Fandom Auction and Sales Platform

TheDealersDen.com is a standalone, profitable internet business in the Cosplay Arts community. We operate mainly as a sales platform and auction house for small businesses that desire to connect with individuals interested in purchasing unique, custom and re-sale costumes and artwork. We have been online for over a decade, but recently acquired by new ownership in January 2018. At the moment, we have 27,871 registered users with 602 new accounts in the last 30 days. Although relatively small compared to our competitors (eBay/Etsy/Amazon), we are able to offer much more to our users in terms of value per advertising dollar paid and we plan to grow much faster technologically than any of these established behemoths.

Our expertise is primarily in marketing and community management, although blockchain became a heavy focus for us starting in September 2017. We began like many others with Bitcoin, and after a couple years of heavy research, pivoted almost exclusively to Cardano, which we believe to be Bitcoin 3.0 - with the addition of smart contracts, governance, and a highly intelligent, driven community, minus the maximalism. Our vision is symbiotic with most of those in the Cardano community - To create something that lasts longer than we do, to bring value to the communities we cherish, and to open up commerce and free trade to anyone with an internet connection across the globe.

Currently, our platform is in need of a major overhaul and we would like to rebuild our business with Cardano at the heart of its financial center. TheDealersDen.com will be a community interaction platform for businesses and fans of cosplay, anime, art, and more. We want to build a peer-to-peer system for businesses and individuals to buy/sell merchandise to one another in a verifiable way and track ownership of one-of-a-kind costumes, artwork, and merchandise on a public blockchain. A social platform and phone app that rewards positive interaction with others and promotes sales. Built into the platform will be Positive/Negative incentivization mechanisms such as profile rewards for purchases, achievements for repeated good behavior/order completion, customer/business reviews, and strict penalties for non-payment that attach to each user account to create an honest and vibrant marketplace for our community to interact at low-cost and with high security over their funds and identity, while allowing our administrative team to monitor interactions and settle disputes between parties.

Security is always the top concern when it comes to online financial transactions, but with Cardano and Plutus, we are confident that we can build a provably secure and fun platform for our users to transact on. We believe that everything to do with identity and account data, transaction history, and funds on the platform should only be accessible to the users themselves with the corresponding private key and to authorized admin accounts with their own private key. We would like for our users to own their own data and funds while interacting with our platform, so it is important to allow the user the ability to withdraw their funds at any time and delete the data access from our platform to their user data if they delete their account.

We would like to utilize Atala Prism for users identity, Atala Scan for verified items, and Adrestia for cross-platform transfers, using our own custom Token.

Our focus is set on steady, sustainable growth of our community and building an organic, healthy, free and open marketplace for a multitude of different communities and interest groups. With assistance from Fund2, we are sure to meet these goals.

With this proposal, we have requested 250,000 ADA to build out our new platform. While this is currently only an estimate of the total funds needed, we guarantee that 100% of every ADA awarded to us by Project Catalyst will be used to further improve our website and user interface by hiring professional developers within the Cardano ecosystem.

Please feel free to visit our website at: www.TheDealersDen.com

You can also view our main Telegram Sales Channel with over 6,000 members here: https://t.me/thedealersden

While we strive to evolve and grow over time, our initial roadmap includes the following:

1. USD -> The Dealers Den Token On-ramp

Have an on-ramp that allows people to use USD/their preferred fiat currency and purchase The Dealers Den Tokens easily. This would require some sort of 3rd-party service integration which would purchase ADA, and The Dealers Den platform could convert the ADA it receives into The Dealers Den Tokens which are placed in a users 'account wallet'.

The 'account wallet' is a wallet that is saved in The Dealers Den database, yet is also exposed to the user (mnemonic provided). This way, the user can simply have a username/password to login and use their wallet, or they can import it into their own software as well. Alternatively, they can also withdraw their Dealers Den Tokens from their 'account wallet' to an address they specify.

These Dealers Den Tokens are convertible tokens which represent 1 USD and can be used on the platform to purchase goods/bid on auctions or used as a dollar equivalent medium of exchange, transferable independently between individuals.

2. Shops offering Direct Listings and Auctions (w/ 10% collateral bidding and buyout options)

On The Dealers Den platform, sellers have a 'store front' (Think eBay) where they can offer direct listings (Buy it Now) or Auctions.

Auctions require submitting 10% of collateral with a bid to add a disincentive for non-payment. Once an auction is finished, the winner must pay the final 90% or get their 10% collateral taken after 'X' amount of time has passed.

