SuperRare is a decentralized NFT platform that has collected almost $250M of digital art and paid $3M in artist royalties to date. In its 1.0 version, the SuperRare team manually selected and approved artists to mint their works as SuperRare NFTs on a shared smart contract. However, SuperRare 2.0 introduced web-scale curation, allowing independent storefronts on the platform and enabling artists to mint, promote, and sell their works directly to collectors using sovereign minting contracts.

With the goal of progressive decentralization, SuperRare has transferred ownership and governance of the network to the community. SuperRare 2.0 operates as a DAO, a decentralized organization that manages platform parameters, utilizes funds from the Community Treasury, and votes on proposed network and protocol improvements.

SuperRare is a premier NFT platform, with nearly $250M of digital art collected and $3M in artist royalties paid to date. SuperRare emerged from its 1.0 version, where the core team hand-picked and approved artists to mint their works on a shared smart contract as SuperRare NFTs. SuperRare 2.0 changed that by introducing web-scale curation, independently running storefronts on the platform, and sovereign minting contracts for artists to mint, promote, and sell their works directly to collectors.

By embarking on this path of progressive decentralization, SuperRare shifted ownership and governance of the network to the community. SuperRare 2.0 is a DAO, a decentralized organization that oversees key platform parameters, allocates funds from the Community Treasury, and votes on proposed improvements to the network and protocol.

SuperRare is a DAO and has no executive leadership in the traditional sense. It has a seven-person governance council that controls the Community Treasury via 4-of-7 multi-sig wallet.

The genesis signers for the Governance Council are:

John Crain; CEO and Co-Founder of SuperRare Labs

Nick Tomaino; Founding Partner @ 1Confirmation

Derek Schloss; Partner @ CollabCurrency

Serena Tabacchi; Founder & Curator @ MoCDA

Simona Pop; Community Strategy @ Status

Pindar Van Arman; OG Artist @ SuperRare

Signers are merely executors for decisions passed through governance and do not have the ability to unilaterally allocate treasury funds. They oversee the safety and security of the underlying assets controlled by the DAO.

SuperRare evolved into the 2.0 version by addressing three key problems:

1. Curation and gatekeeping by a single team are not conducive to a scaled art ecosystem.
2. Artists deserve as much support as possible, but a single team can only do so much.
3. The NFT art ecosystem is fragmented, and there is no good way to manage ones whole collection.

SuperRare solved this by introducing SuperRare Spaces, which are independently-run storefronts on SuperRare that can curate art and artists, promote sales, run auctions, and collect commissions. Each Space can launch its own branded ERC-721 token and invite artists to mint NFTs with them, either as a one-time event or on an ongoing basis. That allows each Space to become its own sovereign crypto art gallery.

Furthermore, self-sovereign minting contracts let artists deploy a custom NFT minting contract and tokenize and sell their art as uniquely independent artists. Thus, artists have another option in addition to minting on a shared contract with other artists and can become their own sovereign creative platform.

The total supply of RARE is 1 billion. The distribution is as follows:

• 150 million RARE as retroactive airdrop, distributed to the core community of artists and collectors who have bootstrapped SuperRare into the platform that it is today, claimable for 90 days.
• 400 million RARE as Community Treasury that will be owned and operated by its holders. 25% is available at launch, while the rest will vest linearly over 4 years.
• 255 million RARE to the core contributors at SuperRare Labs who have played a vital role in developing the SuperRare platform. Team tokens are subject to 3-year vesting with a 6-month cliff.
• 145 million RARE to investors who participated in SuperRares previous funding rounds. Investor tokens are subject to 3-year vesting with a 12-month cliff.
• 50 million RARE to strategic partners and future contributors to the SuperRare network. 6 months minimum vesting upon allocation.

RARE is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum. The network is governed as a DAO with a 4/7 multi-sig wallet.

ERC-20 is a token standard most new tokens follow when publishing on the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is one of the most popular blockchains for DAOs, such as SuperRare, and is secured by a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism that requires validators to stake 32 Ether. A set of decentralized nodes validates transactions and secures the Ethereum blockchain.

SuperRare 2.0 launched on Aug. 17, 2021, on UniSwapV3.

RARE is available on Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, UniSwapV3, LBank, Gate.io, and more.