Please describe your proposed solution.
In the traditional model of designing and selling Jewelry, the designers and jewellery manufacturers create a collection; which they then launch and market at different events around the world, such as the JCK Las Vegas <https://lasvegas.jckonline.com/>, the Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair <https://jgw.exhibitions.jewellerynet.com/> or the Dubai Jewelry Show <https://www.jgtdubaijewelleryshow.com/>
After the launch, the Jewelry pieces are sold online or at the retail stores of the designers. The design is fixed during production, and the uniqueness, or the number of units produced, controls rarity.
The traditional model does not allow for customization of jewellery pieces besides engravings at the point of sale.
On the other hand, consumers are demanding more customization of their products. Think of custom car packages and paint jobs that can be selected when purchasing a new car. The trends for customization are expected to continue. Personalization is an essential marketing tactic that has been used for years. It allows marketers to understand their customers and better target them with ads and messaging. However, personalization will expand into longer customer journeys as technology becomes more advanced and data sets grow larger.
<https://ninetailed.io/blog/personalization-trends-to-watch-for-in-2022/>
Providing a complementary NFT with the details of the custom-designed Jewelry piece creates a sentimental connection to the uniqueness of the design. In addition, it has the practical aspect of clarifying what has gone into the Jewelry piece.
Several companies have created integrated production lines between a webshop and the manufacturing facility that makes individual jewellery pieces. However, this integration is still unique in that the company can create bespoke Jewelry pieces from a blueprint of different traits. Similar to how artists generate NFT collections on the web.
A couple of examples where companies offer a bespoke jewellery design service:
<https://chimeradesign.jewelershowcase.com/band-builder>
<https://www.jweel.com/html/tools.html>
On these platforms, once the customer is happy with the design of the Jewelry piece, they submit their order and go to the checkout area.
Upon checkout and payment, the webshop sends the 3d model to the production line, and the designer gets to work putting together the unique piece by adding the selected traits.
A few days later, a courier delivers the unique Jewelry piece to the customer.
<u>Solution</u>
We will integrate an NFT minter into the Jewellery production process. As the client designs their unique Jewelry piece, they will have the information if the piece is truly unique and the number of other pieces with similar traits. This might lead them to pick different designs that are more or less unique, depending on their preference.
During checkout, the customer will receive an NFT with a picture of the 3d model and metadata with the traits of their unique Jewelry piece.
This will improve the customer journey by:
- Giving the customer clear information on how rare their piece is
- The customer will receive an NFT with the 3d model summary of the traits that they can then show their friends and loved ones
- Create a secondary market for the Jewelry market on the blockchain
Adding NFTS to physical jewellery pieces will bring new users to the Cardano ecosystem as every customer will become a user of the Cardano Blockchain.
During the checkout, the customer will have the option to provide the address of their Cardano wallet, where we will send the NFT certificate. If the customer doesn’t have a Cardano wallet, we will create one for them and send the NFT there. In addition, the customer will receive a 15-word mnemonic phrase for their new wallet, which they can use for other things in the Cardano ecosystem.
The transaction cost for minting the NFT will be borne by the webshop, so the NFT for the customer will be complimentary (free). The customer will receive an NFT in their wallet and a small amount of ADA to cover the future cost of sending the NFT should they want to transfer it to someone else.
We are in talks with a company in Portugal that has built a production line capable of linking their web app to their manufacturing facility. This proposal is to build the Cardano infrastructure to plug into the production line and mint the NFTs linked to the physical jewellery pieces.
We will also investigate the possibility of uploading the 3d model CAD file into the NFT so the 3d model can be used in the manufacturing process.
The Jewelry market has faired well during the most recent economic downturn. Despite serious economic disruption at the turn of 2020, the global gems and jewellery market is forecast to grow at 5.5% CAGR by 2025*. Though shy of pre-pandemic projections at 8% CAGR** this outlook represents a significant hike from approximately 230 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 to roughly 292 billion dollars by 2025. Source: https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/gems-and-jewelry-market
How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?
The project addresses the challenge setting by creating a novel and viable application of NFTs to the real world and onboarding non-crypto users to the Cardano Ecosystem.
It will create NFTs for real-world assets to which people attribute economic and emotional value, Jewelry.
It will help onboard new users into the Cardano Ecosystem as every person who buys this particular Jewellery will get an NFT on their existing Cardano wallet, or if they don’t have one, then a new Cardano Wallet will be created for them and a mnemonic phrase provided which they can use elsewhere in their lives. So every new customer automatically becomes a new Cardano user.
It solves a real-world problem of tracking and communicating uniqueness in Jewellery pieces, which is also one of the prerequisites for a transparent secondary market.
How do you intend to measure the success of your project?
We will consider the project a success if, in the end, we deliver a working solution that shows the clients the uniqueness of the traits as they are customizing their jewellery design, and after checking out, they receive a professionally designed NFT certificate in PDF format with the image of the 3d model used and the traits in that were used to build it.
The NFT will be delivered to the client’s existing Cardano wallet, or a new wallet will be created for the client, and the NFT deposited there.
The client will also be given a link to where they can view the NFT as it sits on the blockchain and other Jewelry items in the same collection (same PolicyID)
A successful project will bring new users to the Cardano ecosystem as every client will have a Cardano wallet.
It will leverage existing community tools such as the javascript wrapper for cardano-cli and cardano-wallet services.
And it will solve an actual use case for non-crypto users - the purchase of the NFT will be included in the Jewelry sale price, for which they will pay in crypto or fiat depending on the onramp of the webshop. It will be integrated into a standard web shopping experience.
Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?
A report with the following KPIs will be produced at each month's end.
Build KPIs
- Number of weekly commits
- Total lines of code for the backend and the front end
Delivery KPIs
- Server with Cardano node and Cardano services running on the Testnet
- The cardano-cli and cardano-wallet javascript wrapper libraries are installed
- The backend service to upload images to IFPS is working
- The backend service accepts images of the 3d model and traits of the designed jewellery, creates metadata from it, and mints an NFT
- The new wallet can be generated for the client, and detail sent to the client
- NFT certificate is designed and can be generated
- The client checkout workflow is tested and released to production.