Current NFT minting and trading lacks live, interactive, engaging game mechanics, leading to a passive, uneventful experience for collectors and creators.
This is the total amount allocated to enigmi - Live, Gamified, Multiplayer NFT Platform MVP.
We will make NFT minting and trading more exciting by introducing a platform that provides live, online puzzle building, creating an interactive, social experience for collectors and creators alike.
no dependencies
All code developed under this proposal will be fully open source under the MIT license.
Note that we already have a working prototype where all the features that have been indicated as completed can be experienced by the community on the preprod network in our UAT environment.
https://uat.enigmi.io/
https://uat-play.enigmi.io/
Quick start:
Here is a quick video and screenshare where Jacques (myself), and Piro talk a little bit about what enigmi is.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y5yqrxfztmk?si=AwfEnEx8rEK77ycaenigmi will engage 3 distinct groups of people; 2 relating to the general ecosystem and community, and 1 technical; the developer community:
Below, we provide a brief overview from these different perspectives. If you do not have technical software interests, you are welcome to skip the technical sections.
For NFT Creators
This engaging and immersive platform aims to solve the problems of suboptimal user experiences and limited options for NFT minting and distribution in a fun and interactive way. enigmi provides an exciting launch experience for NFT mints or distributions, encouraging their communities to trade and interact with one another in a real-time online environment during and after the primary mint.
For NFT Enthusiasts
From the player’s perspective, enigmi is a unique and engaging NFT minting experience built on the Cardano blockchain, designed to gamify and enhance the user experience in the NFT space. By using puzzle mechanics, enigmi allows users to buy random puzzle pieces from various collections, trade them with other players, and collect the necessary pieces to complete a specific puzzle. Once all the pieces are collected, users can burn these individual puzzle piece NFTs in a single transaction, minting a unique, final NFT in the process.
Thus, for the general end user community, the enigmi solution is unique as it offers a new way to mint and distribute NFTs while fostering engagement across the Cardano community. By providing a fun, interactive, and scalable platform, enigmi aims to attract a wide range of users, benefiting artists, collectors, and the Cardano ecosystem as a whole.
A substantial part of our focus is on the real-time online interactive aspects of the platform. We believe there is room for such an experience in the Cardano space. We would like enigmi to become a hub of activity, where players come to hang out, mint, chat, and trade with others in real-time.
For Cardano Technical Community
While the Cardano software developer community is healthy and passionate, there is a very lean representation of .Net developers.
With our many, many decades of cumulative experiences building enterprise grade systems and systems that can scale, and having a deep love for trying to solve complex problems in the simplest way possible, we believe developing the enigmi opensource project will bring value to the Cardano developer echo system as a whole, showcasing what can be done in .Net and Cardano, and helping to open the door for the millions of .Net developers in the world. It will serve as a fully functional use case of combining a set of carefully selected technologies into a thoughtful and robust architecture for a platform that aims to bring the following to Cardano:
Aspects that will be showcased in this project:
We will host the platform on MS Azure to be functional on the preproduction network for a minimum of 6 months.
We will also deploy the platform to mainnet in a beta release.
We have elected to build enigmi on Microsoft Orleans for it’s robust and foundational support for complex, concurrent systems.
Microsoft Orleans is a proven, cross-platform framework designed to simplify the creation of distributed applications - software that runs across multiple processes, often stretching across hardware boundaries using peer-to-peer communication. It works by enabling these applications to scale elastically, ranging from a single server to thousands of servers distributed across cloud-based platforms.
In simpler terms, think of Orleans as a toolbox for building scalable software that is split across different servers and systems, which allows the applications to be very resilient and easily adaptable to changing loads, like a website handling sudden spikes in visitors.
Orleans uses something called the Virtual Actor Model, a programming concept where "actors" are individual, lightweight objects that hold a piece of data and the rules for managing that data. These actors, referred to as "grains" in Orleans, interact with one another through asynchronous messages. A crucial feature of these grains is their 'virtual' existence, meaning they always exist and can always be called upon, regardless of whether the server they're on fails. This unique feature brings a level of resilience to applications that isn't common in typical software development.
These grains can be considered as the basic building blocks of an Orleans application. Each grain has a stable identity, behaviour, and state that is defined by the user. The identity of a grain is a user-defined key that makes it always available for invocation, whereas behavior is the specific operations the grain can perform. State refers to the data a grain holds, which can be temporarily volatile or persistently stored. Grains are stored in 'silos', another Orleans term for hosting entities.
