[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.
This proposal seeks funding for the second phase of the Open Source NFT Swap Infrastructure Templates project, building upon the successful completion of Phase 1. Phase 1 was funded in Fund 8
The aim of the project is to develop two distinct, open-source NFT swapping smart contract templates alongside their corresponding off-chain code and front-end interfaces.
The first template will facilitate specific token swaps, while the second, which is the focus of this proposal, will allow for random swaps from a community pool.
We are proud to report that Phase 1 surpassed its original objectives. Not only did we deliver the required templates, but we also devised a solution that empowers project creators and developers to deploy their own swap pool smart contract with a single click. This advancement enables even non-developers to configure and deploy a swap pool effortlessly.
For more details, please see our presentation video and our GitHub page, which houses comprehensive documentation and the complete code base.
https://youtu.be/VK_v6FuDGCgA key accomplishment of Phase 1 was the creation of a user-friendly method for generating and deploying a filtered version of the smart contract. This means that filter validation requirements are on-chain, fully integrated into the smart contract, and free from reliance on off-chain databases or code. The functionality of this system is displayed in the following video demonstration, where we filter the NFT collection by rarity. However, creators can customize the filter according to their unique requirements.
<https://youtu.be/2UCtS4nEUP4>Phase 1 is at 95% completion, and we anticipate deploying the sample pools and the admin infrastructure to the mainnet soon. In Phase 2, we aim to introduce Random Pool Swapping Mechanics. This will allow users to initiate a swap by sending a transaction with an NFT to the smart contract address, which then randomly returns a different NFT from the available pool. Multiple Smart Contracts and associated pools could be established based on project needs and composition, each corresponding to a particular rarity level.
The contents of the community swapping pool (the random pool) could either be visible to the users or not, depending on the preference and the needs of each project.
The smart contracts will also empower project creators to charge a small fee per swap, ensuring the longevity and self-sustainability of their swapping service.
To achieve our goal of creating easy-to-implement, open-source templates, we will continue developing the code, UI templates, and maintaining clear, comprehensive documentation, supplemented by instructional videos where necessary.
While the development of adaptable templates for the Cardano NFT creators community is an immediate benefit, the long-term advantage lies in encouraging the concept of swapping.
We believe that this initiative will have many long term benefits, including its potential to bring back the joy of collecting, inspire fun, lead to easier collection completion, increased appreciation for collections, enhanced social interaction, and long-term value to collections. The project aims to expand the collectibles NFT ecosystem beyond its current drivers - profit and social status.
Most importantly, however, we hope that our efforts will bring about a new way of looking at collectible NFTs. One that will combine all the new value propositions that NFTs and the technology behind them offer, with the value layer that traditional collectibles such as Pokemon cards, basketball cards, stamps, coins etc. bring. All of these rely heavily on the experience of swapping between members of their respective communities, either as a means of completing collections or simply for the joy of collecting.
Cardano's low fees, fast transactions, and the power of eUTxO, allowing multiple swaps in a single transaction, make it a perfect fit for this experience.
We trust that our project's potential value and impact on the Cardano NFT space and the broader Cardano environment resonate with the community's ethos of long-term value creation over short-term hype.
[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?
Our proposed solution directly addresses the Open Source Dev Ecosystem (OSDE) challenge by fostering the growth and development of Cardano's open-source community. We aim to achieve this through the development of open-source NFT swap infrastructure templates, which will greatly streamline the process of creating, deploying, and managing NFT swaps on Cardano.
By making these templates publicly accessible and free to use, we are encouraging collaboration within the community and boosting the visibility and adoption of open-source projects. Our commitment to robust documentation, comprehensive guides, and instructional videos further supports this goal by providing an accessible and user-friendly way for developers of all levels of experience to contribute to and benefit from our project.
Additionally, our project provides a direct and immediate value to the Cardano ecosystem by stimulating activity in the NFT space. The introduction of a structured, open-source way to handle NFT swaps can lead to an increase in NFT trading and creation, strengthening Cardano's position as a hub for digital art and collectibles.
