Please describe your proposed solution.
Adoption of blockchain technology and digital assets is very strained in current form due to the lack of use-cases and interest from mainstream audiences. The general consensus is that the entire industry/concept is a scam or misleading and there is no value in it.
We have already built an aquarium app starting in late October 2021 that has given full user customization of digital worlds with all of their NFTs from 6 blockchains simultaneously (Arbitrum, Avalanche, Cardano, Ethereum, Optimism, and Polygon.) Our developers are fully in-house alongside our artists, UI designers, and growth team members.
We view giving people a fun platform to utilize any digital collectible they own to create provides a way to show mainstream audiences that blockchain and crypto are:
1) not a scam
2) can be a useful alternative to traditional systems
3) allow families to connect across age gaps in a unique way anybody can enjoy without financial incentives being the basis.
How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?
Our platform, specifically this mobile app, gives us multiple ways for impacting Cardano:
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Our target audience outside of blockchain is the entire aquarium industry and aquarium enthusiasts. In just the EU and US, that is a population of over 30 million households with fish as pets, leaving a large amount of interested parties being possibly integrated into Cardano in some form.
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Some of the largest mobile games in the aquarium industry are very cartoon based graphics loaded with micro-transactions and limited design elements. The biggest of these is Fishdom, which generated over $350M in revenue in 2022 and had over 49,000 daily active users in the middle of 2022 as well. The market for both aquariums as a decorative aesthetic for consumers and as a "gaming" app are extremely large and the demand is high from current consumers not in blockchain.
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Our app gives use-cases to virtually every digital asset on Cardano in an entertainment aspect that anybody can then use to show to their family, friends, or random people they meet as they travel. It is an organic way to be creative with your assets while also showing how powerful blockchain ownership and interoperability can be for the average user. We have those active integrations of assets from 5 other blockchains as well, which allows us to provide an interoperable network between all the chains we integrate together alongside all of the people using those.
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We have already achieved a 52% 180-Day retention rate on our web app with almost 700 users logged in at least one time since March 2022. Mobile apps are far more accessible and user friendly than computer apps, and we estimate that as we market to the aquarium industry and build these blockchain integrations in, we will likely have close to 10,000+ registered/active users by 2025.
In conclusion, we feel we have a huge upside to gain traction in the aquarium market as the primary alternative to traditional aquariums and can lace in Cardano digital assets as a foundational piece, with users being rewarded in assets redeemable on the chain as well. This provides channels for us to bring users back into the ecosystem even if they are initially turned off by the idea of crypto or digital collectibles/NFTs by purely giving a fun and interactive experience.
How do you intend to measure the success of your project?
As stated above, the markets are huge for aquarium mobile gaming apps and aquarium enthusiasts which we intend to provide a lot of products and marketing to.
We have a current team member in charge of aquarium industry growth named Brett Raymer, who ran a $10M+ ARR aquarium manufacturing company and is the star of the show Tanked on Animal Planet, one of the highest rated shows on the network of all time. He has provided deep connections with all of the top content creators in the aquarium industry, who we have already met face-to-face and discussed possible future collaborations.
Our deep network makes us feel confident we can bring on a lot of people interested in aquariums and fish tanks traditionally and this would translate to what we feel is at least 5% of that market's population by 2030. This would be roughly 1.5M user accounts (5% of 30M households in EU and US) integrated into both our mobile and web applications and, in turn, directed to Cardano for purchasing or redeeming digital assets we would be distributing.
In terms of blockchain adoption, as we expand with integrating more chains into our asset compatibility, all of those users would now be exposed to visiting Cardano users who have made aquariums with their assets, which would then direct them back to marketplaces and other outlets to look into those Cardano native projects displayed in user aquariums. Long-term we also plan to allow peer-to-peer offer making regardless of chain, so users visiting aquariums would then be allowed to attempt to buy any of your assets displayed in your aquariums if they like them.
We can measure everything above through our user stats which are tracked through PlayFab, download analytics, sales stats over time as we come out with new collections, and user feedback as we see more of our community sharing their aquariums and digital collectibles on social media.
Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?
We usually share on social media and in video interviews our stat milestones like users of the app, holder stats for our collections, etc.
We would continue to provide that as well as in the future providing quarterly updates of project development updates and goals we hit/would like to hit in future months.
Our results directly contribute to features people would like us to integrate, which would also allow us to continually update this app for the entire Cardano community.