Filamint - 3D Printable NFTs

Trusted Advisors

John Morelli - Electrical engineering, programming, tech startups, director of technology at Intel (2000-2003)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-morelli-50819726/

Stefan Hartwig - Founder and CCO of Electric Pulp https://www.electricpulp.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanhartwig/

Summary

NFTs give physical properties (scarcity, verifiable property rights) to digital goods

Digital art has seen a large increase in value by leveraging NFTs

We speculate that other forms of digital assets may benefit by leveraging NFTs

Conceptually, 3D printers are a bridge between the digital and physical word

3D print assets that cross this bridge still maintain a portion of their digital properties (one digital file can create unlimited physical models, it is not easy to verify who owns the rights to these assets)

Using Cardano minted NFTs to create scarcity and verifiable property rights for 3D print assets will generate a massive amount of value for the 3D printing community and Cardano community.

Specifically, 3 areas of value include: Pay-Per-Print monetization for functional models, physical scarcity control for art related models, and digital scarcity control for collectable models

To achieve these value proposals we propose an application suite consisting of 3 different utilities.

The first utility is a slicing software that can communicate and verify NFT mesh files against the Cardano blockchain

The second utility is a web based solution for turning 3D mesh files into Cardano minted NFTs

The third utility is a web based solution for trading Cardano minted NFT mesh files

To drive adoption we propose a Youtube video campaign aimed at releasing entertaining and clickable videos that demonstrate how to utilize the application through example.

In Depth

The fundamental function of an NFT is to create verifiable property rights of digital assets, while also making it possible to control the digital supply of said assets. Currently NFT technology is mainly being used to create digital art marketplaces. NFTs allow artists to leverage the physical properties of art (scarcity, verifiable property rights) while simultaneously leveraging properties of digital art (network effect, distribution, ease of use).

Using digital art as a model for success, we speculate that other forms of digital assets may see a large increase in value by utilizing NFTs to leverage scarcity and verifiable property rights. One asset class that could benefit from the addition of these physical properties is 3D print files. The global 3D printing market size was valued at USD 13.78 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.0% from 2021 to 2028.

Conceptually speaking, 3D printers are a bridge between the digital world and the physical world. Digital assets that cross this bridge become physical, but still maintain a portion of their digital properties. Hypothetically, a person could 3D print an unlimited supply of physical goods with one digital file. Furthermore there is no way to easily verify who owns the rights to these assets. By controlling these properties, through the use of Cardano minted NFTs and an intermediary application, we believe it is possible to create a massive amount of value for the 3D modeling/printing community, consumers of 3D printed goods, NFT traders and the Cardano community as a whole.

Specifically, one area of value that can be created is a "Pay-Per-Print" monetization scheme. 3D modelers who create functional prints (non-art use-cases) will be able to monetize their products in ways that have never been possible. Currently, selling 3D print files online is akin to selling a majority of the intellectual property for that asset (unlimited models can be printed from one file). Utilizing our printing application, creators would be able to monetize their digital IPs in the form of royalties, much like musicians earn royalties on streaming. Furthermore Pay-Per-Print files cannot be stolen or unlawfully redistributed as easily.

We believe Pay-Per-Print is our biggest value proposition. As previously stated, the 3D printing market is expected to grow to approximately 50 billion by 2028 (21% CAGR). This figure takes into account the sales of 3D printing equipment but fails to recognize the potential value of the assets being printed. 3D printers can now print houses, metal objects, aerospace quality thermoplastics, as well as injection moulded quality consumer grade plastics and various other types of plastics. 3D printing is evolving from a consumer grade hobby to having the potential to change the way we manufacture goods for decades to come. It is our belief that our project has the potential to onboard millions of users into the Cardano ecosystem with Pay-Per-Print. That being said, there are still other areas of value that our project can realize.

Another area of value that is created is the ability to cap the physical supply of 3D printed assets. This feature is extremely useful for 3D modelers who create art. Capping physical supply has the potential to increase the price of their assets if the artist is good enough to drive demand for their work. Furthermore, our application will offer the ability to issue model specific QR codes that make it possible for art consumers to verify authenticity against the blockchain if they plan to resell the model.

