[IMPACT]

With a heavy focus on the user experience, Mint City is designing a web3 service with a familiar web2 user friendly interface. Combining a desirable experience that is currently lacking in the space with heavily concentrated marketing targeted at Ethereum projects, we will demonstrate the Ethereum capability gap that is filled by the Cardano ecosystem directly to the NFT community.

Technology

Mint City provides an intuitive and user-friendly full-service CNFT minting suite. The platform delivers a complete toolset for existing and aspiring NFT projects that enables projects success to include; artwork, art layering and rarity generation, metadata creation, smart contract development, website development with wallet and sales vending integration, minting services, airdrop capabilities, ISPO offerings, as well as discord, social media and marketing consulting.

Marketing

Already in progress, we have made a concerted effort to find projects early in their lifecycle that are planning to launch on Ethereum. Through strong relationship building and demonstration of reduced cost and market saturation, we have been able to convince two projects to shift from Ethereum and mint their projects with us on Cardano. In addition to new projects, we are beginning targeted marketing on existing mid-tier projects that have announced or are rumored to be launching a new NFT series or line.

Consultative Approach

If you have launched an NFT project, you know how hard it is to build a powerful concept, a strong community, generative art, and all of the other aspects of a trusted NFT project. Having launched both very successful projects as well as projects that have not yet realized their full potential, we understand the intricacies required to have a successful project launch. While projects have the option to just submit art and metadata and go straight to launch, we offer consulting services for PFP, Play-to-Earn gaming, on-chain and off-chain utility, and other NFT concept projects.

Competitive Pricing

Mint City is priced to allow projects to succeed. We offer low cost up front pricing for those who prefer to pay before minting as well as a commission based pay structure for early budget conscious projects looking to pay after a successful project launch.

Mint City is specifically aligned to the challenge KPIs in every aspect by helping migrate NFT projects from Ethereum to Cardano. Ethereum NFT projects now have an easy bridge to enable a shift to a more cost effective and user friendly ecosystem in Cardano.

Measuring the number of projects that migrate will be a simple metric to measure. As a service provider we will have direct knowledge of the projects that work with us to move an existing project, run a new series release or projects that are intended to mint on Ethereum and choose Cardano instead.

All projects minted by Mint City will be displayed on the website.

Maxis:

The primary challenges we foresee for this project is the close mindedness and hesitation of some Ethereum projects to move their NFT line to the Cardano ecosystem. Personal experience at our in-person meet-ups has shown that some Ethereum community members can resist listening to anything relating to Cardano or other blockchains.

Mitigation strategy:

One on one conversations have been successful in the past. While some people have a hard line stance, often it is because they are uniformed or unfamiliar with the benefits of other blockchains.

Diluting Current Supply:

Established projects are rightfully concerned about the possibility of reducing the value of their current offerings to their community. Additional supply without additional demand results in reduced value. Established successful projects in the Ethereum ecosystem are hesitant to create more NFTs for their project and may not shift their projects

Mitigation Strategy:

While we want big name projects to migrate, we will be marketing to projects that haven’t yet realized their full potential.

[FEASIBILITY]

Completed

• Informational Website V1 - <https://mintcity.app>
• Vending Machine Technology
  • Vending Machine
  • Traditional Airdrop
  • Claim Airdrop
  • Transaction Utilities
  • General Utilities
  • NFT Swapper
  • ISPOs
  • Royalties
  • Metadata updates
  • Whitelists
  • Flexible profit distribution
  • Advanced native asset handling
• Flexible and user-friendly wallet linking for providing Cardano utility from existing Ethereum projects
• Proof of Concept - multiple successful CNFT & NFT launches with zero technical failures to include CryptoPetz, UnderTheTree, Endangered Mints, RetroKydz, IOG Employee Holiday Airdrop, and more

In progress

• 2 ETH projects in pipeline
• 2 Original Projects preparing for launch
• Website V2
  • Automated project submissions
  • Back-End
• Dedicated resilient and scalable Cardano nodes
• Optimized transaction processing for smooth user experience and minimized congestion

Planned

• Vending Technology Features
  • Asset Swapper
  • Additional transaction utilities
  • Vending machine bot mitigation
  • Continued maintenance and support for cardano-node and cardano-cli updates
  • Additional user payment flows for unique launch experiences
• Sales data analytics
• Art, Art layering and Rarity Generation Instructional guides
• Marketing guide
• Discord and Social Media Success guide

Development & Management of Frontend, Backend, and Minting Technology

Development: 30 hours/week for 2 months - $15600 (asking for $7800, 50%)
Sustainment: 5 hours/week for 4 months - $5200

Marketing and Advertising

Online Marketing: $4000
Consulting Materials: $1500
Business Development and Marketing Labor: 10 hours/week for 6 months - $15,600

Hardware and Software

Web Hosting: 6 month total - $120
Resilient Azure Infrastructure: 6 month total - $1,800

Total Requested: $36,020

Nicholas Fekete - Project Lead

Graduated Magna Cum Laude in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ottawa in 2018. Founder of CryptoPetz CNFT Play-to-Earn Gaming.
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-fekete-76b945159/>

Justin Denham - Business Development

Microsoft Modern Service Management Consultant by day, crypto and NFT degen by night. Member of the CryptoPetz team and founder of Endangered Mints CNFT photography platform.
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-denham-47551938/>

Jake Shearman - Back-End & Plutus Developer

I found my passion as a kid when I started programming iOS apps and Minecraft mods. Fast forward 10 years and I was graduating Summa Cum Laude in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Connecticut. Since then I've spent a couple years in the traditional FinTech space as a software engineer while simultaneously getting familiar with various crypto ecosystems. After months of eagerly waiting for Cardano to make smart contract development possible, I was honored to be a part of the Plutus Pioneers First Cohort.
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-shearman/>

Bart Klumpers - Front-End Developer

I’m a self-taught front-end developer from the Netherlands. I’ve been in crypto since the end of 2016 and what a journey it has been so far! I’m thrilled to have stepped on the Mint City train to continue this amazing journey through tech and blockchain land. As a self-taught developer I feel honored to be able to work with all the crazy talented people on the Petz team and absorb the knowledge they have! I’m very passionate about designing awesome looking, functional websites and apps and that’s exactly what I will be doing on the team.
<https://Linkedin.com/in/bart-klumpers-064402213>

Dominic Monette - Developer

Graduated Magna Cum Laude in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ottawa in 2018. I work as a firmware and embedded systems engineer, and do game development in my spare time. I am also a Plutus Pioneer and enjoy creating generative art and metadata for blockchain projects. Co-founder of CryptoPetz CNFT Play-to-Earn Gaming.
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-monette-7273b287/>

[AUDITABILITY]

• Timely cardano-node updates after new releases (less than 2 weeks from release), with server redundancy and 99.9% uptime for all projects minting with us
• Website automated project intake available
• Tracking projects minting with us
  • Total projects minted using Mint City
  • New projects that were previously considering launching on Ethereum
  • Existing Ethereum projects migrated to Cardano

Success will be measured in the following ways from April 2022 - September 2022:

• Website v2 complete
• Consulting materials available on website
• Total projects minting with us: 24
• Projects launching with us that were previously considering Ethereum: 12
• Existing Ethereum projects migrated to Cardano via Mint City: 6
• Projects that mint with us that sell out: 18
• Rug pulls: 0
• Metadata mistakes and/or recalls: 0
• Fair ordering and other user payment issues: 0

This is an entirely new Catalyst proposal; it is not a continuation.