Solana Foundation launches NFT pitch contest for aspiring creators

Quick Take

  • Solana Foundation’s “NFT Showdown” hopes to attract contestants who want to create collections that offer “real-world utility” for industries such as fashion, entertainment and gaming.

In an effort “to strengthen the quality” of new non-fungible token (NFT) projects, the Solana Foundation is inviting aspiring creators to pitch the company their idea for profile-picture collections.

The competition, dubbed the “NFT Showdown,” is meant to encourage artists to devise comprehensive business plans aimed at creating collections that offer “real-world utility” for the fashion, entertainment and gaming industries, among others.

“The NFT Showdown is designed to encourage a shift in the way NFT brands design their business plans prior to launching,” Austin Federa, Solana Foundation’s head of strategy, said in a statement. “Projects should consider what it will take to achieve long term success as an NFT brand.”

While Ethereum has long dominated the NFT space as the blockchain of choice for top collections, rival chains like Solana have been gaining ground.

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With a submission window slated for early June, the 10 contest winners will be awarded with direct support from Solana. This will primarily include extensive guidance from Solana and industry experts on how to achieve “long-term success,” the foundation said in a statement. 

Magic Eden, an NFT marketplace known partly for handling trading for Solana-based collections, said it fully supports the competition. "For the last 18 months, we have supported Solana creators entering the space and collaborated with hundreds of projects who have sold out on Magic Eden,” said Tiffany Huang, head of marketing at the NFT marketplace. “This initiative is about getting new faces and ideas into the ecosystem, and we're excited to see how we can play our role to expand the ecosystem."


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About Author

RT Watson is a senior reporter at The Block who covers a wide array of topics including U.S.-based companies, blockchain gaming and NFTs. Formerly covered entertainment at The Wall Street Journal, where he wrote about Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. and the creator economy while focusing primarily on technological disruption across media. Previous to that he covered corporate, economic and political news in Brazil while at Bloomberg. RT has interviewed a diverse cast of characters including CEOs, media moguls, top influencers, politicians, blue-collar workers, drug traffickers and convicted criminals. Holds a master's degree in Digital Sociology.

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