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MISSION STATEMENT

Our mission is to present artists and their artwork in a way that honors their work rather than simply providing an NFT marketplace. We want to tell their stories, share their work, all in partnership with trusted museums, galleries, and art fairs.

PROBLEM

Traditional art buyers and organizations such as museums, galleries, and art fairs don’t have enough guidance to utilize NFT marketplaces leaving valuable art and buyers out. Current NFT marketplaces are saturated with art that hasn’t been curated by professional curators leaving the traditional art buyers confused and without guidance. These artworks are sometimes even fraudulent; in the digital world it’s relatively easy to take someone else’s artwork and call it your own. Furthermore, established and cutting edge museums, galleries, and art fairs are curating priceless art that hasn’t been unlocked with the technology that NFTs offer.

OUR SOLUTION

Provide a marketing platform, and a marketplace on Cardano that services curated art (digital and physical) endorsed by museums, galleries, and art fairs around the world - NFTs as a medium to honor artists.

Our Platform

We are creating an exclusive and exceptional NFT platform by building relationships with established and relevant art organizations that curate the artwork showcased on our platform. Our audience will be able to purchase NFTs in a variety of ways including but not limited to live auctions, silent auctions, and direct purchases.

 

Our platform will help revolutionize the ways that museums receive funding - whenever a NFT presented by a museum is sold or resold, the museum will receive a donation. Museum donors typically receive recognition, membership, and/or access to events depending on their level of donation. NFTs provide museums with the opportunity to give their donors an additional benefit - monetizable art. Furthermore, our platform will allow museums to reach a new audience and donor base - NFT buyers.

Artwork Certification

We will provide an authentication service that will allow for users to verify provenance so that only real NFTs can claim legitimacy. This helps provide proof, safety and security to all future buyers.

Opportunities for Developing Artists

We will not leave developing artists out. Our platform will also regularly spotlight an artist that is presented by a fellowship program or university. This will give developing artists exposure on a platform with professional artists and provide them with access to an audience they normally wouldn’t be able to reach.

Bringing Awareness and Education to Users

Via our website, social media platform and partner art organizations we will inform traditional art buyers around the world about all of the possibilities of NFTs. We will ensure that they are educated on what NFTs are, the buying and resale process, and the value that NFTs bring to the art world. Furthermore, we are working with traditional art organizations to help them understand how NFTs are transforming the art world so that they are not left behind.

International Impact

Art organizations around the world have been greatly impacted by COVID19. They traditionally display and sell art in physical locations, where their visitors and clients come for physical experiences. This has greatly reduced their revenue. Furthermore, artists and art institutions in the continent of Africa had lower exposure to the art buying market prior to COVID 19 due to location, lack of marketing, and lack of access. COVID 19 has exasperated this situation. Our platform provides them with an additional channel to generate income. Furthermore, we will reach out to art organizations in countries underrepresented to further democratize the NFT market.

Engaging The Cardano Community

We want you “the Cardano Community” to be involved.

The Cardano Community will receive Token Privileges, which provide them with perks such as discounts on purchasing arts and access to pre-sales. The Cardano Community will be able to utilize tokens to vote on our art developing initiatives.

Progress

Our initial designs have been created We have met with art organizations and are finalizing MOUs for them to join our platform We are circulating surveys for users, art organizations, and artists to help guide our platform and the user experience We have built a team of professionals that are committed to bring our platform to life

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

Our team is international and diverse in every way imaginable. We are truly ready to launch in the international market and relate to users and artists around the world.

 

Our Product, Technology and Design teams have a combined 40+ years technology and management consulting experience in building strategies, products for relevant markets, industries and technology. All the team members have delivered projects in the DeFi space (lending, governance, staking etc.) in their previous roles, and are looking forward to bringing this experience to accelerate the adoption of NFTs with Cardano being the technology catalyst in making this a possibility.

Leadership Team Ali Harawala, our Product and Technology lead comes with over 15 years of experience in management and technology consulting building products and teams across multiple industries and continents. Ex-founder of a DeFi aggregator platform, Ali is excited to build a NFT proposition for the art world on Cardano. Ali grew up in India and moved over to the UK to pursue a consulting career where he has been lucky to travel the world on projects and work on interesting problems.

 

Erica Knowles, our Business Development Executive was born and raised in the international city of Miami, FL, USA with African American and Bahamian roots. She has lived in Thailand and Peru and currently lives between Germany and South Africa. You can definitely say Erica loves to travel. With deep connect and working exposure with the museums, art galleries, and art fairs; experience in launching art related events; combined with new market business development with primary clients at the executive and C-suite level Erica brings the defensibility to creating a niche market to elevate artists, museums and the art work through NFTs on the blockchain.