Beyond the immediate benefits, our project also brings long-term value to Cardano by fostering an ecosystem that values knowledge sharing, collaboration, and community contribution. We anticipate that our project will attract developers and non-developers alike to the Cardano community. For developers, our open-source templates provide a valuable resource to learn from and build upon. For non-developers, our user-friendly interface and easy-to-use deployment methods lower the barrier to entry, making it more accessible for everyone to participate in the NFT space.
As we plan to continue refining and expanding our templates based on community feedback and technological advancements, we expect our impact on the Cardano ecosystem to grow over time. Our long-term goal is to be a significant contributor to Cardano's open-source ecosystem, continuously providing resources and tools that facilitate growth and innovation.
[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?
The success of our project can be measured through both qualitative and quantitative means, combining traditional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with user feedback and community engagement metrics.
Adoption of Open-Source Templates: One of the most direct measures of success is the rate at which our open-source NFT swap templates are adopted. This can be quantified by tracking the number of projects that deploy our templates and the number of NFT swaps facilitated by these deployments. A steady increase in these numbers would indicate that our project is providing value to the Cardano ecosystem and stimulating activity in the NFT space.
Community Engagement: We can measure community engagement through various channels such as GitHub (number of stars, forks, issues, and pull requests on our repository) and social media interactions. High engagement levels would indicate that our project is sparking interest and facilitating collaboration within the Cardano community.
User Feedback: Gathering qualitative feedback from users and developers who utilize our templates will provide valuable insights into how well our project is meeting its goals. We can conduct regular surveys or solicit feedback through our communication channels to understand the user experience, potential improvements, and areas where we're doing particularly well.
Documentation Use and Feedback: The utilization and feedback on our documentation, guides, and instructional videos will be a strong indicator of their effectiveness and the overall success of our project. Increased views and positive feedback would indicate the clarity and usefulness of our resources.
Quality of NFT Swapping Experience: Through user feedback and usage data, we can measure the quality of the NFT swapping experience that our templates provide. This includes the simplicity and efficiency of the process, the security of the smart contracts, and the versatility of the templates.
In the short term, the success of our project will contribute to Cardano's productivity by simplifying and standardizing the process of creating and managing NFT swaps. This will lower the barrier to entry and stimulate activity in the NFT space, which in turn will drive growth and innovation within the Cardano ecosystem.
In the long term, by fostering an open-source ethos and encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing, our project will help to cultivate a robust, vibrant, and self-sustaining ecosystem around Cardano. This will enable Cardano to continue to innovate and grow, driven by a community that is invested in its success.
[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?
Our primary mode of sharing the outputs and results of our project will be through our GitHub repository. This repository will contain all the open-source NFT swap smart contract templates, corresponding off-chain code, front-end interfaces, and comprehensive documentation. We will continuously update the repository as we refine and expand the project, ensuring that the Cardano community always has access to the latest and most effective tools for NFT swapping.
We plan to use social media platforms to regularly communicate updates, milestones achieved, and important results from our project. This will keep the Cardano community informed about our progress and provide an opportunity for them to give us feedback.
We'll also present the project at an NFT Guild Roundtable to walk through how to use our templates and answer any questions users might have. We intend to record and transcribe the session and make it freely available for anyone who could not attend or wants to refer back to the information.
Moreover, we expect our project to inspire new ideas and research questions about NFT swapping and the broader NFT ecosystem. By making our work open-source, we hope to stimulate discussion and exploration that leads to further innovation in this exciting space.
We are committed to the Cardano ecosystem, and we see this project as part of an ongoing effort to contribute to its growth and development. The learnings and results from this project will certainly fuel our future contributions to the Cardano community.
[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?
Our team has a proven track record of successfully executing projects within the Cardano NFT community for more than a year and a half. We initiated the NFT Guild Open Community Weekly Calls in January 2022 and the NFT Roundtables in May 2022.
Moreover, our team has been successfully funded for two standard setting proposals in Catalyst Fund 8, which we have delivered on and closed out successfully. These proposals - the Standard for verification of NFTs and the NFT Royalty Standards - are demonstrative of our ability to deliver on complex projects within the ecosystem.
Phase 1 of the project has been funded and executed under the umbrella of the NFT Guild. We have implemented robust processes to ensure effective management and transparent accountability of funds. Furthermore, all fund movements are transparently tracked in dedicated channels on our Discord server.