The last area of value that is created is the ability to cap the digital supply of 3D printed assets. This feature is useful for NFT traders and would create a secondary market that would benefit both the traders and grant more prestige to the artists. This effect can be seen on successful NFT exchanges like Rarible and Opeansea where select art pieces have sold for millions of dollars.

While value propositions and speculation are necessary for successful innovation, a detailed project plan is perhaps even more important. Getting into the specifics on how we plan to solve our defined problem statement, we propose an application suite consisting of 3 different utilities.

The first utility we propose will make it possible to achieve Pay-Per-Print. Before explaining how it's possible to control the physical supply of 3D printed assets it is first useful to know how 3D digital assets are turned into physical assets. The first step in the process starts with the 3D modeler. A 3D modeler uses a 3D design software to create a "mesh" of the object they want to print. This mesh consists of geometric data and nothing more. Once the mesh is complete, the modeler is able to export this file. This file is not yet 3D printable as it only consists of geometric data. In order to print this file a 3D printer needs more information on how to print the mesh. The 3D printer needs to know things like how hot to print the plastic, how fast to print the plastic, the area on the print bed where the model should be printed, fan speed, and a whole host of other parameters. This is where "slicer software" comes into play. A slicer software adds the necessary information to 3D mesh files that makes them 3D printable. Once this information is added to the file, the slicer communicates directly with the 3D printer via wifi to print the model.

By creating a slicing software that can communicate and verify NFT mesh files against the Cardano blockchain we will be able to control the physical supply of 3D print assets. This leads us to our second utility. A web based solution for turning 3D mesh files into Cardano minted NFTs. This utility is fairly straightforward although there are theoretically many different implementation schemes that can be achieved. This utility should be made considerably easier with the release of smart contracts in September.

The last utility we propose is an NFT marketplace. This utility will add a considerable amount of convenience to the whole experience of the platform. Similar to adding a solution for quickly minting Cardano NFTs, we believe it is important to have a way to quickly trade them. This utility should be made considerably easier with the release of smart contracts in September.

Concluding our proposed scope of this project, we plan to launch a Youtube marketing campaign. Having over 6 years experience in 3D modeling/printing as well as driving over $250,000 in revenue from a Youtube channel, our team is extremely experienced in driving traffic. We plan to release entertaining and clickable videos that demonstrate how to utilize our application through example. These videos will take you on a journey into the life of a creator as they aim to make things that you never knew were possible, utilizing tools you never knew existed.

1 month milestones

Full mock website created and development started on that end

Display milestones and updates on the Filamint website landing page

Software/extension route determined and blockchain communication coding started.

One Youtube video (500 total views)

4 month milestones

Website close to fully functional, should be able to communicate with the blockchain at this stage

Basic functionality of NFT minting present on the website

The software/extension should also be able to communicate with the blockchain at this point

Four Youtube videos (4,000 total views)

8 month milestones

Filamint Website launched with full functionality

Working marketplace utilizing NFT 3D models

Fully developed 3D printing software/extension that communicates with the caradno blockchain to consume NFTs in a "one-time use" format

Eight Youtube videos (50,000 total views)

12 month milestones

5,000 active users

Over 500 3D models listed on the marketplace

10 Youtube videos (400,000 total views)

Defining success

A website that attracts modelers by creating a 3D printing utility suite that ensures creator specified scarcity in accordance to Cardano minted NFTs.

5,000 active users

Over 500 3D models listed on the marketplace

10 Youtube videos (400,000 total views)

Development Cost = $40/hour

Marketing Cost = $20/hour

Slicer Utility - 6 months * 4 weeks/month * 40 hours/week = $38,400

Mint Utility - 2 months * 4 weeks/month * 40 hours/week = $12,800

Marketplace Utility - 2 months * 4 weeks/month * 40 hours/week = $12,800

Youtube Video Marketing - parallel 10 months * 1 video/month * 80 hr/video = $16,000

Total = $80,000