MARKET OPPORTUNITY Market Validation Timeframe: From March 31 - April 6, 2021

NiftyGateway dropped 144 new NFTs On average each NFT had 79 editions totaling 11,360 In just 1 week $9.5 million was grossed from 144 pieces of digital art $1.9 Million = 20% of 1 weeks sales

(Source: Niftygateway.com)

Market Size

The NFT market for art has grown in transactions from USD $619k in 2018 to USD $13M 2020, which is a 2000% increase.

Timeframe: 2020

Total Art Market Online sales in online art and antiques market worldwide: 12.4bn USD

Available NFT Market

Market Cap of transactions globally involving a Non-Fungible Token (NFT): 338m USD

NFT Art Market

Total sales involving a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) in the art segment: 12.9m USD (64,485 transactions)

Timeframe: Apr 2021

NFT market cap: $28.5bn

24h Trading volume: $4.2bn Given that art is transformed into non-fungible digital art with provenance, the “Total Art Market” is going to expand beyond the USD $12.4bn from the year 2020. Providing a cap or a number to this market is not realistic as the market is growing exponentially and we may be witnessing a multi-fold increase in the volume and the value of the art pieces transacted.

Target Market

In addition to standard NFT buyers, our target market consists of

Untapped potential users of the Cardano platform Art Buyers Art Collectors Museums Galleries Art fairs

MARKET COMPETITORS

We are competing in a crowded market place that is saturated with art that hasn’t been curated by professional curators. Major art institutions, especially museums have not participated in our competitors’ platforms. This is the gap where we are entering into the market. And how we will welcome traditional art buyers and collectors onto the Cardano platform. Niftygateway.com OpenSea.com Bitski.com Sothebys.com

The above platforms cater to slightly different audiences, but are marketplaces in their own right. Whilst Niftygateway caters to curated art, it lacks any credible associations with vetted artists. OpenSea is a generic marketplace without any curation. Bitski is a Coinlist list style sale platform promoted with associations, but none in the way of curations. And Sotheby’s promote artwork and artists directly.

 

None of the above, approach NFTs in the manner that provide physical and digital artists associated with exhibitions by art organizations such as museums on a dedicated platform.

Also, none of the above delve in to specific use cases such as NFTs for donors and patrons, which create a larger ecosystem in ensuring continued opportunities and exposures to museums and artists.

BUSINESS MODEL

Proposition

1. Art Organizations: Provide additional value to museums, galleries, and art fairs by giving additional benefits to museum donors, deepening their relationships with artists, and providing the organizations with residual funding.

Added donor benefits: Museum donors and art typically receive recognition, membership, and/or access to events depending on their level of donation. NFTs provide museums with the opportunity to give their donors an additional benefit - monetizable art. Furthermore, our platform will allow museums to reach a new donor base. Artist giveback: Our platform provides museums, art galleries, and art fairs with the opportunity to recommend proven artists to the world. When that artist sells their NFT they receive the majority of the sale price. They also earn money every time an edition of that NFT is resold. Residual funding: Similar to prints, NFTs can be sold in multiple or single editions; however, whenever an NFT your museum has presented is sold or resold the museum will receive a percentage of the sale.

2. Art: Deliver art to the market that has been curated by professional curators by providing a space where museums, galleries, and art fair’s can present art.

The museums/galleries//art fairs’ collection: Digitize and present physical artwork that is currently a part of the art organizations’ collection. The museums/galleries//art fairs’ artists: Present works of art from artists that the organization has relationships with that they are/aren’t currently exhibiting. Curate digital art: The organizations can increases their curation of digital art that can be presented Work with art fellowship programs to highlight developing artist on a regular basis

3. Community: Tapping into existing communities and patrons that are already engaged by museums and art galleries provides a distribution network to promote and sell art work

Interaction

1. The art organization process

We establish a relationship with a the art institution to be represented on our platform The art organization selects an artist to present on our platform They submit a digital exhibition, exhibition info, artist bio, artist video, photo of the artist, the artist’s payment profile, and the art organization’s licensing agreement with the artist We convert the artworks to NFTs and mint them We publish the artworks on our platform for sale/auction We send proceeds of each edition sold to the art organization and the artistWhen the artwork is resold the art organization and the artist gets paid again

2. The user experience

The user sets up an account on our platform and links their coin account or credit card They see an NFT they wants to purchase The account holder places a bid (deposit required) or purchase directly depending on the available option They receive confirmation of purchase The NFT is transferred to the account holder

Technology

1. Create a marketing platform in the form of a website and social media accounts that allow for museums, artists and artwork to be show-cased and promoted. The platform will be a niche in servicing artists.

