer: Determined by your bank Debit Card: 3.49% + Trading Fees Paypal: 2.50% of total deposit amount + Trading Fees |
| Withdrawal Fees | Cryptocurrency: None (for 10 withdrawals and below per month) Others: None (for 10 withdrawals and below per month) |
| Trading Fees | Taker fee - 0.03-0.4% Maker fee - 0-0.2% |
Here are the possible earning methods with CryptoMotors at the time of writing:
The racing game is still in development, but when that's open to the public, race winners earn rewards such as ETH, special packages (no specifics available on that yet), cars, decals and more.
The CryptoMotors NFTs are the cars themselves. Each car has varying attributes:
All these differentiate one from another. One car can't have the same number of values in each category as another. Cars also belong to a generation, and have a cooldown period.
Image source: CryptoMotors
Visit the CryptoMotors Market to look for new NFT cars to buy through drops and peer-to-peer auctions. The Market is integrated with the NFT marketplace OpenSea.
All prices are in ETH. Buy cars directly from the CryptoMotors studio or from other users.
To view your owned cars, select Garage. To have a Garage, you need a CryptoMotors account. Your owned vehicles are always in your crypto wallet.
Select the car you want to sell by accessing your Garage. Remember that the CryptoMotors market is integrated with OpenSea for peer-to-peer trades.
When selling a vehicle on the Market, choose to sell with a fixed price or through an auction. There's no fee for listing a car for sale, but CryptoMotors charges 5% for each sale and 2.5% goes to OpenSea.
If you make a successful sale, the ETH from the sale is deposited in your wallet.
Leandrio Bellone is the CEO of CryptoMotors. He's self-identified as a serial entrepreneur, 3D artist and designer. His biography mentions he has over 10 years of experience working with automotive companies, including: Rolls Royce, Hyundai, BMW, Kia, Mini and many more auto manufacturers.
Rodrigo Maldonado is a cofounder and head car designer, who has worked in automotive design since 2012.
The founders and lead people behind this project look to be true car enthusiasts with the experience to back it up, adding legitimacy to the project.
As we've mentioned, this project has some work to do. The racing game is undoubtedly the most anticipated update to the game. Winners could earn crypto, more NFT cars, decals plus other rewards — and add real-use and value to the NFT vehicles.
Eventually, the team wants to turn their car designs into actual cars. And if a user submits the design idea, they'd earn royalties from the sale of that actual vehicle. e The logistics of this isn't mentioned on the platform, such as who is going to manufacture the cars, where they'll be sold and so on.
To stay up to date on the CryptoMotors project, the platform recommends following their Instagram, joining the Discord channel, joining their Telegram or signing up for their newsletter.
We can't deny the uniqueness of CryptoMotors. As the first "digital automaker" built on Ethereum, it appears to be a trailblazer. But on the flipside, maybe CryptoMotors is the first digital automaker because it may not be plausible.
What does make sense for this project is creating vehicles for use in metaverse games, which they're already doing with the blockchain game Upland. Upland is working on a line of in-game vehicles called "Meta cars" that will be used in the game, in collaboration with CryptoMotors. The cars will be used for in-game travel, commerce and more. To be clear, the Upland models aren't the same as the NFT cars existing on the CryptoMotors platform.
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