Once an item has been paid for (whether direct listing or auction), the funds are held in an interim-stage until the buyer has received their goods and confirmed it on the platform. Once confirmed, the funds go to the seller.

If the buyer never confirms, then the seller can initiate a dispute.

If the buyer never receives the item or it isn't as claimed, then he/she can initiate a dispute.

3. Administrative Backend for handling disputes, appeals, and abuse reports.

The Dealers Den website has an administrative backend which allows for viewing such disputes and making decisions.

Administrators also have an account wallet and their keys give them the right to have a final say on disputes about who gets the money. They make a decision, which gets saved in The Dealers Den database, and then posted on-chain as a tx to finalize the decision and move the funds to the winning party.

4. Verified Users and Item Authentication

Once the base layer of the platform has been built, our next goal will be to integrate with an identity solution such as Atala Prism. This will allow for greater transparency among users and businesses while building trust and reputation in the community. Additionally, we would like to add item authentication to securely transfer ownership of registered items between users on the platform. As a secondary benefit, these registered items will be publicly catalogued and with only a glance, users can verify that one-of-a-kind items are authentic and owned by the user listing it. These authentication tokens will be automatically transferred with the sale of the item if listed on The Dealers Den and manually transferable otherwise.

Visual Roadmap descriptions (See TDD-Roadmap-20221d.png):

Active Market: Current Product

This is the current website as it stands today. We aim to completely rebuild the platform from a PHP-based web application to a blockchain-based peer-to-peer Auction and Sales platform.

Core Build: New base product with be built (#1-3)

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is encompassed by the described milestones above. (#1-3) Funding will be disbursed only to developers building this stage of the new product until it is completed.

Phase ALPHA: Internal Testing Phase (Staff Only)

Once the MVP has been completed and tested thoroughly by the developers, we will begin onboarding our administration team and staff for training and to test the new product for bugs. During this stage, we will be accepting internal critiques and proposals to improve the quality of the product before moving to Phase BETA. As we near the end of Phase ALPHA, we will open sign-ups to anyone interested in testing the product during Phase BETA.

Phase BETA: Public Testing Phase (Live Auctions and Listings)

Once Phase ALPHA is completed and tested thoroughly by our staff, we will begin the public testing phase. Those who signed up near the end of Phase ALPHA will receive an e-mail containing a link that allows them to create a new account on the new platform. This will allow them to test the product with real auctions and listings and give feedback before Protocol Launch.

Protocol Launch: Public Release (Base Product Launch)

Upon Public Release, anyone will be allowed to sign up and use the platform. Testing will have gone through numerous stages, ensuring security and usability. We will have also gone through several feedback stages with our community and staff, ensuring that we have delivered the best available product to market for growing businesses and individuals within our community.

Identity Verification Module: Post-Launch Module Addition

With the core product built, we can now focus on building additions to the platform to create a feature-rich environment that people love. If there is funding remaining after the Core Build, it will be disbursed to developers building here next. Each module will expand the capabilities of the platform in their respective ways. The Identity Verification Module is an addition that will attach a platform account to a real-world identity utilizing an identity solution such as Atala Prism. The goal of this module is to build trust and reputation between businesses and individuals in delivering the products, services, and funds agreed to via our platform.

Product Tracking Catalogue: Post-Launch Module Addition

If there is funding remaining after building the Identity Verification Module, it will be disbursed to developers building here next. The goal of the Product Tracking Catalogue is to link registered items and products to verified identities and create a web of ownership details on items that attach to a non-fungible token on the blockchain representing the item in the real world. This token is attached to items during the listing process and transferred automatically upon closure of the sale. Alternatively, these tokens may be transferred manually between individuals and the details updated accordingly by the new token holder. This module generates an immutable, time-stamped history for all registered items and transfers of that item.

End of Life: Final Days of Current Product (Retire)

At this stage, our MVP is complete, along with two cutting-edge module additions, rendering our old platform obsolete. We will announce the closure of the old platform and migrate the remainder of our users to the new one.

Full Integration: New Product Finalization

The Cardano Platform built for TheDealersDen.io is merged with TheDealersDen.com and the old platform is now completely shut down. Users will only be able to sign up and utilize the Cardano-based platform for website transactions.

Additional Modules?: Potential Future Upgrades & Improvements

If any funding is remaining by this stage, we will begin allocating it to further development of new platform modules that enhance the user experience and feature-rich environment of the platform or benefit our community in some way. Ideas from community members are always considered for implementation based on viability, desirability, and cost-effectiveness.

250000