Orleans has a diverse set of uses, from gaming and banking to chat apps and GPS tracking. Some parts of popular Microsoft services like Azure, Xbox, Skype, and Halo are built using the Orleans framework.
Orleans also offers features like persistence, timers, and reminders. Persistence ensures the data is available and consistent before processing a request. Timers and reminders provide scheduling mechanisms to execute certain actions at future points, adding yet another layer of reliability to applications built with Orleans.
The combination of scalability, fault tolerance, and simplicity is the reason we decided to build enigmi on Orleans.
A couple of useful links to Orleans’ benefits, philosophy, and approaches, for those more technically minded:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/orleans/benefits
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/orleans/overview
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/orleans/
Here again, the impact will be both to the general Cardano NFT community and the Cardano Technical Software Development community.
General community
Introducing a new platform with innovative and unique experiences for launching and minting NFTs will broaden the Cardano ecosystem as a whole. The gamified and live, online, interactive minting, playing, and trading experience aims to draw in NFT enthusiasts and traders from other blockchains, or from the general public not yet exposed to web3 and blockchain.
Technical community
enigmi will serve as a benchmark and reference implementation for the Cardano developer community of a interactive, multi-player platform that Is designed from the ground up to have a scalable architecture.
Draw in new .Net developers.
There is an estimated 7 to 8 million .Net developers globally. https://www.griddynamics.com/global-team-blog/number-software-developers-world
Even though projects like CardanoSharp (https://www.cardanosharp.com/), to which we have contributed, opened the door to the .Net community, the .Net representation and exposure within the Cardano ecosystem is still relatively tiny.
Making available a project of this scope and quality will make it more interesting for exploring .Net developers to look into what is possible on Cardano.
In future, if we successfully launch this as a commercial product, we also hope to bring in some mainstream brands into the Cardano space. (Not in scope for this phase of enigmi)
How will you measure this impact?
For the general NFT community:
On the technical side
Part of the success of the Enigmi project can be measured by its ability to attract and engage .NET developers within the Cardano ecosystem, ultimately enabling them to create solutions that benefit the entire Cardano community.
This could be observed through development community engagement via developer forum activity, Github issues opened by the community, and the number of contributions to the Enigmi code base by external individuals. By attempting to draw more .NET developers into the ecosystem, Enigmi aims to contribute to the growth and diversity of the Cardano developer community.
Additionally, the success of Enigmi can be evaluated by assessing the ease of understanding, running, and utilizing the project. A successful implementation should provide well-structured code, an easy way to execute the project, and an intuitive user interface. These factors will ensure that .NET developers can quickly grasp the concepts and mechanics of the Cardano ecosystem, allowing them to hit the ground running and start creating valuable solutions.
How will you share the outputs and opportunities that result from your project?
The entire code base of Enigmi will be made available on the Enigmi Github repository under an opensource license. This decision reflects our commitment to transparency and collaboration within the developer community. Furthermore, to showcase the functionality and usability of Enigmi's features, we will host a live version of the game on enigmi.io.
Looking ahead, our vision for Enigmi extends beyond its current state. We plan to evolve it into a commercial product, catering to a wider audience. In fact, several Cardano projects have already expressed interest in partnering with us to utilize Enigmi as a means of distributing their collections in an innovative manner. This collaboration will further establish Enigmi as a versatile platform within the Cardano community, providing new opportunities for both developers and users alike.
At Inversion, our software development company, we have built a strong reputation for delivering projects with a high level of trust and accountability. With a solid track record of successful and timely deliveries over the course of more than 5 years (the start of the company), we have established ourselves as a reliable and dependable partner. Please also refer to our references on the bottom of our website (inversion.dev).
The Inversion team comprises 13 developers, each with an average of 20 years of experience in the software industry. This wealth of expertise enables us to tackle complex challenges and implement innovative solutions effectively. We have experience on the full lifecycle of software development projects, including planning, initiation, design and architecture, implementation, iteration, deployment, hosting, monitoring and support.
We take pride in our team's capabilities and their ability to adapt to the evolving landscape of software projects as the needs of the project evolves.
Furthermore, our experience extends specifically to the Cardano ecosystem. We have worked closely with other clients in the Cardano space, assisting them in creating similar solutions. These projects have not only excelled from a technical standpoint but have also demonstrated financial success. This experience in the Cardano ecosystem positions us as an ideal partner to deliver this project effectively.
