Verified Creator Portfolio (VCP)

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

David Harris

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

david@coolmcluhan.com

Additional applicants

Aaron Arfman

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

12

[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

Identity Solutions

[METADATA] SDG rating

Whilst we are not experts in SDG, we believe this solution could help advance the following three UN Sustainable Development Goals:

1. Decent Work and Economic Growth (Goal 8) - By providing fair compensation to creators for their work used to train AI systems, this project promotes decent economic opportunities and growth.
2. Reduced Inequalities (Goal 10) - The opt-in creator ecosystem with transparent incentives helps reduce inequalities by democratizing access to the benefits of emerging technologies like AI.
3. Responsible Consumption and Production (Goal 12) - Ethical sourcing of training data enables more responsible AI development and consumption. And the blockchain-based model increases transparency.

By leveraging blockchain, machine learning, and properly aligned incentives, this project empowers individuals and promotes responsible development of AI technology. Aligning the economic benefits with creators directly supports decent work, reduces inequality, and enables responsible production and use of AI systems.

The self-sovereign identity aspects also promote Goal 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) by giving users control over their own digital identity. And the open data sharing aligns with Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) by advancing equitable access to knowledge resources.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The Problem:

The digital landscape presents a unique set of challenges for artists, particularly those who are just starting their journey such as students. Verifying the authenticity and establishing ownership of their work becomes a considerable obstacle. Without a trusted platform to affirm their creativity, artists can face problems related to unauthorized usage and misrepresentation of their intellectual property.

Our Approach:

To address these issues, we're introducing Verified Portfolio. This platform diverges from traditional verification methods, often marked by inefficiency and inconsistency. Instead, we embrace the technology of digital identities to establish a secure, decentralised, and incorruptible verification process.

To ensure that artists and verifiers of artist credentials, such as galleries and employers, have trust in the Verified Portfolio, we will also develop a light-touch governance framework to transparently document the rules and parameters of the platform. This would, for example, bring transparency into the credential types, DID methods, credential schemas, trust registry rules and anticipated assurance levels within the platform. While we expect to be the first credential issuer, participating institutions may become issuers directly and this governance framework can be extended to provide more detail about Trust Registry requirements for those trusted issuers. We will develop this governance framework as a way to bring transparency, trust and sustainability to the platform.

Who Stands to Benefit and How We Engage:

The primary users and beneficiaries of Verified Portfolio will be students in the fields of art and design, eventually expanding to include creators across the wider creative industry. By building an authenticated digital portfolio on our platform, they can convincingly prove ownership. Meanwhile, potential employers and buyers will have access to a reservoir of verified creative content, ensuring the authenticity of their acquisitions or hires.

Impact:

The effectiveness of Verified Portfolio will be evident through the enhanced trust in creative transactions, the decreased occurrences of intellectual property infractions, and the improved recognition of artists associated with our platform. To demonstrate our impact, we plan to monitor platform usage, gather user feedback, and document successful case studies.

Contributing to Cardano:

Verified Portfolio contributes to Cardano's ecosystem by demonstrating how our blockchain technology can extend beyond the financial domain, particularly in the context of digital rights and intellectual property. Our project aligns with Cardano's mission of enabling a decentralized economy by expanding this democratization into the spheres of creativity and design.

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

Verified Portfolio directly addresses the challenge by providing a platform for creators and students to authenticate and verify their work using an immutable and trusted digital identity system. By leveraging the digital identity capabilities of Cardano's Atala PRISM, Verified Portfolio offers a unique, decentralized mechanism for creators to verify their work's authenticity. The light-touch governance framework and accompanying processes (participation in ToIP, inclusion of key stakeholders and launch of the system in the market) address the challenge requirements as they relate to governance and SSI best practices.

The creative industry is often fraught with issues related to intellectual property infringement and misrepresentation of artistic work. Our solution effectively mitigates these concerns, fostering a more secure and transparent ecosystem for artists, designers, and students to showcase their portfolios.