Our operations are conducted with transparency, and we prioritize maintaining an open line of communication with the community and all stakeholders. We understand the importance of trust in this ecosystem and work to uphold it.
[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?
The primary goals for our project are:
Development of NFT Swap Smart Contract Templates: We aim to develop open-source smart contract templates that can be used to facilitate NFT swaps on Cardano. This goal will be validated by the presence of the main outputs (code, documentation, UI designs) on the project’s GitHub page.
Creation of a User-Friendly Interface: To make NFT swapping accessible to as many users as possible, we will develop an intuitive and user-friendly front-end interface for our smart contract templates.
Increase the Adoption of NFTs on Cardano: Our overarching goal is to increase the adoption and usage of NFTs within the Cardano ecosystem. We hope to accomplish this by introducing a lot of the unique appeal of traditional collectibles into the NFT space. We will quantify this goal by tracking the number of NFT swaps executed using our templates.
Promote Open-Source Development on Cardano: By releasing our work as open-source, we aim to stimulate further development and innovation in the Cardano ecosystem. We will measure this through the number of forks, stars, and contributors to our GitHub repository, as well as any new projects or initiatives that leverage our work.
[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.
Our project will be executed over a 6-month period and is structured into five milestones, each with a clear set of tasks and success criteria.
Milestone 1: User Stories and Preliminary Research for Randomiser Engine (1 Month)
Key Activities:
- Gather user stories and use-cases.
- Conduct preliminary research on randomiser engine requirements and potential solutions.
- Outline specifications for the randomiser engine based on gathered information.
Success Criteria:
- Completion of user stories and use-cases.
- Completed preliminary research report with potential solutions for randomiser engine.
- Completed specifications for the randomiser engine.
Milestone 2: Development of Smart Contract Code (2 Months)
Key Activities:
- Design the smart contract architecture.
- Write the smart contract code.
- Conduct testing to ensure code correctness.
Success Criteria:
- Completion of smart contract design and written code.
- Successful tests with no critical issues.
Milestone 3: Development of Back-End Code (1 Month)
Key Activities:
- Design the back-end architecture.
- Write the back-end code.
- Conduct testing to ensure code correctness.
Success Criteria:
- Completion of back-end design and written code.
- Successful tests with no critical issues.
Milestone 4: Development of UX/UI (1 Month)
Key Activities:
- Design the front-end interface based on user stories.
- Write the front-end code.
- Conduct usability testing and iterate based on feedback.
Success Criteria:
- Completion of front-end design and written code.
- Successful usability tests and positive user feedback.
Milestone 5: Project Launch and Promotion (1 Month)
Key Activities:
- Deploy the project on Cardano mainnet.
- Promote the project to the Cardano community through social media and events.
- Monitor usage and feedback for potential improvements.
Success Criteria:
-
Successful project deployment with no critical issues.
-
Successful promotion activities with positive engagement from the community.
-
Initial usage of the templates and community feedback.
[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.
Milestone 1: User Stories and Preliminary Research for Randomiser Engine
Deliverables: We'll produce a document containing detailed user stories and use-cases, as well as a preliminary research report outlining potential solutions for the randomiser engine. We'll also have a set of specifications for the randomiser engine based on the gathered information.
Intended Outcomes: This milestone will result in a thorough understanding of the user needs and a comprehensive research base to build the randomiser engine. The main metric for success here will be the completion and quality of the research and design documents.
Milestone 2: Development of Smart Contract Code
Deliverables: The main output for this milestone will be the completed and tested smart contract code. The documentation outlining the design and architecture of the smart contracts will also be produced.
Intended Outcomes: The Cardano ecosystem will have access to open-source smart contract templates for NFT swapping.
Milestone 3: Development of Back-End Code
Deliverables: The back-end code along with documentation outlining the architecture and design decisions will be the key deliverables of this milestone.
Intended Outcomes: The system will be ready for front-end integration.
Milestone 4: Development of UX/UI
Deliverables: The main deliverable will be the front-end code that integrates with the back-end system. We'll also produce UI/UX design documentation.
Intended Outcomes: A user-friendly interface for NFT swapping will be ready for use by the community.