We have also successfully completed 2 other small catalyst proposals from Fund 8, thus further displaying our ability to deliver successfully: https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/8/f8-open-source-development-ecosystem/net-cardanosharp-deserialization
Inversion also actively sponsors other Cardano open-source projects, such as Opshin: Revolutionizing Smart Contracts with Python - Write Once, Deploy Everywhere, Leveraging Python's Elegance and Efficiency for Secure, Intuitive, and Flexible On-Chain Operations.
https://Github.com/OpShin/opshin (scroll to the bottom)
We started development of enigmi before Fund 10, and even though we did not receive any grants from Fund 10, we continued developing enigmi on our own risk and with our own funds. We have now reached a point where the platform is live and functional on the preprod network, and the repository is available on Github. We trust this shows our commitment to the project and ability to execute.
(Note that development for this milestone is already well under way, and the basic atomic swaps have been proven and are functional in the prototype)
Milestone: Implementing peer-to-peer (puzzle piece for puzzle piece) trading with atomic swaps
Milestone: Enhancing peer-to-peer trading atomic swaps to support offering ADA or any other Cardano native fungible token for a puzzle piece
Milestone: Implementing puzzle building – burning puzzle piece NFTs and minting the final NFT
Milestone: System Administration Tools
Milestone: Adding CIP-68 support
The company behind the Enigmi initiative is Inversion. https://inversion.dev/
Even though Inversion has a wider team available to assist and draw on if needed, the following are the primary members that are working on enigmi.
Piro Vorster is a skilled tech professional and founder of 2 successful software startups, Inversion and Pink Fish, with an impressive 17 years of experience in technologies like .NET, Azure, C#, and more. He's worked in a broad range of sectors, including Auctioning, Insurance, and Reinsurance, and relishes the thrill of solving complex challenges. Piro's credentials include a BSc (Hons) Computing degree and a wealth of leadership experience. He also boasts an unusual asset — a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, reflecting his commitment to discipline and strategic thinking. Piro prioritizes projects where his success is intrinsically linked to the project's outcome, a testament to his deeply invested approach.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/piro-vorster-ba166111/?originalSubdomain=za
Jacques Bosch, a tech entrepreneur from South Africa, loves the way harnessing software can reshape the real world. With a quarter of a century career spanning a diverse range of industries, from Blockchain and Auctioning to Education and Insurance, Jacques has a wealth of experience in implementing successful systems across many countries. For over 18 years, he has led competent teams founded on strong and respect-based relationships. Currently, he is concentrating on developing blockchain products and generative AI solutions for enterprise scenarios, highlighting his love of innovation and progress.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquesbosch/
Kobus Pelser is an accomplished software developer with a B. Tech degree in Information Technology and over two decades of diverse industry experience. Having worked in sectors ranging from the Internet industry to vehicle tracking and auctioning, he is adept at creating robust, high-performance systems that deliver real-world value. Kobus is known for his commitment to excellence and his ability to exceed technical expectations.
Fred Snyman is a full stack developer with over 24 years experience in the Tech, Financial, Recycling, Crypto and Entertainment industries, covering multiple technologies, with a focus on the .NET stack. He has a keen eye for design and has extensive experience in developing visually appealing websites and applications, that are both functional and user-friendly. His creative skills extend to other fields such as music production, visual effects, as well as game design and development.
Paul Cowan is a seasoned programmer with over 20 years of experience, largely with C# .NET. He's worked across multiple industries, most notably in online retail, gaming, and now in the emergent fields of blockchain and NFTs. Working in both private and open source spaces, and a keen problem solver, Paul brings a blend of expertise, lateral thinking, and collaborative spirit to every project.
Besides having a team with a deep and broad experience, spanning far in excess of 1.5 centuries of cumulative track record of building successful, high impact software systems across many industries, Inversion has also built a number of successful solutions relating to Cardano, including applications for minting, burning, and managing non-fungible tokens (NFTs), staking and delegation, chain data monitoring and analytics, as well as web3 apps that integrate with the blockchain to create delightful user experiences. Our team is deeply familiar with the Cardano platform and its unique features and capabilities, including the EUTXO model, native tokens, metadata, and staking delegations.
We have also been fortunate enough to have 2 small opensource proposals funded in Catalyst Fund 8 to add deserialization support to the popular .Net based CardanoSharp library, as well as to add a module to the same library to integrate with the CIP-30 Web Wallet APIs from .Net Blazor WASM. Both of these were completed on track and are being used in the wild by other Cardano builders.
More about our work relating to Cardano can be seen here: https://inversion.dev/cardano/
Jacques and Piro are also co-founders and co-host of the Africa On Chain podcast that is in it’s very early stages. Interested parties could review podcast episodes to get a feel for who we are and our expertise.
