[IMPACT]
The NFT space moves at an incredible pace. This can rapidly overwhelm newcomers, both creators/developers, and collectors/investors.
As a creator/developer it means having to spend an unnecessarily large amount of time, untangling a web of sometimes contradicting information about tools, standards, best practices, and what approaches other previously successful projects have taken.
As a collector/investor, it creates an environment where large sums of ADA rapidly exchange hands, sometimes without much prior research. What sources of information do exist are usually heavily biased and mostly aimed at generating commercial interest and maximizing profits for the author of the content.
To address this we want to create a focused, in-depth and unbiased weekly report.
We intend to publish this for free for the benefit of the entire Cardano NFT ecosystem. Although the report will primarily serve the needs of developers unfamiliar with the space, as mentioned it can also serve as a source of information for NFT collectors/investors.
As we want to make these reports freely available, without having to rely on any ad revenue, we are applying to Project Catalyst to fund this initiative thereby eliminating any possibility of editorial influence.
To begin we will focus on existing high-profile projects and later we will branch out to cover platforms, newer projects, and possibly even projects yet to launch.
Besides quality and depth of information, our main focus for the reports will be impartiality. To ensure this, before publication, each report will go through a peer-review process by members of the NFT Guild. To ensure sufficient participation in this process, we plan to incentivize this work. Part of the budget of this proposal will go to the guild treasury, to be distributed to those who participate in the review process.
The proposal integrates perfectly with two of the challenge’s described possible directions:
Common audited repositories & overviews of existing solutions
Education for development in the Cardano & Catalyst ecosystem
With this proposal we aim to address 3 main guiding questions posed by the Open Source Development Ecosystem challenge:
How can we encourage experts to collaborate and share their knowledge and work?
How can we ensure future efforts benefit from the work that is funded today?
The reports will produce a reliable and robust knowledge base for future NFT projects that wish to launch on Cardano, thus greatly simplifying their work, provide guidance on best practices, existing tools, and solutions.
How can we develop a sustainable ecosystem while sharing knowledge and efforts?
The existence of the reports as a compiled source of information will greatly reduce upfront research costs and time to market of NFT projects preparing to deploy on Cardano. We also envision that by familiarising the developer community with each other and each other’s projects and successes, new connections will be formed between members of the Cardano community, potentially leading to meaningful collaboration.
Teams that are unwilling to cooperate with the drafting of the report for personal reasons, fear of doxxing themselves, or other concerns.
If this were to happen we foresee that we could still complete the report in a way that would add a lot of value to the NFT ecosystem by analyzing and compiling data openly available about projects and tools.
[FEASIBILITY]
Roadmap
March 2022
Proposal submission & initial research
May 2022
Proposal vote and cohort onboarding
June to August 2022
Weekly reports starting June 2022 for 12 weeks.
See the report production process below for details of deliverables.
September 2022
F8 proposal conclusion & end report
Report production process (deliverables)
Steps to be taken for each report:
- Market research & pre-production
- Investigative work and market analysis
- NFT project team interview (where applicable) & interview transcriptions
- Report drafting
- QA consultations
- Graphic design for images accompanying each report
- Infographics design (where relevant)
- Peer Review
- Report finalisation and publication
One time tasks:
- Website UI & UX design
- Website setup & implementation
This proposal will fund the initial 12 weeks of reports, with the possibility of extending the project through a subsequent proposal if all goes well.
The main team is comprised of two multi-skilled persons, capable of executing nearly all aspects of the project.
We estimated a fair average hourly rate of all combined tasks of $50/h*.
We expect we will be working a full work week on the project. As such the estimated costs for the main team are:
12(weeks) x 40(hours/week) x $50 x 2 (persons) = $48000
QA consultations tasks, as described in the roadmap above, are costed at $60/h*
12(weeks) x 2(hours/week) x $60 = $1440
For the purpose of incentivizing the peer review process, we will allocate $500 per report to the NFT Guild treasury to be distributed to those submitting reviews for the reports.
12(reports) x $500 = $6000
*Hourly rates do not match commercial rates for this work - but are set at a lower value given the experimental & community context.
