Proof of Participation Token System

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Rodolfo Espino - GQ

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

Entity (Not Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

24000

[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)

We will give builders a way to attract and retain users with participation NFTs. Our ecosystem will include a self-service platform to issue NFTs, distribute & measure Proof of Participation (PoP).

[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?

No

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

At the MVP stage, we will work on iterating the features of the platform, offering them to the community at low cost (in order to cover server(s) and operational costs). Once we have a finished product, we are open to discussions on open sourcing portions of the product to better the community.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

We've entered the NFT space in 2021 and noticed that many of the top products with strong communities engaged in participation and/or attendance mechanisms to reward users or token gate benefits for those with such token. This proved to be extremely effective and low cost for retention of prospects on other chains. We have not seen Cardano projects utilizing such a service and believe that it can make a difference for increased activity on chain as well as onboarding users from web2 and other chains in web3.

Proposed solution inspired by Hamza and Rodolfo's work on producing Social Proof. A tool that measured participation on Twitter Spaces. We were able to track users' by type of emote and timeframe of that emote. We were also able to track users based on a hashtag or tweet associated with a post. This information was then used to link up with POAP - Proof of Attendance Protocol which was a centralized free minting token platform used for people on EVM based chains. We were able to onboard over 11k users after launching that week.

For Cardano, we want to use the learnings from Social Proof and build an MVP that works with the infrastructure currently available on Cardano and can evolve into a low cost L2 or Midnight powered Partner chain.

Proposed MVP components:

1- Self-service website for creators of Participation Tokens.

• NFT Minter: Upload Images
• Minting Requirements: User Code and timer on code expiration
• Manage Interactions: List of user handles and wallets

2- User Poof of Participation minting web page

• Login using OAuth for Socials
• Wallet linking
• Easy minting service on submission of mint code
• Desktop and Mobile Optimized

3- Proof of Participation NFT Viewer

• Beautiful viewer for all Proof of Participation NFTs

Additional components that may be added to this scope, depending on timeframe and remaining budget / expense.

A- Additional minting requirement features

• X: Comment, Like, Retweet, Follow, Hashtag
• Instagram: Follow, Comment, Like
• Discord: Join, Have "x" Role

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

We believe that this will enhance the ability for projects to market to individuals about their products and services. More importantly with the ability to track their effectiveness. The growth of people with that NFT can measure how effective each outreach campaign is to the project.

For projects, they can use the platform for:

• Giving users a keepsake of the event
• Create reward system(s) for those that collect multiple event Participation NFTs
• Tracking how many people attended and participated in the mint
• Token gating of a future mint, discord and/or e-commerce, etc

For users, they now have a keepsake NFT that can:

• Gives a sense of belonging to a community
• Unlock future token gated benefits
• Act as a reminder of a meaningful event

We will measure impact by using the statistics tracked in our system holistically and by creating case studies of projects that utilize our system. These studies will include but are not limited to:

• User growth numbers and charting over time
• Number of NFTs generated through Social Proof
• Before and after engagement metrics of projects and minting users

[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?

Hamza Asif has been a developer for 5 years and worked in web3 since 2021 on both Cardano and Ethereum. He has worked on many web3 projects for fun and has been working with Cardano's Her Monsters team as one of their 2 Developers.

Rodolfo Espino has 20 years of experience in sales and management in technical fields. Notably worked at Xerox Corp. as a Major Account manager with Sales and Annuities in his old territory over $5M USD, a 15x growth from his predecessors. Management of technical, support and administrative staff was instrumental to his successes. Currently manages a 76 year old e-commerce family business, wearing many hats. He has been a participant in Blockchain technology since Q2 2021 across 6 chains and uses what has worked in order to make educated design suggestions and communicate solutions effectively.

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

Milestone 1:

Outputs:

• Create backend database / test servers
• Create self-serve minting function
• Create login / wallet linking
• Create user code generator / timer / user export function

Acceptance criteria:

• Working backend database / test servers
• Working self-serve minting function
• Working login / wallet linking
• Working user code generator / timer / user export function

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Publish video or live stream of all criteria working

Milestone 2:

Outputs:

• Create front end base design / layout
• Design Creator access page / Proof of Participation NFT
• Design User minting / code submission page
• Create Desktop and Mobile Optimization

Acceptance criteria:

• Working front end design / workflow
• Working creator and user experiences
• Working on Desktop and Mobile - testing various browsers, screen sizes and mobile devices

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Publish video or live stream of all criteria working
• Open for beta access to catalyst stakeholders

Milestone 3:

Outputs:

• Design POP NFT viewer for users
• Test Cardano wallet integrations that support all popular wallets

Acceptance criteria:

• Working POP NFT viewer
• Working Cardano wallet integrations that support all popular wallets

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Publish video or live stream of all criteria working
• Open for beta access to catalyst stakeholders

Milestone 4:

Outputs:

• Workflow Testing of the creator and the user journey
• Open up the platform for testing in a closed beta
• Questionnaires from testing sent out to creators and users

Acceptance criteria:

• At least 3 Creators testing the platform
• Questionnaires completed

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Publish video and documentation of test results and questionnaires
• Beta test open

Milestone 5:

Outputs:

• Optimizations from Beta Test Completed and Bugs Fixed
• Optional: If time and resources permit, we may integrate additional minting requirements, starting with the one most voted on in our questionnaire: X.com, IG and/or Discord requirements.

Acceptance criteria:

• Working optimizations and identified bugs eliminated

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Publish video and documentation of test results and questionnaires

Final Milestone:

Outputs:

• Move from test environment to production environment

Acceptance criteria:

• Working platform open to anyone in the Cardano community to use

Evidence of milestone completion:

• Publish video and documentation of results
• Shipped product is available to the public

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

Rodolfo Espino

LinkedIn

Rodolfo will work as product manager, marketer and designer of brand assets.

Hamza Asif

LinkedIn

Hamza is a full stack developer who will be creating the PoP tooling for the Cardano ecosystem.

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

Budget:

Infrastructure: 2000 ada

• Includes server, database and domain costs

Product Management & Testing: 4000 ada

Design & Marketing: 2000 ada

Development / Testing Costs (minimum 100 hours): 16000 ada

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

Our costs are based on current competitive rates for the work involved. Here is how we arrived at these rates:

ADA at the time of proposal submission: $0.43 USD

We looked at US national hourly rates for a PM, Designer, Social Media Marketer and Full Stack Developer and we are able to exceed a 25% savings based on the work involved in this proposal.