Ikigai | Free, Walletless CIP-68 Minting Platform and Tooling

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

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

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

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

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

We've developed a user-friendly tool guiding collection creation using CIP-68, 88, and 102 standards. We'll be supporting free, walletless minting for new creators onboarding to Cardano.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

[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?

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

All work will be open sourced.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Mintun offers a simple flow for collection minting and will add free, walletless minting for onboarding new artists unfamiliar to web3.

• minting CIP-68, CIP-88, CIP-102 collections
• managing/updating collections
• walletless minting
• Free minting for onboarding new artists and creators

Demo and information can be found here

Our platform, Mintun, simplifies NFT collection creation on the Cardano blockchain for users new to the ecosystem. With intuitive forms and simple flows adhering to CIP-68 and CIP-88 standards, users can create collections with minimal requirements, such as naming, while offering detailed metadata options like artist name, project details, images, traits, and social links. Users can also set multiple royalties using CIP-102 which marketplaces can use to enforce via the smart contract.

After collections are created Mintun allows artists to go back and manage, edit, or add to them. The collection creation transaction also mints a set of tokens including a management token, collection information token, and a state token. The management token is held by the user and must be spent in minting transaction to authorize the mints. The state token holds the current number of tokens minted and other data. It is held by a spending validator and must be included in any minting transactions to verify it is updated correctly. The collection information token datum holds the metadata about the collection. It is planned to allow the user to update the collection information but not currently supported.

When a user connects their wallet to Mintun it can find any management tokens the wallet holds. Then it can fetch the collection metadata from the chain for those tokens. The user can see a list of detected tokens and manage the associated collections from the website. Currently, the manage page enables a user to mint NFTs into that collection using their token. They first need to store a script reference of the minting policy because it is quite large. Then they can draft NFTs with a minimum requirement of selecting an image. The UI then allows them to mint up to 10 tokens in a single transaction. They can also just view the already minted NFTs in the collection from this view.

We believe this solution is a good start but needs more to overcome some other barriers that make it difficult for new users to start using the chain. To this end we want to add support for minting on behalf of a user without a wallet as well as free mints. This will allow creators to explore the process of creating a collection without needed to setup a wallet up front. A portion of the funds from this proposal will be allocated for providing limited free mints to new users. To support this we will add support for social logins in addition to wallets. We will also add a backend service to handle minting transactions on behalf of users.

Additionally, we realize the workflow for drafting a single NFT at a time is not always ideal. So we will also add support for bulk drafting of NFTs providing a CSV template that user can download and fill out and reupload.

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

Artists and creators new to web3 can seamlessly mint their art using the latest standards in a familiar workflow, free from the complexities of setting up wallets and funding accounts at the outset which we hope will expand the creator economy on cardano. Our unbranded, open-source approach allows developers and projects to easily leverage or embed our work. As this tool aligns with our personal needs rather than our primary business focus, Mintun service free of charge and fees, providing a minting option for users seeking easy collection minting/management on the latest standards. Those requiring single mints or custom tailored solutions can still explore alternative offerings like NMKR.

[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?

With the groundwork of site hosted, designed, and minting flow base live and opensourced, we are able to focus our efforts to providing a clean first user experience for artist by adding walletless minting and free mints.

Ikigai Technologies is a technology company that specializes in creating innovative solutions leveraging Cardano. The team is composed of experienced professionals in the fields of technology, business, and design. Considered a quiet builder, Ikigai has been developing solutions for marketplaces and game development with Grabbit and GENUN Games as well contract work for IOG. The Ikigai team has also contributed to open sourcing blockfrost work, PDE smart contracts, and authoring CIP-102.

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

Released and Tested on Mainnet

25% cost | 2 weeks | 25% completion

Deliverables:

• Front end is complete
• Smart contracts completed and tested
• Wallet connections

Acceptance criteria:

• A demo is recorded to showcase the user flows and tutorial
• mintun.io is available users can connect wallets, mint collection, and add NFTs to them with CIP-68

Walletless Minting

25% cost | 1 month | 50% completion

Deliverables:

• SSO with third party credentials (ex: google) for lightweight accounts
• UI and backend for creating account

Acceptance criteria:

• An artist/creator can create an account ready for minting without having their own wallet
• A quick video showing logging in without a wallet

Free Minting for new users

25% cost | 1 month | 75% completion

Deliverables:

• Portion of funds from proposal locked in Treasury to cover transaction and network
• Backend service to handle daily limits of free mints
• Protection against accounts consuming all free mints

Acceptance criteria:

• Testable live on mainnet
• A demo is recorded to showcase creating an account (walletless minting) and minting a collection without having to add funds to wallet

Bulk Collection Upload

25% cost | 2 weeks | 100% completion

Deliverables:

• UX/UI for bulk uploading images and .csv and explaining format and clear messaging
• Verification window
• Parsing and chaining mints until all are minted in collection

Acceptance criteria:

• Testable live on mainnet
• A video showing uploading .csv for bulk minting

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

Cliff Garvis (Ikigai) as Software Engineer

Michael Yagi (Ikigai) as Project Manager

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

Milestone 1: Released and Tested on Mainnet

• 1 developer, 1 month = $6,500 / ₳17,567.56

Milestone 2: Walletless Minting

• 2 developers (sharing work), 1 month = $6,500 / ₳17,567.56

Milestone 3: Free Minting

• 2 developers (sharing work), 1 month = $6,500 / ₳17,567.56

Milestone 4: Bulk Collection Upload

• 1 developer, 4 weeks = $6,500 / ₳17,567.56

Marketing, Tooling, Treasury:

• Marketing & Server Costs = $1,000 / ₳2,702.70
• Treasury for free minting = $1,000 / ₳2,702.70

TOTAL AMOUNT

• $28,000 / ₳75,675.67

We apply a 0.37 USD/ADA exchange rate, which is the average rate over the past few months conservatively adjusted downward to ensure that the project will remain viable despite moderate price shocks that may occur before or during the project timeline.

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

This unbranded, open-source work will help artists create and manage collections with the latest standards as well as onboard new creators with free, walletless minting. By open-sourcing and keeping branding as minimal as possible will allow other developers and projects use or embed mintun into their own projects (no crediting required but appreciated). By leveraging our previous experience and some of the initial work completed, we are able to keep the cost of this proposal down to deliver the highest value possible. Because this tool aligns with the businesses needs of our other projects, the plugin itself is not our primary business focus allowing us to offer free of charge with no fees as well making open-source.