In terms of benefits to the Cardano ecosystem, Verified Portfolio showcases the versatility and applicability of Cardano's blockchain technology beyond its traditional financial use cases. By demonstrating how Atala PRISM can be utilized to verify and authenticate digital content, our project expands Cardano's reach into the spheres of digital rights and intellectual property.

In terms of impact, we anticipate our solution will:

1. Bring new users to the Cardano community: Our target user base initially comprises students and creatives, a demographic that may not have otherwise interacted with Cardano or blockchain technology.
2. Strengthen the ecosystem: By showcasing a new application of Cardano's blockchain technology, we reinforce its potential and versatility, which can attract more developers and innovators to the ecosystem.
3. Solve a key problem: By addressing the issue of authenticity and ownership in the creative industry, we offer a unique solution to a pressing problem, highlighting Cardano's role as a problem-solver.

Our realistic estimate, given the size of the creative industry and the number of students in art and design programs, is that within a year of launch, we could see several hundred active users on Verified Portfolio, significantly increasing Cardano's user base and transaction volume.

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

Key indicators for success will include:

1. User Growth: We forecast reaching hundreds of users within our inaugural year. This estimation is rooted in our core user base of students, creators, and educators.
2. Platform Activity: The measure of engagement on our platform will be determined by the frequency of portfolio submissions, verification requests, and interactions by potential employers or buyers.
3. Wallet Creation: An uptick in new wallets generated as a result of our platform's operations will be a clear indicator of increased adoption and engagement within the Cardano ecosystem.

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

1. Regular Updates and Reports: We plan to post regular updates on our progress throughout the project's duration. These reports will be made publicly available through various channels such as blogs and social media. We will cover key milestones, challenges encountered, and the solutions implemented.
2. Open Source Code: The software developed during the course of the project will be open-sourced. By doing so, we aim to provide the Cardano community and other developers the opportunity to contribute, adapt, and improve upon our work.
3. Webinars and Workshops: We will conduct webinars and workshops to engage directly with our user base and the broader Cardano community. These will serve as a platform to share our project's insights, learnings, and best practices, and to encourage dialogue and feedback.
4. Collaboration with Educational Institutions: We will work closely with design and art schools to help their students utilize our platform. This will provide us with valuable user feedback and also spread the word about our project within these institutions.

The insights gained from the project will guide future development of Verified Portfolio. We aim to evolve the platform in response to user needs and feedback, introducing appropriate new features and extending the offering to a wider user base.

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

Our track record speaks to our capability to deliver this project with high levels of dedication, trust and accountability. Through The Art Bank, we've been an central supporter of emerging artists within the Cardano ecosystem, providing them with resources and a platform to showcase work and build careers. With Cur8 Labs we've been actively developing tools and systems that offer artists more control over their work, enabling them to organize, monetize, distribute and display on their own terms.

ProofSpace has a proven track record both as a SaaS decentralized ID platform and within Catalyst. They also have experience in implementing governance frameworks through their technology, which brings this project a unique ability to execute. The key parties have worked together for over a year on related projects and have a legal agreement in place to govern the ongoing success of their collaboration.

Our efforts with Monet Society demonstrate commitment to education and inclusivity in the Cardano community. We have been actively developing educational resources, ensuring newcomers have the knowledge and tools to navigate and contribute to the ecosystem effectively.

Our successful execution of the Cardano Center proposal from Fund 9 underscores our commitment to financial integrity and effective project management. This experience has equipped us with the necessary skills to manage funds responsibly and deliver impactful outcomes.

In summary, our blend of experience in supporting artists, driving educational initiatives, and effectively managing funded projects puts us in a unique position to deliver on this proposal. We have proven our commitment to the Cardano community, and we intend to bring the same dedication and accountability to this project.

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

The main goals of our project are:

1. Establish a secure, user-friendly mechanism for creators and students to mint their work as digital assets and authenticate their portfolios.
2. Facilitate trust and transparency for buyers and employers seeking original works and proven talent.
3. Drive further adoption and use of the Cardano ecosystem through this innovative application of the technology.

