Ice-T Helps Niftify Launch NFT Marketplace in US

Are you an American dreaming of an Ice-T Christmas? Sorry, but you'll have to settle for rain and snow until January 4.

That's when NFT marketplace Niftify, which is opening its virtual doors in the U.S., is dropping 10,000 non-fungible tokens in the likeness of the O.G. rapper, producer, and film star.

The brainchild of co-founders Bruno Ver, Emil Sterndorff and Marko Vidrih, Niftify launched in beta in October for customers outside the United States and uses Polygon, a protocol for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchains.

The marketplace previously dropped an Ice-T collection to users outside the U.S. in November. Like that drop, the new release was also created by New York City-based digital artist Tommy the Animator.

The release memorializes "three pivotal moments" from the rapper/actor's career, Niftify co-founder Bruno Ver told Decrypt: the release of the O.G. Original Gangster album in 1991, the release of the film "New Jack City" in 1991, and Ice-T's addition to the "Law & Order SVU" cast in 2000.

Ice-T’s 1992 album "Body Count," was nationally controversial for the protest song "Cop Killer," which was written from the point of view of a character fed up with police brutality. The rapper-turned-actor went on to enjoy a career in film and television, later starring as NYPD Detective Odafin Tutuola in the "Law & Order" franchise.

Niftify will leverage the Ice-T launch to join a growing list of NFT marketplaces using proof-of-stake (POS) blockchains, which use less energy than Ethereum. Earlier this month, Rarible announced plans to add support for Tezos NFTs. Recently, Magic Eden, a popular Solana NFT marketplace, partnered with Exodus to provide an in-app marketplace inside Exodus’ mobile wallet.

As for Polygon, it uses a proof-of-stake sidechain to lower its energy expenditure and transaction costs. Layer-2 solutions, like Polygon, refer to a secondary protocol built on top of an existing blockchain, in this case, Ethereum, which has high gas fees and minting costs.

Ver said that Niftify will also include a fiat on-ramp to allow collectors to purchase NFTs with a credit/debit card.

"We want to democratize the blockchain and specifically NFTs," he said. "If we just keep accepting only crypto we will continue to speak among ourselves. If we dream of mainstream adoption, we need to roll out the red carpet, bring the confetti and allow people to swipe, tap, type, or whatever they prefer to purchase their favorite NFT."