Enabling Multi-Marketplace NFT Listings: A New Open-Standard for Cardano

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Rares Kövesdi (NewMindflow)

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

cardanonftguild@gmail.com

Additional applicants

Anamaria Kövesdi (NewMindflow); CENT; Peter Wolcott

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

5

[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

Standards and Regulation

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Our proposed solution addresses a pressing problem in the Cardano NFT space - the inability to list NFTs on multiple marketplaces simultaneously. This lack of cross-marketplace functionality restricts visibility and opportunities for artists, developers, and sellers, while increasing the potential for market monopolization.

Our solution is a neutral smart contract-based service that allows NFTs to be listed across multiple marketplaces through reference assets. The NFT is sent to a smart contract for sale, which mints and lists reference assets to selected marketplaces on behalf of the seller. When a sale is made, the original asset is transferred to the buyer, the payment goes to the seller, and all other listings are cancelled. This system also accommodates seller cancellation, ensuring the return of the original asset and termination of all listings.

We want to emphasise that our aim is to create a neutral, community smart contract, meaning one that is not owned and maintained by a single entity who ultimately gets to set its rules.

The innovation of this solution rests on its ability to level the marketplace playing field, increasing competition, enhancing exposure, and offering new possibilities. For instance, it could integrate on-chain royalties, making Cardano more attractive to creators as other ecosystems struggle with this aspect. Furthermore, it could extend to other services like staking, creating a unique opportunity for assets to be offered for sale while earning rewards.

However, the effective implementation of this solution hinges on community agreement on the standards and methodology of our approach. That's why we're initially focusing on the development of a mutually agreed standard. Once this standard is established, we'll proceed with the development of the tooling itself. By this approach, we mitigate the risk of developing tooling that might not gain widespread adoption across Cardano's NFT marketplaces.

Our solution is unique as it addresses a specific issue within the Cardano ecosystem, enhances marketplace competitiveness, and expands opportunities for all NFT stakeholders. It's important to Cardano as it furthers its mission of democratization, fosters a thriving NFT ecosystem, and presents new possibilities for NFT use cases.

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

Our proposal directly addresses the challenge of building a community-owned open-source solution that’s commercially viable, drives growth, increases opportunities, and enhances project visibility for the Cardano community. By creating an open-source smart contract standard and service that allows multi-marketplace NFT listings, we enable an increase in the viability of NFTs on Cardano.

This project will address several aims of the challenge:

1. Open-Source Ecosystem Growth: By designing and building an open-source smart contract standard for NFT multi-marketplace listings, we are contributing a significant tool to the Cardano open-source development ecosystem. This will spur growth by providing a reusable solution that developers can build upon.
2. Interoperability: Our standard will foster greater interoperability between different marketplaces and services within the Cardano ecosystem, which is crucial for a robust, interconnected blockchain ecosystem.
3. Knowledge Sharing: The standard and the service will be fully open-sourced, with detailed documentation on how to use and integrate them. This helps to improve the overall understanding and capabilities of developers within the Cardano ecosystem.
4. Increased Opportunities: By breaking the single marketplace limitation, we open up new possibilities for NFT sellers, artists, and developers, encouraging a more vibrant and competitive marketplace ecosystem.
5. Increase Project Visibility: The multi-marketplace listing feature increases the visibility of NFTs, thereby increasing their potential for adoption and use. This increased visibility also applies to the projects themselves that choose to adopt our standard, as it enhances their offerings and user experience.

As for the impact of our project on the Cardano ecosystem:

• We anticipate that our project will attract more artists, developers, and sellers to Cardano because of the increased visibility and potential profits due to the multi-marketplace listing feature.
• By enabling on-chain royalties, we make Cardano a more attractive platform for creators, potentially driving more high-quality content and users to the ecosystem.
• The potential integration with other services such as staking further increases the utility and attractiveness of Cardano's NFT ecosystem.
• The open-source nature of our project contributes to Cardano's vision of a transparent, collaborative, and democratic blockchain ecosystem.

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

The success of our project - the development of a standard for multi-marketplace listing of NFTs on Cardano - can be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Quantitative Measures:

Stakeholder Engagement in the Development of the Standard: Given that the development of a widely accepted standard requires consensus among stakeholders, we will measure the level of engagement from key players in the Cardano NFT marketplace. This includes the frequency and quality of their feedback during the standard development process, and their participation in discussions and meetings.

Community Contributions: As our project is open-source, we would also monitor the number of community contributions to the code base, whether through bug fixes, feature additions, or general improvements. A higher rate of community contributions indicates an engaged and interested community, and further supports the success of the project.

Documentation Usage: We would track the usage of our detailed documentation, which we would provide to facilitate understanding and integration of the standard. The usage can be measured by the number of page views, and an increase in these numbers would suggest a wider interest and application of our standard.

Qualitative Measures:

Community Feedback: We would actively solicit feedback from the community and stakeholders that engage in the standard development. This feedback, while not necessarily quantifiable, provides invaluable insights into the effectiveness of the proposed standard, its ease of use, and areas for potential improvement.

