Detailed Plan

Broader Definition of the Problem/Solution:

Like art collectors, NFT holders value their NFT possessions and may not wish to sell their collectibles for money. However, they are willing to trade their pieces for other valuable NFTs. This is especially true for sold-out or limited-edition pieces, that are no longer available on the marketplaces.

Today, this problem is being addressed by individuals going through Discord groups offering trades and reviewing swap proposals. This approach is inefficient, labor-intensive, and prone to fraud.

Cardano Plutus contracts allow us to solve this problem by creating an NFT swapping platform and moving these verbal agreements onto the chain.

With Plutus Application Backend (PAB) scheduled soon to roll out on the main net, it is the perfect timing to use PAB to solve the aforementioned problem.

Definition of Success:

User-friendly smart-contract-powered NFT swapping platform enabling that can instantly settle the swap once both sides agree on the trade.

Key achievements / Value for the Cardano ecosystem:

1. Novel application built on Cardano. To the best of my knowledge, no such NFT swapping platform exists on any blockchain.

2. Swapping platform unlocks an extra level of liquidity for NFT holders. This is especially relevant for those, who hold limited edition or sold-out NFTs, that once sold can’t be easily rebought.

3. Verbal, chaotic Discord agreements between users will be moved on to Smart Contracts removing the need for escrow services and mitigating opportunities for fraud.

Impact on the challenge metrics:

• NFT swapping will increase the transaction amount to settle contracts
• Usage of ADA will increase as some trades will involve NFTs + ADA payments
• Increasing need for new addresses to enable the smart contract functionality + higher volume of transactions between addresses

Delivery Timeline:

In 3 Months - Fully Operational POC:

• Finalized platform design
• Fully operational POC
• SC enabled NFT swap functionality
• Messaging functionality to propose swaps to ‘open’ NFT holders

Major Project Risks:

• Delayed PAB roll-out timeline

• Delayed wallet integration with PABs

Follow-on Development Plans:

• Create a reputational system for sellers, where it would be possible to see how many trades each user was involved in. That would increase trust in users who use the platform more.

• Automatic NFT verification by integrating with a shared NFT Policy ID repository

• Add the capability to also add ADA to the NFT trade (e.g. 1 NFT could be traded for 2 simpler NFTs + agreed amount of ADA)

Budget requirements:

Project QA/Content Creation/Project Management - 3 months x 2,500 USD/month

Custom design - 55 h x 36 USD - 1980 USD

Platform development - 480 hours x 30 USD - 14,400 USD

TOTAL: 23,880 USD