Qualitative and quantitative measures:

1. User Adoption: We aim to onboard hundreds of creators and students within the first year of the project, and we'll track this through user registration and engagement metrics.
2. Usage Volume: Success will be measured by the number of digital assets minted and authenticated through our system, as well as the volume of transactions processed.
3. User Satisfaction: Through user surveys and feedback, we'll gauge satisfaction with our system's functionality, ease of use, and effectiveness in proving ownership.
4. Community Impact: We will monitor the impact on the broader Cardano ecosystem, measuring how the project fosters growth in the community, increases transaction volumes, and contributes to the platform's reputation for innovation.

For the technical implementation, we leverage our experience from previous Cardano projects and the expertise of our development partners from ProofSpace. We will employ an iterative development approach, incorporating user feedback throughout to ensure we're building a solution that truly meets the needs of our community.

[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.

Milestone 1 - Research and Stakeholder Alignment (Month 1 - Month 3)

• Conducting in-depth research into the specific needs and challenges of students at art schools and design institutes. This includes understanding the types of credentials they need to verify, such as coursework, skills, or completed projects.
• Engaging with potential employers and buyers of artwork to understand what information they look for when assessing talent and authenticity.
• Establishing the common ground between these stakeholder groups and identifying how Atala PRISM can bridge the gap.
• Draft requirements for governance framework

Milestone 2 - Credential Schema Design and Infrastructure Setup (Month 4 - Month 6)

• Collaborating with ProofSpace to design the Credential Schema. This includes deciding which attributes to include (such as student's identity, artistic skills, portfolio items) that align with both the students' needs and the information requirements of potential employers and art buyers.
• Establishing the issuer's identity on the Cardano blockchain. The issuer could be the schools themselves or a trusted third-party entity. The identity will be represented by a Decentralized Identifier (DID) within the Atala PRISM ecosystem.
• Setting up the necessary technical infrastructure with ProofSpace, including interfaces for students to request credentials and employers or buyers to verify them. The system will make use of Atala PRISM's APIs and SDKs for issuing, verifying, and managing credentials.
• Publish the governance framework draft.

Milestone 3 - System Testing and Iteration (Month 7 - Month 9)

• Deploying a pilot version of the system to a small group of students, employers, and buyers. Students will request credentials, which will then be issued and later verified by potential employers or buyers.
• Gathering feedback from all user groups and identifying any issues or challenges encountered during the pilot phase. This feedback will be used to iterate and improve the system.
• Revising the Credential Schema if necessary, addressing technical issues, and making enhancements based on user feedback to improve the user experience and system functionality.

Milestone 4 - System Launch and Maintenance (Month 10 - Month 12)

• Launching the fully-tested credential verification system to all users, enabling students to request and manage credentials, and employers or buyers to verify these credentials independently.
• Communicating the launch to all stakeholders, providing necessary training or resources to facilitate the use of the system.
• Starting a continuous process of system maintenance and upgrade. This includes regular reviews of user feedback, updates to the system based on changes in the Atala PRISM platform, and periodic reassessment of the Credential Schema to ensure it remains relevant to stakeholders' needs.

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

Milestone 1 - Research and Stakeholder Alignment (Month 1 - Month 3)

Deliverables:

• Research Report and draft governance framework: Detailing the specific needs of students, art schools, design institutes, potential employers, and art buyers.
• Stakeholder Alignment Document: Highlighting the commonalities and discrepancies between the needs of different stakeholders and how the proposed system can address them.

Intended Outcomes:

• Clear understanding of stakeholder needs and requirements, which will guide the subsequent design and development phases.
• Agreement among stakeholders on the system's objectives and the benefits it will bring to each group.

Progress Tracking:

• Completion and approval of the research report and stakeholder alignment document.
• Positive feedback from stakeholders on the alignment document, indicating their buy-in and support.

Milestone 2 - Credential Schema Design and Infrastructure Setup (Month 4 - Month 6)

Deliverables:

• Governance Framework Document: Detailing the attributes to be included in the verifiable credentials.
• Technical Infrastructure Setup Document: Outlining the system setup, including issuer identity creation and APIs/SDKs usage.

