NFT Guild: Open-Source NFT Swap Templates (Phase 2)

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Rares Kövesdi (NewMindflow)

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Not Incorporated)

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

6

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

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

We will develop and open-source NFT swap smart contract templates, coupled with supporting off-chain code and UIs, designed for easy adoption by any Cardano NFT project.

[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] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

Project will be fully open source. We are releasing all the code and assets of the project under the MIT licence.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

This proposal seeks funding for the second phase of the Open Source NFT Swap Infrastructure Templates project, building upon the successful completion of Phase 1.

Phase 1 was funded in Fund 8 and it was successfully closed out. [

; https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/8/f8-open-source-development-ecosystem/nft-swap-infrastructure-templates-1 ]

 The aim of the project is to develop two distinct, open-source NFT swapping smart contract templates alongside their corresponding off-chain code and front-end interfaces.

The first template facilitates specific token swaps, while the second, which is the focus of this proposal, will allow for random swaps from a community pool.

We are proud to report that Phase 1 surpassed its original objectives. Not only did we deliver the required templates, but we also devised a solution that empowers project creators and developers to deploy their own swap pool smart contract with a single click. This advancement enables even non-developers to configure and deploy a swap pool effortlessly.

For more details, please see our presentation video and our GitHub page, which houses comprehensive documentation and the complete code base.

You can also try out a deployment of the swap templates live on Cardano mainnet, created by one of our partner projects: https://nftswap.stakepoolcentral.com:11998/ 

A key accomplishment of Phase 1 was the creation of a user-friendly method for generating and deploying a filtered version of the smart contract. This means that filter validation requirements are on-chain, fully integrated into the smart contract, and free from reliance on off-chain databases or code.

The functionality of this system is displayed in the following video demonstration, where we filter the NFT collection by rarity. However, creators can customize the filter according to their unique requirements.

In Phase 2, we aim to introduce Random Pool Swapping Mechanics. This will allow users to initiate a swap by sending a transaction with an NFT to the smart contract address, which then randomly returns a different NFT from the available pool. Multiple Smart Contracts and associated pools could be established based on project needs and composition, each corresponding to a particular rarity level.

The contents of the community swapping pool (the random pool) could either be visible to the users or not, depending on the preference and the needs of each project.

 

The smart contracts will also empower project creators to charge a small fee per swap, ensuring the longevity and self-sustainability of their swapping service.

To achieve our goal of creating easy-to-implement, open-source templates, we will continue developing the code, UI templates, and maintaining clear, comprehensive documentation, supplemented by instructional videos where necessary.

While the development of adaptable templates for the Cardano NFT creators community is an immediate benefit, the long-term advantage lies in encouraging the concept of swapping.

We believe that this initiative will have many long term benefits, including its potential to bring back the joy of collecting, inspire fun, lead to easier collection completion, increased appreciation for collections, enhanced social interaction, and long-term value to collections. The project aims to expand the collectibles NFT ecosystem beyond its current drivers - profit and social status.

Most importantly, however, we hope that our efforts will bring about a new way of looking at collectible NFTs. One that will combine all the new value propositions that NFTs and the technology behind them offer, with the value layer that traditional collectibles such as Pokemon cards, basketball cards, stamps, coins etc. bring. All of these rely heavily on the experience of swapping between members of their respective communities, either as a means of completing collections or simply for the joy of collecting.

Cardano's low fees, fast transactions, and the power of eUTxO, allowing multiple swaps in a single transaction, make it a perfect fit for this experience.

We trust that our project's potential value and impact on the Cardano NFT space and the broader Cardano environment resonate with the community's ethos of long-term value creation over short-term hype.

https://youtu.be/2UCtS4nEUP4https://youtu.be/VK_v6FuDGCghttps://youtu.be/5Ju-1guFzfI

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

Our project will foster the growth and development of Cardano's open-source community. By making these templates publicly accessible and free to use, we are encouraging collaboration within the community and boosting the visibility and adoption of open-source projects. Our commitment to robust documentation, comprehensive guides, and instructional videos further supports this goal by providing an accessible and user-friendly way for developers of all levels of experience to contribute to and benefit from our project.

The templates will greatly streamline the process of creating, deploying, and managing NFT swaps on Cardano.

Additionally, our project provides a direct and immediate value to the Cardano ecosystem by stimulating activity in the NFT space. The introduction of a structured, open-source way to handle NFT swaps can lead to an increase in NFT trading and creation, strengthening Cardano's position as a hub for digital art and collectibles.

Beyond the immediate benefits, our project also brings long-term value to Cardano by fostering an ecosystem that values knowledge sharing, collaboration, and community contribution. We anticipate that our project will attract developers and non-developers alike to the Cardano community. For developers, our open-source templates provide a valuable resource to learn from and build upon. For non-developers, our user-friendly interface and easy-to-use deployment methods lower the barrier to entry, making it more accessible for everyone to participate in the NFT space.

As we plan to continue refining and expanding our templates based on community feedback and technological advancements, we expect our impact on the Cardano ecosystem to grow over time. Our long-term goal is to be a significant contributor to Cardano's open-source ecosystem, continuously providing resources and tools that facilitate growth and innovation.

The success of our project can be measured through both qualitative and quantitative means, combining traditional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with user feedback and community engagement metrics.

Adoption of Open-Source Templates: One of the most direct measures of success is the rate at which our open-source NFT swap templates are adopted. This can be quantified by tracking the number of projects that deploy our templates and the number of NFT swaps facilitated by these deployments. A steady increase in these numbers would indicate that our project is providing value to the Cardano ecosystem and stimulating activity in the NFT space.

Community Engagement: We can measure community engagement through various channels such as GitHub (number of stars, forks, issues, and pull requests on our repository) and social media interactions. High engagement levels would indicate that our project is sparking interest and facilitating collaboration within the Cardano community.

User Feedback: Gathering qualitative feedback from users and developers who utilize our templates will provide valuable insights into how well our project is meeting its goals. We can conduct regular surveys or solicit feedback through our communication channels to understand the user experience, potential improvements, and areas where we're doing particularly well.

Documentation Use and Feedback: The utilization and feedback on our documentation, guides, and instructional videos will be a strong indicator of their effectiveness and the overall success of our project. Increased views and positive feedback would indicate the clarity and usefulness of our resources.

Quality of NFT Swapping Experience: Through user feedback and usage data, we can measure the quality of the NFT swapping experience that our templates provide. This includes the simplicity and efficiency of the process, the security of the smart contracts, and the versatility of the templates. For reference the first partner swap pool that launched using the templates had a total of 145 swaps in the first month of deployment.

In the short term, the success of our project will contribute to Cardano's productivity by simplifying and standardizing the process of creating and managing NFT swaps. This will lower the barrier to entry and stimulate activity in the NFT space, which in turn will drive growth and innovation within the Cardano ecosystem.

In the long term, by fostering an open-source ethos and encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing, our project will help to cultivate a robust, vibrant, and self-sustaining ecosystem around Cardano. This will enable Cardano to continue to innovate and grow, driven by a community that is invested in its success.

Our primary mode of sharing the outputs and results of our project will be through our GitHub repository. This repository will contain all the open-source NFT swap smart contract templates, corresponding off-chain code, front-end interfaces, and comprehensive documentation. We will continuously update the repository as we refine and expand the project, ensuring that the Cardano community always has access to the latest and most effective tools for NFT swapping.

We plan to use social media platforms to regularly communicate updates, milestones achieved, and important results from our project. This will keep the Cardano community informed about our progress and provide an opportunity for them to give us feedback.

Moreover, we expect our project to inspire new ideas and research questions about NFT swapping and the broader NFT ecosystem. By making our work open-source, we hope to stimulate discussion and exploration that leads to further innovation in this exciting space.

We are committed to the Cardano ecosystem, and we see this project as part of an ongoing effort to contribute to its growth and development. The learnings and results from this project will certainly fuel our future contributions to the Cardano community.

As an example of our dedication to providing easily accessible and comprehensive documentation for the open source code we release, please take a look at the video tutorial we created for the first phase of this project.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9yobT1b_0gxoW81cavVgqYZw-Fi8yf-q

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Phase 1 of the project has been funded and successfully delivered under the umbrella of the NFT Guild. We have implemented robust processes to ensure effective management and transparent accountability of funds. Furthermore, all fund movements are transparently tracked in dedicated channels on our Discord server.

After the successful delivery of the first phase of the project we organized an NFT Guild Roundtable on the topic to familiarize the community with the project. You can watch the recording of it here. [

] Our operations are conducted with transparency, and we prioritize maintaining an open line of communication with the community and all stakeholders. We understand the importance of trust in this ecosystem and work to uphold it. Our team has a proven track record of successfully executing projects within the Cardano NFT community for close to two years. We initiated the NFT Guild Open Community Weekly Calls in January 2022 and the NFT Roundtables in May 2022. Moreover, our team has been successfully funded for two standard setting proposals in Catalyst Fund 8, which we have delivered on and closed out successfully.

These proposals - the Standard for verification of NFTs and the NFT Royalty Standards - are demonstrative of our ability to deliver on complex projects within the ecosystem.

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

https://youtu.be/hI3c4uLbtEo

The contributions of the NFT Guild have been recognized by IOG in their recently released 'Institutions in the Age of Voltaire' infographic. Yet we face a pivotal moment, our operations have not received any funding since Fund8. Your vote could preserve this key institution and continue our shared journey in Cardano’s evolution.

[Project Milestones] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

User Stories and Preliminary Research for Randomiser Engine (Month 1)

This milestone will result in a thorough understanding of the user needs and a comprehensive research base to build the randomiser engine. The main metric for success here will be the completion and quality of the research and design documents.

Deliverables & Outputs:

• User stories and use-cases.
• Preliminary research on randomiser engine requirements and potential solutions.
• Specifications for the randomiser engine based on gathered information.

Acceptance Criteria:

• Completion of user stories and use-cases.
• Completed preliminary research report with potential solutions for randomiser engine.
• Completed specifications for the randomiser engine.

Evidence of Milestone Completion:

 A document containing detailed user stories and use-cases, as well as a preliminary research report outlining potential solutions for the randomiser engine. A set of specifications for the randomiser engine based on the gathered information.

Development of Smart Contract Code (Month 2 & 3)

Upon completion of this milestone the Cardano ecosystem will have access to open-source smart contract templates for NFT swapping.

Deliverables & Outputs:

• Design the smart contract architecture.
• Write the smart contract code.
• Conduct testing to ensure code correctness.

Acceptance Criteria:

• Completion of smart contract design and written code.
• Successful tests with no critical issues.

Evidence of Milestone Completion:

The completed and tested smart contract code on the project’s GitHub page. The documentation outlining the design and architecture of the smart contracts will also be produced.

Development of Back-End Code (Month 4)

At the end of this milestone the system will be ready for front-end integration. 

Deliverables & Outputs:

• Design the back-end architecture.
• Write the back-end code.
• Conduct testing to ensure code correctness.

Acceptance Criteria:

• Completion of back-end design and written code.
• Successful tests with no critical issues.

Evidence of Milestone Completion:

The back-end code along with documentation outlining the architecture and design decisions.

Development of UX/UI (Month 5)

A user-friendly interface for NFT swapping will be produced during this milestone, and will be ready for use by the community. 

Deliverables & Outputs:

• Design the front-end interface based on user stories.
• Write the front-end code.
• Conduct usability testing and iterate based on feedback.

Acceptance Criteria:

• Completion of front-end design and written code.
• Successful usability tests and positive user feedback.

Evidence of Milestone Completion:

The front-end code that integrates with the back-end system will be posted to the project’s GitHub page. We'll also produce UI/UX design documentation.

Project Launch and Promotion (Month 6)

Our project's completion will enable secure and efficient NFT swapping on Cardano.

Deliverables & Outputs:

• Deploy the project on Cardano mainnet.
• Promote the project to the Cardano community through social media and events.
• Monitor usage and feedback for potential improvements.
• Submit the project close-out report and video.

Acceptance Criteria:

• Successful project deployment with no critical issues.
• Successful promotion activities with positive engagement from the community.
• Initial usage of the templates and community feedback.

Evidence of Milestone Completion:

A fully deployed project on the Cardano mainnet. A comprehensive project close-out report and video. Evidence that the swap templates have been promoted to the Cardano community on social media.

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

CENT (Lead Developer)

https://github.com/cent-development

Core Member of the Cardano NFT Guild [https://www.nft-guild.io]. Stake Pool operator of the pool CENT since December 2019. 20 years of experience in software development. Creator of the community tool Cardano Blockchain Intelligence. Graduate of the Plutus Pioneers Program cohort 1, 2021. Project Catalyst funded proposer since F6. 

Anamaria Kövesdi (New Mindflow) (UX/UI Designer, Artist)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anamaria-k%C3%B6vesdi-354649106/

Rares Kövesdi (New Mindflow) (Project Manager, Product Owner, Writer)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rares-k%C3%B6vesdi-551260106/

New Mindflow [https://www.newmindflow.com] are:

Artist and entrepreneur, in the Cardano NFT space since Day 1. Core Members of the Cardano NFT Guild [https://www.nft-guild.io]. Creators of the Trybbles & Icons Cardano NFT projects. Cardano Project Catalyst funded proposers. Members in various Cardano & Catalyst projects, initiatives & communities over the past 2 and a half years.

Award-winning filmmakers, film and animation directors, app and game developers.

In January 2021 they moved into the web3 economy granting new life to one of their projects in the form of an NFT collection on Cardano.

Since then they have released multiple art NFT collections on Cardano, and have been involved in multiple NFT and Cardano related groups and organisations, most notably being core members of the NFT Guild. They have been invited to be among the Genesis Artists of Fibo - the Emurgo NFT Marketplace at its launch in 2022.

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Development

1. Smart Contract for swap of specific NFTs - 75 hours
2. Smart Contract for random swap - 50 hours
3. Web front-end, display of swap pool NFT content and possibility to interact with the NFTs and place offers - 50 hours
4. Wallet integration - 25 hours
5. Documentation of contracts and instructions on how to build - 10 hours
6. Documentation of how to build, install and configure web front end - 10 hours

Compared to our Fund 8 proposal, the hourly rate of our developer has increased to $150 from $120. Our developer is based in Norway, one of the most expensive countries in the world.

Total cost for development and documentation: 

220 hours * $150 = $33440

Project Management, Market Research, Marketing, UX, UI and Misc.

1. Project Management - 4 hours/week x 24 weeks = 96 hours ($95/h)
2. Market Research - 4 hours/week x 24 weeks = 96 hours ($65/h)
3. Testing and code documentation verification - 12.5 hours ($50/h)
4. UI Design - 40 hours ($75/h)
5. Marketing - 50 hours ($75/h)
6. Miscellaneous Expenses (hosting, subscriptions, etc) - $650 (one time cost)
7. Catalyst Administrative Tasks (SoM + monthly reports + milestone proof of achievement submissions + closeout report & video) - 18 hours ($50/h)

Total: $21260 

The hourly rates for all other tasks besides development have stayed the same as in our F8 proposal, and are indicated above next to each task.

Contingency Budget of 5% = $2690

We used the average price of ADA over the last 90 days, of $0.2874 to calculate the final amount in ADA.

Total: 199686 ADA

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

Our project cost, which will mainly cover development and operational expenses, represents significant value for money for the Cardano ecosystem for several reasons:

High-Quality Open Source Code: The Cardano ecosystem is fundamentally built on open-source principles, and our project adheres to these values. Our main deliverable, the open-source NFT swap smart contract templates, can be freely used, modified, and improved upon by anyone in the Cardano community. This availability of high-quality open source code can save developers substantial time and resources, providing substantial value to the ecosystem.

Expert Team: Our team comprises professionals with deep experience in blockchain development and the Cardano ecosystem. The cost of our project reflects the level of expertise and dedication we bring to the project, ensuring high-quality outputs and robust, secure smart contract templates.

Community Engagement: We are committed to keeping the Cardano community involved in our project, which includes constant updates, feedback gathering, and community presentation at an NFT Guild Roundtable. 

Increase in NFT Adoption: By making NFT swapping easier and more accessible, our project will drive increased adoption of NFTs within the Cardano ecosystem. The value of this increased activity and growth in the NFT sector significantly outweighs the project costs.

Cost Basis: Our costs are calculated based on standard industry rates for blockchain developers, taking into account the complexity of the project and the experience level of the team. We have done thorough research and consulted multiple sources to ensure our rates are fair and competitive, thus ensuring good value for money.

In summary, the cost of our project reflects not only the work required to develop and deliver our outputs but also the value they will provide to the Cardano ecosystem, promoting development, stimulating growth in the NFT sector, and upholding the open-source principles at the heart of Cardano.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund 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