Clarity of the Proposed Standard Specifications and its Ease of Implementation: We would gather feedback from the stakeholders and the developer community on the clarity of the standard specifications and its ease of implementation. This will help us identify if our standard is well defined, easily understood, and implementable.

If successful, the standard lays the foundation for breaking the single marketplace limitation, potentially increasing competition, visibility, and opportunities for NFT stakeholders within the Cardano ecosystem. It also sets the stage for future developments like on-chain royalties and integration with other services such as staking, potentially attracting more users to Cardano.

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

Our project's primary output, the open-source standard for multi-marketplace listing of NFTs on Cardano, will be made accessible to all Cardano stakeholders. This includes developers, marketplace operators, artists, sellers, and the broader Cardano community.

Our plans for sharing outputs and results include:

GitHub Repository: The standard will be developed openly on GitHub, allowing anyone to follow its progress, contribute to its development, and use it once it is finalized.

Detailed Documentation: We will create comprehensive documentation for the standard, explaining its purpose, functionality, and instructions on how to implement it. The documentation will be made publicly available alongside the standard.

Community Engagement: We aim to engage the community throughout the project, not only upon completion. This includes presenting progress reports, seeking feedback, and initiating discussions in relevant forums and platforms.

Partnerships and Outreach: We will reach out to existing Cardano marketplaces, developers, and other stakeholders to co-develop the standard.

Presentation of Results: Once the project is completed, we will present our findings and the finalized standard on our GitHub page, our website and present it at a dedicated NFT Roundtable.

As for further research and development activities, the outputs from this project will serve as a foundational building block for the proposed multi-marketplace listing service. Insights gained from the development of the standard and community feedback will be invaluable in informing the design and functionality of this service. Also, the possible integration of additional features like on-chain royalties and staking services will require further exploration and development based on this standard. We envision this standard sparking a host of innovations within the Cardano NFT marketplace ecosystem.

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

The NFT Guild is dedicated to developing standards and building tools for the Cardano NFT community.

Founded by the Cardano Foundation in November 2021, the NFT Guild is now spearheaded by dedicated Cardano community members. Our team stands out because of its diversity, boasting a range of backgrounds and areas of expertise that include developers, stake pool operators (SPOs), artists, NFT project creators, community managers, and organizers. (More details below)

We have a proven track record of successfully organising events for the Cardano NFT community for over a year and a half. We started hosting the NFT Guild Open Community Weekly Calls in January 2022 and the NFT Roundtables in May 2022.

We were successfully funded for two standard setting proposals in Catalyst Fund 8, which we have successfully delivered on and closed out.

Standard for verification of NFTs:

https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/8/f8-open-standards-and-interoperability/standard-for-verification-of-nfts

NFT Royalty Standards:

https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/8/f8-open-standards-and-interoperability/nft-guild-nft-royalty-standards

We have robust processes in place to ensure proper management and accountability of funds. We have created a dedicated system for tracking the contributions of each guild member. All fund movements are transparently tracked in dedicated channels in our Discord server: https://discord.gg/7HCxDryPHk

Our operations are transparent, and we maintain an open line of communication with the community and stakeholders at all times. This approach has earned us the trust of the Cardano community, and we remain committed to maintaining these high standards on this new project.

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

The main goals for our project are as follows:

1. Develop an Open-Standard for Multi-Marketplace NFT Listing on Cardano: Our primary objective is to create an open-standard that facilitates the listing of NFTs across multiple marketplaces in the Cardano ecosystem.
2. Engage Key Stakeholders in the Standard Development Process: We aim to actively engage various Cardano stakeholders, including developers, marketplace operators, artists, and sellers, in the standard development process. Their feedback and insights will be invaluable in ensuring the standard's practicality and wide adoption.
3. Provide Detailed and Accessible Documentation: We plan to create comprehensive and understandable documentation that explains the standard, its purpose, functionality, and implementation process. This will help in facilitating a broader understanding and application of the standard.
4. Lay the Foundation for Future Development: This standard serves as a foundational building block for future projects, such as the proposed multi-marketplace listing service, and possible integration of features like on-chain royalties and staking services.

To validate if our approach is feasible, we will track stakeholder engagement, community contributions to the code base, and documentation usage to measure quantitative aspects of our goals. We will gather community feedback and assess the clarity and ease of implementation of the proposed standard for qualitative validation. By measuring these metrics, we can assess whether we have successfully met our goals and made a meaningful contribution to the Cardano ecosystem.

The standard's implementation will be done through an iterative, feedback-driven approach, with consistent community and stakeholder engagement. Our team, with its experience and diversity, is well-equipped to navigate any technical or conceptual challenges that may arise during this process.

[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: Project Kick-off & Initial Research (Month 1)

Tasks & Activities:

• Conduct initial research on current marketplace mechanisms and potential challenges of multi-listing
• Outreach to key stakeholders for initial discussions

Success Criteria: Successfully formed project team and started communication channels. Initial research completed and initial stakeholder discussions held.

Milestone 2: Stakeholder Engagement & Requirement Gathering (Month 2)

Tasks & Activities:

• Organize roundtable discussions and open forums with stakeholders
• Gather feedback and requirements from developers, marketplace operators, artists, and sellers

Success Criteria: Conducted multiple stakeholder engagement sessions and gathered extensive feedback and requirements.