Intended Outcomes:

• A credential schema that accurately reflects the needs and requirements of all stakeholders.
• A ready-to-use technical infrastructure that supports the issuance, verification, and management of credentials.

Progress Tracking:

• Completion and stakeholder approval of the Credential Schema Design Document.
• Successful setup of the technical infrastructure, evidenced by successful test runs.

Milestone 3 - System Testing and Iteration (Month 7 - Month 9)

Deliverables:

• Pilot Testing Report: Documenting the results of the pilot phase, including feedback from users and any identified issues.
• System Improvement Plan: Detailing the improvements to be made based on the pilot testing feedback.

Intended Outcomes:

• Identification and resolution of any technical issues or user experience problems before the system-wide launch.
• Enhancements to the system that make it more user-friendly and efficient.

Progress Tracking:

• Completion and stakeholder approval of the Pilot Testing Report and System Improvement Plan.
• Implementation of the improvements identified in the System Improvement Plan.

Milestone 4 - System Launch and Maintenance (Month 10 - Month 12)

Deliverables:

• System Launch Announcement: Announcing the launch of the system to all stakeholders.
• Training Materials: Guides, tutorials, or workshops to help users understand how to use the system.
• Maintenance Plan: Outlining the steps for maintaining and upgrading the system post-launch.
• A governance framework document will be made publicly accessible.

Intended Outcomes:

• Successful launch of the system to all users, with positive feedback from stakeholders.
• Smooth operation of the system, with minimal issues or disruptions.
• Continuous improvement and adaptation of the system to meet evolving user needs and technological changes.

Progress Tracking:

• Successful system launch, measured by the absence of critical issues and positive initial user feedback.
• Regular system checks and user surveys to ensure ongoing functionality and user satisfaction.
• Adherence to the maintenance plan, including scheduled reviews and updates.

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

Milestone 1 - Research and Stakeholder Alignment (Month 1 - Month 3)

• Research: ₳16,560
• Stakeholder Meetings: ₳6,672
• Credential Schema Design: ₳9,936
• Project Management Fees: ₳26,496
• Documentation: ₳3,312
• Reporting: ₳1,680
• Deposit for Project Initiation: ₳21,150

Total - ₳65,616

Milestone 2 - Prototype Build, Infrastructure Setup (Month 4 - Month 6)

• Prototype Build: ₳13,248
• Infrastructure Setup: ₳13,248
• Project Management Fees: ₳19,872
• Documentation: ₳3,312
• Reporting: ₳1,680

Total - ₳51,360

Milestone 3 - System Testing and Iteration (Month 7 - Month 9)

• Pilot Testing: ₳9,936
• System Improvement: ₳6,672
• Project Management Fees: ₳6,672
• Documentation: ₳3,312
• Reporting: ₳1,680
• Marketing/Promotional: ₳35,000

Total - ₳63,272

Milestone 4 - System Launch and Maintenance (Month 10 - Month 12)

• Launch: ₳13,248
• Maintenance: ₳6,672
• Project Management Fees: ₳6,672
• Documentation: ₳3,312
• Reporting: ₳1,680
• Marketing/Promotional: ₳35,000

Total - ₳66,584

Total Project Budget: ₳246,832

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

The proposed budget for this project represents value for the Cardano community through:

1. Enhancement of the Cardano Ecosystem: This project leverages and showcases the unique capabilities of Cardano and Atala PRISM for verifiable credentialing in the art and design industry.
2. Promotion of Cardano Adoption: By providing a practical and beneficial solution for students, art enthusiasts, potential buyers, and employers in the art and design industry, we can significantly boost Cardano's adoption. The success of this project can attract these groups to the Cardano ecosystem, enhancing community and increasing utilisation.
3. Extensibility to Other Use Cases: One of the significant aspects of this project is its potential for extensibility. The proposed platform, once proven successful within the art and design industry, can be adapted for other sectors where verifiable credentials are essential. This opens up opportunities for expansion and scaling, broadening the potential impact and benefits for the Cardano ecosystem even further.

[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