Milestone 5: Project Launch and Promotion
Deliverables: A fully deployed project on the Cardano mainnet will be the main deliverable of this milestone.
Intended Outcomes: Our project's completion will enable secure and efficient NFT swapping on Cardano.
[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.
Development
- Smart Contract for swap of specific NFTs - 75 hours
- Smart Contract for random swap - 50 hours
- Web front-end, display of swap pool NFT content and possibility to interact with the NFTs and place offers - 50 hours
- Wallet integration - 25 hours
- Documentation of contracts and instructions on how to build - 10 hours
- Documentation of how to build, install and configure web front end - 10 hours
Project Management, Market Research, Marketing, UX, UI and Misc.
- Project Management - 4 hours/week x 24 weeks = 96 hours
- Market Research - 4 hours/week x 24 weeks = 96 hours
- Testing and code documentation verification - 12.5 hours
- UI Design - 40 hours
- Marketing - 50 hours
- Miscellaneous Expenses (hosting, subscriptions, etc)
- Catalyst Administrative Tasks (monthly reports + milestone proof of achievement submissions + closeout report)
Total: 225960 ADA
[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?
CENT (Lead Developer)
<https://github.com/cent-development>
Core Member of the Cardano NFT Guild [<https://www.nft-guild.io>]. Stake Pool operator of the pool CENT since December 2019. 20 years of experience in software development. Creator of the community tool Cardano Blockchain Intelligence. Graduate of the Plutus Pioneers Program cohort 1, 2021. Project Catalyst funded proposer since F6.
Anamaria Kövesdi (New Mindflow) (UX/UI Designer, Artist)
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/anamaria-k%C3%B6vesdi-354649106/>
Rares Kövesdi (New Mindflow) (Project Manager, Product Owner, Writer)
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/rares-k%C3%B6vesdi-551260106/>
New Mindflow [https://www.newmindflow.com] are:
Artist and entrepreneur, in the Cardano NFT space since Day 1. Core Members of the Cardano NFT Guild [<https://www.nft-guild.io>]. Creators of the Trybbles & Icons Cardano NFT projects. Cardano Project Catalyst funded proposers. Members in various Cardano & Catalyst projects, initiatives & communities over the past 2 and a half years.
Award-winning filmmakers, film and animation directors, app and game developers.
In January 2021 they moved into the web3 economy granting new life to one of their projects in the form of an NFT collection on Cardano.
Since then they have released multiple art NFT collections on Cardano, and have been involved in multiple NFT and Cardano related groups and organisations, most notably being core members of the NFT Guild. They have been invited to be among the Genesis Artists of Fibo - the Emurgo NFT Marketplace at its launch in 2022.
[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?
Our project cost, which will mainly cover development and operational expenses, represents significant value for money for the Cardano ecosystem for several reasons:
High-Quality Open Source Code: The Cardano ecosystem is fundamentally built on open-source principles, and our project adheres to these values. Our main deliverable, the open-source NFT swap smart contract templates, can be freely used, modified, and improved upon by anyone in the Cardano community. This availability of high-quality open source code can save developers substantial time and resources, providing substantial value to the ecosystem.
Expert Team: Our team comprises professionals with deep experience in blockchain development and the Cardano ecosystem. The cost of our project reflects the level of expertise and dedication we bring to the project, ensuring high-quality outputs and robust, secure smart contract templates.
Community Engagement: We are committed to keeping the Cardano community involved in our project, which includes constant updates, feedback gathering, and community presentation at an NFT Guild Roundtable.
Increase in NFT Adoption: By making NFT swapping easier and more accessible, our project will drive increased adoption of NFTs within the Cardano ecosystem. The value of this increased activity and growth in the NFT sector significantly outweighs the project costs.
Cost Basis: Our costs are calculated based on standard industry rates for blockchain developers, taking into account the complexity of the project and the experience level of the team. We have done thorough research and consulted multiple sources to ensure our rates are fair and competitive, thus ensuring good value for money.
In summary, the cost of our project reflects not only the work required to develop and deliver our outputs but also the value they will provide to the Cardano ecosystem, promoting development, stimulating growth in the NFT sector, and upholding the open-source principles at the heart of Cardano.