Fixed Costs
Domain name, Web Hosting, Software - 600
<https://infogram.com/> Business subscription - $79/month (monthly billing) x 3 = 237
Total:
48000 + 1440 + 6000 + 600 + 237 = $56277
Artists and entrepreneurs, in the CNFT space since day 1, creator of the Trybbles & Icons Cardano NFT projects. Project Catalyst participants since F3, proposers in F4, F5 & F7, CAs in F5 & F7, VCAs in F7. Members in various Catalyst projects, initiatives & communities over more than a year. Active members of the NFT-Guild.
Anamaria Kövesdi
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/anamaria-k%C3%B6vesdi-354649106/>
Rares Kövesdi
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/rares-k%C3%B6vesdi-551260106/>
Authors of the first NFT launch on Cardano with a functional, compilable, smart contract in the metadata of the token, completely on-chain, in collaboration with Quinn ( @mqp ), aka. TheAncientKraken.
An NFT from the collection was the first one to be sold through a smart contract, minutes after the Alonzo HFC. It also was the first sale through a smart contract on Cardano to pay residuals (i.e. royalties) to artists on resales of their works.
Award-winning filmmakers, film and animation directors, app and game developers. In 2021 they moved into the web3 economy granting new life to one of their projects in the form of an NFT collection on Cardano.
Stephen Whitenstall
( @swhitenstall ) has 30 years' experience in organizing academic, community, and business projects. He develops, maintains documentation, and provides technical project management support for Catalyst Swarm.
In Fund 6 of Project Catalyst, Stephen's organization QA-DAO <https://quality-assurance-dao.github.io> was funded on several significant projects, including Distributed Auditability <https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Distributed-Auditability/366707-48088> and Oversight of Catalyst Circle <https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Oversight-of-Catalyst-Circle/370088-48088>, and Stephen was co-proposer on a number of other successful proposals around community engagement, auditability and transparency.
In Catalyst Circle v2, Stephen was the representative for Catalyst Coordinator (Funded Proposers).
This project proposal is submitted under the umbrella of the NFT Guild.
Besides the direct contributors to this project, the rest of the NFT Guild team are:
Felix Weber ( @felixweber ) - Bridge Builder & Networker, Funded Proposer, CA & Catalyst Circle v1
Jenny Lau (SushiBytes) ( @jennslau )
Creator of the SushiBytes NFT project and active participant in the CNFT community since April 2021. Certified public accountant with 13 years of experience in financial and tax reporting. Experience with managing non-profits.
CENT ( @cent )
Stake Pool operator of the pool CENT since December 2019. 20 years of experience in software development. Graduate of the Plutus Pioneers Program cohort 1, 2021. Creator of the community tool Cardano Blockchain Intelligence. Project Catalyst proposer since F6. An active member of the NFT Guild.
Peter Wolcott ( @sirwolcott ) - Driving Catalyst, HeartBeat.Team, SWARM Veteran & CC Admin Secretary
Other NFT Guild Proposals
NFT Community & Ecosystem (Fund9 Challenge Setting)
<https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/402560>
Standard for verification of NFTs (F8: Open Standards & Interoperability)
<https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/398372>
NFT Royalty Standards (F8: Open Standards & Interoperability)
<https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/400204>
NFT Verification Tool (F8: Open Source Development Ecosystem)
<https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/398378>
NFT Swap Infrastructure Templates 1 (F8: Open Source Development Ecosystem)
<https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/397532>
[AUDITABILITY]
Each deliverable (detailed above) will be recorded and submitted via the Catalyst Monthly Reporting form.
KPIs:
Number of projects reviewed
Website visits
Number of unique visitors
Time spent on website/user
Number of mentions and quotes on social media
(Note: as social channels will need time to gain a following, this KPI will not be relevant in the first stage of the project)
Success after 3 months:
The initial set of reports is published to a high standard of quality and rigor, benefiting the existing Cardano NFT community and attracting new creators, developers, collectors, and investors.
Success after 6 months:
The reports become a staple in the Cardano NFT community, the go-to source of information and knowledge about projects, tools, and best practices.
Success after 12 months:
The values of transparency and thoughtful approach of the project seep into the collective unconscious of the space, initiating a gradual shift in the attitude towards how NFT projects are presented, marketed, and talked about.
This is an entirely new proposal.
SDG Rating
SDG Goals
Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development
SDG Subgoals
8.2 Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
8.2.1 Annual growth rate of real GDP per employed person