Milestone 3: Initial Standard Design & Documentation (Month 3)

Tasks & Activities:

• Develop an initial design of the standard based on the gathered requirements
• Start writing comprehensive documentation explaining the standard, its functionality, and implementation

Success Criteria: Initial standard design created and documentation started.

Milestone 4: Feedback Solicitation & Standard Revision (Month 4)

Tasks & Activities:

• Share the initial design with the community and stakeholders for feedback
• Revise the standard based on the feedback received

Success Criteria: Received community feedback and made necessary revisions to the standard.

Milestone 5: Finalization of Standard & Documentation (Month 5)

Tasks & Activities:

• Finalize the standard and accompanying documentation
• Release the standard and documentation publicly
• Conduct a final round of discussions and presentations with the community

Success Criteria: Final standard and documentation publicly released. Final stakeholder discussions held.

The implementation of the project will follow an iterative and feedback-driven approach. We will prioritize regular engagement with the community and stakeholders throughout the project. By dividing the project into these key milestones, we ensure that each step is manageable and meets our goals. Regular stakeholder engagement and feedback solicitation will enable us to adapt to any changes or challenges that may arise during the project's execution.

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

Milestone 1: Project Kick-off & Initial Research

Deliverables & Outputs:

The primary deliverables for this milestone will be a comprehensive initial research report that outlines current marketplace mechanisms and potential challenges of multi-listing. The report will include feedback from initial discussions with stakeholders.

Intended Outcomes:

This milestone will set the stage for the project by identifying key areas of focus and potential challenges.

Tracking Progress:

The completion of the research report and the initiation of stakeholder discussions will serve as the primary indicators of progress for this milestone.

Milestone 2: Stakeholder Engagement & Requirement Gathering

Deliverables & Outputs:

The deliverables for this milestone will be a comprehensive feedback and requirements report based on the roundtable discussions and forums with stakeholders.

Intended Outcomes:

The intended outcome is to understand the needs and requirements of the stakeholders, which will inform the design of the standard.

Tracking Progress:

The completion of stakeholder discussions and the feedback/requirements report will serve as the primary indicators of progress for this milestone.

Milestone 3: Initial Standard Design & Documentation

Deliverables & Outputs:

The deliverables will include an initial draft of the standard and the start of the comprehensive documentation.

Intended Outcomes:

The primary outcome will be a tangible standard draft that encapsulates stakeholder requirements and provides a blueprint for multi-marketplace NFT listings on Cardano.

Tracking Progress:

The completion of the standard draft and documentation will serve as the primary indicators of progress for this milestone.

Milestone 4: Feedback Solicitation & Standard Revision

Deliverables & Outputs:

The main deliverables will be a revised version of the standard, based on community and stakeholder feedback.

Intended Outcomes:

The intended outcome is to refine the initial standard draft into a more robust and practical standard that addresses any raised issues or concerns.

Tracking Progress:

The completion of the feedback solicitation process and the revision of the standard will serve as the primary indicators of progress for this milestone.

Milestone 5: Finalization of Standard & Documentation

Deliverables & Outputs:

The primary deliverables will be the final version of the standard and the comprehensive documentation. This milestone will also see the public release of these deliverables.

Intended Outcomes:

The primary outcome is the successful development and dissemination of the open standard for multi-marketplace NFT listings in the Cardano ecosystem.

Tracking Progress:

The public release of the standard and the documentation will serve as the primary indicators of progress for this milestone.

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

All received funds will be fed into a project's Treasury. From there the funds will be distributed to project contributors.

The NFT Guild will coordinate all project-related activities and operations and will ensure a fair reward to participating contributors.

For the successful development of the standard we foresee the following steps as necessary:

• Outreach & surveys

• Workshops to develop standards

• Project Management, Coordination, and Public Road Map Development

• Catalyst Administrative Tasks (monthly reports + milestone proof of achievement submissions + closeout report)

Given the volume of work associated with each of the steps above we estimate the total budget required to be 95200 ADA.

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

The NFT Guild is a non-profit, community-driven organization dedicated to furthering the capabilities of the Cardano NFT ecosystem. Our team comprises volunteers who are passionately committed to the cause of improving and expanding the NFT space on Cardano.

The proposed cost of the project is primarily to cover the expenses associated with the time and effort our team will put into the development of the open-standard for multi-marketplace NFT listing. This includes extensive research, stakeholder engagement, standard development, documentation creation, and management of feedback and revisions. The cost has been calculated based on the anticipated workload and the standard rates for this type of work in the blockchain industry. The funds will be allocated responsibly and transparently, ensuring maximum value for money.

As we are proposing a new standard, the indirect value that this project brings to the Cardano ecosystem is high. The multi-listing functionality enabled by our standard will significantly enhance the functionality and appeal of the Cardano NFT marketplaces, potentially leading to increased adoption of Cardano for NFT transactions. The creation of a more interconnected and versatile NFT ecosystem on Cardano could also attract more artists and sellers to the platform, further expanding its user base.

[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