 

2. Provide a marketplace that allows for:

Provide drops to users for NFTs on a schedule with digital artists and physical art that is curated Initial and secondary buy and sell of NFTs Ability to support different trade mechanisms and incentives through direct purchases and auction types Ability to buy and sell using fiat and crypto options. Can tie exclusivity to ADA to ensure we are building a robust ecosystem on Cardano Support direct integration with debit/credit card payment gateways Integrate wallets to store and to transfer NFTs to user accounts to trade in 3rd party marketplace platforms or transfer to users own wallets On-demand stats and activities on NFTs on the platform 3. Backend interface that will allow for: Standard smart contracts to be implemented as a template feature based on personalized agreements with museums and artists Allow for fees and commissions to be configured customized to requirements of the artists Automatic resale fees and commissions baked into smart contract Workflow to manage the initial sale

Revenue model

1. Initial drop- the revenue share will be based on placement on our exhibition home website. For example when an exhibition is featured on our home page our platform’s share will increase.

Percentage to the platform Percentage to art institution Percentage to the artist

2. Resale of NFTs

Percentage to the platform Percentage to art institution Percentage to the artist

3. Value capture in a token model using ADA will provide the incentivization based on game theory and economic principles

USE OF FUNDS

MVP scope: Deliverables & Projected Costs for an Minimum Viable Product (MVP) solution to facilitate creating, promoting and trading NFTs for digital art

Fund 5 scope: Provide a marketing webpage that can interact with a direct purchase secondary marketplace that is integrated to the Cardano smart contract platform.

Marketing Platform

Website used for marketing and promotion to showcase museums, drops and artists [Fund 5] Direct Purchase [Fund 5] Auction options Fiat gateway integration [Fund 5] Wallet integration for buy/sell [Fund 5] Wallet integration for storage [Fund 5] Stats on platform

 

Backoffice + Cardano Infrastructure

Integration of Cardano smart contract templates to deploy and mint NFT based on artist/museum requirements [Fund 5] Admin-driven configuration to be able to set up types of NFTs, Revenue parameters etc. Artist/Museum on-boarding, art-work management Workflow to ensure onboard of artists, museums

Fund 5 - Budget Request

$3,500 - Marketing Platform $14,000 - Marketplace $10,300 - Backoffice + Cardano Infrastructure Total request $27,800

ROADMAP

How do we plan on bringing our project to fruition

Month 2: Finalize relationships with seed museums, galleries and art fairs in our initial art source market Miami, FL, USA Month 2: Finalize Exhibition home website Month 3 - Finalize marketplace Month 4: Soft launch Month 5: Network stabilized Month 6: Full launch Month 12: Build relationships with our second art source market Cape Town, South Africa Repeat the process and continue to expand city by city.

CONCLUSION The project is looking to create a niche for itself within the multi-billion dollar art industry that can be extended out to paintings, music, photography etc. We believe that high-end art needs exclusive platforms that cater to the industry’s needs rather than generic marketplaces. Additionally, and importantly, artists in underdeveloped or developing nations will have an elevated playing ground in showcasing their talents with access to a global market.

 

Cardano will be a great technology partner that can aid the project to further our vision for what NFTs can do for artists. Especially through the vibrant community that Cardano has along with the alignment we find ourselves in elevating talent in markets such as the African nations.

 

We appreciate you taking the time to read our proposal. Please take two more seconds and vote for us!

We’d love to get some feedback from you around NFT Art and it’s platforms. It should take you less than two minutes to complete: https://forms.gle/4VzmfEaPkvEBtAcF9

 

APPENDIX/ ADDITIONAL READING

What does digital art on NFT mean really?

NFTs are non-fungible tokens that run on a blockchain network, a digital ledger that records all transactions of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The difference with bitcoin and other tokens, though, is that each NFT is unique and can’t be replicated, which makes them sellable. NFTs offer a formalization of digital ownership, cleverly responding to the art world’s need for authentication and provenance. Each one accrues value independently, deriving their value from how scarce they are.

 

Crypto art is the strongest growing subsection of the digital collectibles market. While Digital Art has a long-established history as an artistic medium, it was the introduction of NFTs and blockchain technology that provided the possibility to assign value and provenance to digital works of art. This was previously impossible due to the ease of duplication.

 

Each NFT-based digital creation now contains a digital signature from the artist and all vital details including time of creation, edition size and a record of any prior sales permanently attached to the artwork. Noah Davis, Specialist, Post-War and Contemporary Art, remarked that “NFT-based art is on the threshold of becoming the next ingeniously disruptive force in the art market.” A true exercise in abstraction, the actual NFT-based artwork is just a code, it doesn’t exist. Explaining that Christie’s has never offered a new media artwork of this scale or importance before, he says this sale places the auction house “in the vanguard of this exhilarating movement.” Beeple adds:“The technology is now at a place with the blockchain to be able to prove ownership and have true scarcity with digital artwork so I think we are going to see an explosion of not only new artwork, but also new collectors and I am very honored to be a part of this movement.”

 

As NFTs become ubiquitous, we need a system on Cardano that ensures rapid development of emerging use cases, interoperability between all parties and that supports Cardano to become the de facto choice to launch NFT businesses.

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