NFT Vending Machine – An Open-Source Faucet for Complex NFT Mints

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Thaddeus Diamond (Wild Tangz)

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

support@wildtangz.com

Additional applicants

None

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

3

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” .

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

Project will be fully open source.

[METADATA] Category of proposal

NFTs

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The “NFT Vending Machine” is an open-source server software platform that loads creators’ NFT files and hosts a complex mint.

Traditionally, creators have had to use platforms like NMKR to host their NFT mints. The process consists of:

1. Creating NFTs as JSON metadata (CIP-0025)
2. Creating a new project in their web platform and uploading the NFT JSON files
3. Specifying the desired mint configuration and hosting their mint.

We deeply respect NMKR and other minters, but feel there are a few things missing for creators:

1. Configurable user interfaces do not allow for code extension for creators to develop unique experiences
2. Platforms that are not open source do not allow new creators to learn about the actual mechanics of minting an NFT on Cardano
3. Many open-source projects currently available lack the ability to take native assets (e.g., $SNEK) as payments, can’t handle inexact change, and are otherwise inflexible

The Cardano “NFT Vending Machine” is a piece of open-source software that can host CIP-0025 JSON NFT mints for new creators. Launching it as simple as uploading files to a server and running the following commands from a Python virtual environment:

Some key features include:

• Flexibly Priced Mints – The ability to accept ADA or perform a free mint for the creator (native assets in development for this catalyst proposal)

• Multiple Types of Whitelists – The ability to gatekeep collection minting on existing asset ownership or a secure wallet signature mechanism

• Multi-Policy Mints – The ability to mint arbitrary numbers of policies during a single mint (in development for this catalyst proposal)

• BOGO – The ability to run buy-one-get-one (BOGO) promotionals from the command line

• Preprod Testing – The ability to test and validate against testnet so creators do not waste money during their validation phase

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

We have submitted this solution under Developer Ecosystem because we think it meets the following challenge goals:

• Developer productivity: IDE's, scripts to automate processes.
• Knowledge base & Documentation
• Samples, recipes and templates
• Hackathons
• DeFi and tokenization
• Incentivization structures

We strongly believe that we are going to help address the needs of our challenge through three key factors:

• Adding open-source software that is able to onboard new creators who are reluctant to use closed-source solutions due to financial or ethical reasons
• Expanding an existing platform that is well-respected to take native assets as payments since “memecoin season” has been extremely popular
• Performing industry-standard documentation and testing that will set precedent for open-source code quality on Cardano (see the team background for more information)

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

We believe the following quantitative measures will be important to measure:

• Number of downloads/forks of the package on GitHub (indicating new usage)
• Number of projects citing the “NFT Vending Machine” as a package they are using or learned from
• Number of tweets from accounts not related to Wild Tangz about the open-source software

In addition, we hope to positively impact the following qualitative metrics for NFT projects:

• Increase in overall developer sentiment about the quality of Cardano NFT projects
• Increase in excitement from creator community over creating novel, exciting NFT project experiences that are more inspired than simple “pay-to-address” mints
• Increase in popularity of memecoin-to-NFT ecosystems, providing a fun way for the community to use their native asset funds from “memecoin season”

Note that we have already started to make progress on these fronts.

• This project has been merged into the Cardano Developer's portal (https://github.com/cardano-foundation/developer-portal/pull/1094) so it is widely searchable by the community
• Wild Tangz is in talks with card gaming companies to extend the platform to be usable in on-chain card game pack mints (based on the work we already did with Psychoz OCG)
• Several NFT projects using this platform (Skynz, BAHB) have accepted native tokens as payment

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

All of the results generated from the project (development timelines, software usage) will be shared on both the Wild Tangz Twitter (@WildTangz) and the Wild Tangz Discord (discord.gg/wildtangz). All code and documentation will be open-sourced via GitHub.  We are open to sharing on any other forums the community would like us to as well.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

The NFT Vending Machine is a very low-risk project to fund as it is already well in-development and the features discussed in this proposal are all fully architected and either partially or fully implemented. See the note above on how we are already beginning to deliver on our goals. The use of funds here is to ensure they are fully delivered and open-sourced to the community.

In addition, Thaddeus Diamond (the project lead and artist/developer at Wild Tangz) has shown the ability to successfully deliver many open-source packages (e.g., NFT Sweeper) that help Cardano creators and developers. To date, this software have been delivered using funds from the Wild Tangz NFT sale that occurred in June 2022. Catalyst would be used to augment those funds and accelerate delivery.  

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

Our project’s goals are directly related to the impact we hope to have. When the software, documentation, and testing are delivered (see milestones sections), we will hope to:

• Increase the # of downloads/forks of the package on GitHub (indicating new usage)
• Increase the # of projects citing the “NFT Vending Machine” as a package they are using or learned from
• See a higher # of tweets from accounts not related to Wild Tangz about the open-source software

In addition, successful delivery of the project software should:

• Increase overall developer sentiment about the quality of Cardano NFT projects
• Increase excitement from creator community over creating novel, exciting NFT project experiences that are more inspired than simple “pay-to-address” mints
• Increase the popularity of memecoin-to-NFT ecosystems, providing a fun way for the community to use their native asset funds from “memecoin season”

Note that we have already started to see some of our goals being achieved:

• This project has been merged into the Cardano Developer's portal (https://github.com/cardano-foundation/developer-portal/pull/1094) so it is widely searchable by the community 
• Wild Tangz is in talks with card gaming companies to extend the platform to be usable in on-chain card game pack mints (based on the work we already did with Psychoz OCG)
• Several NFT projects using this platform (Skynz, BAHB) have accepted native tokens as payment

[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.

Note that we use a developer rate of $150 USD / hour (see “value for money” sections for further analysis of this cost).

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

See the milestone timeline above for each key activity performed and acceptance criteria. Unless otherwise specified, each key activity will include:

• Publishing all documentation or code changes to GitHub at https://github.com/thaddeusdiamond/cardano-nft-vending-machine
• Updating system and integration tests to ensure the new feature is implemented correctly without defects (runs on preprod)
• Accompanying Twitter thread describing how the feature works

Note that we also provide general support and guidance for our open source software in the Wild Tangz Discord (discord.gg/wildtangz) for any community member who is attempting to use our open source packages.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

The only use of funds here will be to compensate the developer for his time architecting, implementing, testing, and documenting the features. We have defined the costs here on an hourly basis by using the project lead’s prior salary pricing (can be confirmed at https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Amazon-Senior-Software-Engineer-Salaries-E6036_D_KO7,31.htm) and dividing it by 2,000 effective working hours. We feel this is a very competitive rate, and the project developer charges 20-40% more for private development efforts.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

We have defined the costs here on an hourly basis by using the project lead’s prior salary pricing (can be confirmed at https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Amazon-Senior-Software-Engineer-Salaries-E6036_D_KO7,31.htm) and dividing it by 2,000 effective working hours. Additionally, we have modeled the desired overall funding request and project scoping to match other successful Catalyst proposals (e.g., Lucid). Ultimately, we believe this represents an extremely valuable addition to Cardano and a great value for the ecosystem to fund through Catalyst.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept