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

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Thaddeus Diamond (Wild Tangz)

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

Entity (Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

150000

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

The “NFT Vending Machine” is a server software platform that loads JSON files and hosts complex mints. It takes native assets as payment, mints multi-policy, can do free mints, and much more.

[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 (ASL2 License).

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

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)

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

[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?

Our project’s goals inform the feasibility of this project. 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

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

The final milestone will represent Twitter education, blog posts, READMEs and feedback from the project. In addition, we provide support via our Discord (discord.gg/wildtangz) so the founder (Thaddeus Diamond) will dedicate up to 10 hours (~$1,500) of free support if this proposal is funded.

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

Thaddeus Diamond

 https://github.com/thaddeusdiamond 

 https://linkedin.com/in/thaddeusdiamond 

Thaddeus Diamond is the founder, artist, and developer behind Wild Tangz, an NFT PFP collection on the Cardano blockchain that minted in June 2022. Thaddeus has an extensive career in software engineering, having studied Haskell with one of the language’s founders (Paul Hudak) in school and having been a founding developer on the Amazon Alexa. Wild Tangz is Thaddeus’s passion project, and in the year it has been existence he has open-sourced thousands of lines of Cardano-specific code for minting NFTs, sweeping off of marketplaces, developing mobile applications, and more.

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

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.

We use a weighted average value for ADA of approximately $0.29, which represents the roughly 90-day trailing average of Yahoo! Finance closing data.

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

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.

[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