"Africa On Chain" is an essential podcast for those seeking to deepen their knowledge of blockchain technology and its transformative effects on a global scale. Hosted by a group of four experts hailing from various regions of South Africa, the show combines the talents of marketing professionals and software developers to provide a weekly podcast that breaks down the complexities of blockchain in a conversational and engaging manner.
Note, there was a bit of a pause producing the podcast for a while, with team focus being required on other initiatives, but new episodes should be published again inQ2 of 2024.
Considering a 0.39 USD to 1 ADA exchange rate (1 USD to 2.56 ADA), the revised project plan estimate for the project amounts to 313,921.06 ADA.
We are applying for the maximum budget allowed under the Use Cases – Solutions track: 300,000 ADA.
Inversion will fund the difference, and as demonstrated by the running system on UAT / preprod, and the opensource code in the Github repository, we have already made sizable investments into the project, and we are committed to it’s further development.
Inversion has already invested well over $100,000 USD
Budget breakdown below
Milestone Budgets
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Milestone: Peer-to-peer trading with atomic swaps
Cost: 100,000.00 ADA
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Milestone: Enhancing peer-to-peer trading atomic swaps to support offering ADA or other Cardano native fungible tokens for a puzzle piece
Cost: 40,000.00 ADA
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Milestone: Puzzle building - burning puzzle piece NFTs and minting the final NFT
Cost: 70,000.00 ADA
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Milestone: System Administration Tools
Cost: 30,000 ADA
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Milestone: Adding CIP-68 support
Cost: 50,000 ADA
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We believe that the cost of the project represents good value for money for the Cardano ecosystem, and we would like to address this by explaining the costs previously described and how they are justified.
We have already invested well over $100,000 USD of our own funds developing the project to it's current state. (See previously completed milestones below)
In determining the costs of the project, we have considered industry standards and typical freelance rates of individuals with similar levels of experience and expertise. These rates ensure fair compensation for our highly skilled team members, allowing them to deliver exceptional work within the allocated timeframes.
Furthermore, the costs of the project are proportional to the value it will deliver to the Cardano ecosystem. Our team members have a deep and broad track record of building successful, high-impact software systems across various industries. This wealth of experience, spanning over 1.5 centuries cumulatively across the Inversion team, ensures that the cost is justified by the value our team brings.
The Enigmi project aims to provide significant cost savings in the long run by open-sourcing the code base. This enables developers to reference and leverage our work and easily build their own solutions on Cardano. By fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation within the Cardano community, we contribute to the growth and development of the ecosystem as a whole. The open-source approach ensures that the benefits of Enigmi extend beyond our specific implementation and can be widely adopted and improved upon by the community.
Additionally, our team's expertise in the Cardano platform and its unique features, such as the EUTXO model, native tokens, metadata, and staking delegations, positions us to deliver outstanding results. Our familiarity with these aspects of Cardano ensures that the project will be developed to the highest standards and will provide value to the ecosystem.
In summary, the cost of the project is justified by the extensive experience and expertise of our team, their track record of successful projects, and the long-term benefits Enigmi will bring to the Cardano ecosystem. We are confident that the value derived from Enigmi, both in terms of cost savings and the expansion of developer participation, justifies the investment and represents excellent value for money for the Cardano community.
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Since we included a set of milestones in our Fund 10 proposal, and since we continued development of enigmi, even though we did not receive any funding, we have already achieved quite a few of the previously defined milestones. We will include those milestones here.
Fund 10 Milestone: UI prototype for rapid iteration on UX
A video where this UI prototype is showcased, as well as the downloadable artifacts for anybody to run the prototype themselves.
Milestone already successfully completed. UI mock-up available for download to run locally.
Demo video showcasing UI mockup
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ldqMiGYbW7c?si=pq2yyFpZxFA6PR58UI mockup that can be downloaded and run locally
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Fund 10 Milestone: Bootstrapping project backend code base on MS Orleans
Milestone already successfully completed. Code can be reviewed in the Github repo, and running system can be experienced on preprod network.
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Fund 10 Milestone: Implementing baseline UI in Blazor based on learnings from the dummy functional UI
Milestone already successfully completed. Code can be reviewed in the Github repo, and UI can be experienced running on the UAT site on the preprod network.
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Fund 10 Milestone: Implementing puzzle collection dispensers and puzzle piece ordering
Milestone already successfully completed. Code can be reviewed in the Github repo, and the ordering process, including the dispensing of randomized puzzle pieces, can be experienced running on the UAT site on the preprod network.
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Fund 10 Milestone: Deployment to pre-production network
Milestone already successfully completed. Available on UAT site.