Near Field Query tap authentication

An infallible custom NFQ tag to provide a secure and verifiable touch medium into: blockchain, NFTs, smart contracts, and payment solutions.

5 years in electrical & software companies.

Built NFC reader & Android app for opening doors.

Steve Lupien: Mentor w/ RFID/Blockchain exp.

Check out "Portal: NFQ digital asset mgmt." under the DApp and Integrations challenge to review our entire proposed system.

https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Portal-NFQ-s-digital-asset-mgmt/384580-48088

Links to everything mentioned in our proposals is listed at the end of the detailed plan under Resources.

The NFQ project is supported by NFT-DAO and the University of Wyoming's Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation. The co-founders are UW engineering majors. This structure empowers students and organizations to explore ideas like NFQ. Both organizations have encouraged our idea and we are grateful for their support. NFT-DAO is backing our proposals as part of its mission to inspire students. Thank you to all the team and community members who are helping this become a reality.

Vocab: NFQ stands for Near Field Query which doubles as our company and technology name. Combination of both chips (NFC and microprocessor) and antenna are referred to as NFQ tag. Portal is our digital asset management platform that natively interacts with the NFQ tag. BXCR is a framework designed to support horizontally scalable NFT marketplaces. NFTs are unique digital assets that are "linked" to a product (in our use-case) to prove authenticity and ownership. 

Market:

Global e-commerce progression with technology and social media platforms has given rise to increased volumes of counterfeits and knockoffs. "The approximate cost to the U.S. from counterfeit sales was estimated to be as high as $600 billion as of 2016" [1]. This is a fast-growing industry, so five-year-old numbers don't adequately represent today's problem. Between 2008 and 2013, the average growth rate of this market grew by an average of 18% each year. [2] The domestic counterfeit market is estimated to grow to $959 billion by 2022, but likely underestimates the size [3]. New solutions and standards are required for combatting this growing issue.

The present standards revolve around serialized barcodes, visual markers, and particularly QR-codes. QR-codes are becoming more prevalent as authenticators but have concerning security vulnerabilities. These 2-D pictures require using your phone camera to send you to any URL, secure or not. This security flaw allows fakes to simply copy the code or even send you to a phishing website. Even worse, this link could inject malware into your device that can open backdoors for more malware or steal your private information. Fake QR-codes have been placed on real products and could cause lots of harm. This is easily duplicatable and fakes can be made to appear real. 

Our system uses digital signatures and multiple cryptographic trapdoor functions to (without sacrificing privacy) verify identities of both the chip and reader (e.g., mobile phone) and ensure bad actors cannot replicate product's identification and authentication. This keeps the communication between chip and reader secure from prying eyes, protecting consumer's privacy. Only the brand will have the signature to prove their product is official through the tap of your phone. 

Product:

Near Field Query™ (NFQ) technology will bring a verified touch medium into the blockchain space through our custom NFQ tag. This fits into our goals of first creating an infallible authenticator for products, followed by a simple, easy to use, transaction system for NFTs to be used as digital products.

This tag is the combination of two different chip technologies—an NFC transmitter and an ARM microprocessor capable of handling low power encryption and signature verification (SHA256+ED25519). The transmitter handles the back-and-forth communication through a touch medium. The ARM chip and encryption will store identification data and an NFT or smart contract address and would be powered by the electromagnetic induction from the near field initiator (e.g., a phone). As the NFQ tag is self-sufficient and can be waterproof, this device could outlast the product with which it is applied.

By natively interacting with the blockchain, this device—although small and relatively simple—has huge implications. Our infrastructure, including our dApp on Plutus, named "Portal," will enable:

->Luxury brands to have control over their counterfeit markets. 

->A tap-enabled payment portal for cryptocurrency.

->A B2C and 'peer-to-peer' NFT trading market on a blockchain using NFT DAO's "BXCR" framework.

->Completion of smart contracts through simple touch and a biometric identifier.

->Simplification of the everyday consumer's interaction with the blockchain.

These advantages will empower NFQ to become a standard in anti-counterfeiting.

We see Near Field Query™ as the technology to simplify brand and customer interaction with the blockchain. Because of our use of smart contracts and our focus on the consumer, we can enable a Portal™ into the crypto space and support its further adoption. Blockchain brings us to the next stage of capitalism, where trust is not assumed, but proven through transparency and decentralization.

Acquisition:

Once we get a minimum viable product, we will approach venture capital to furbish and refine the functionality of our system. Using seed funds like Catalyst, along with these investments, will allow us to implement commercial products by the end of 2022. From there, we can approach leaders in multiple markets to recoup their market share and protect their brand. Consumers will be satisfied to know the product is provably owned by them and authentic. Their digital assets (NFTs) can be accessed through a simple tap of their phone and managed on a sleek UX (Portal™). Additionally, NFT DAO's "BXCR" framework can support businesses by leveraging a simple-to-onboard custom NFT marketplace for an easier transition of online shopping onto blockchain. A more decentralized version of the consumer economy will empower consumers.

Monopoly:

Our minimum viable product, NFQ, will have the capability to 'query' NFT's and verify brand authentication. When resources are in place, this capability can expand to synergize with smart contracts and their applications. Furthermore, our NFQ tag would be able to complete payment transactions natively and securely using crypto. NFQ enabled products could be traded between peers utilizing NFTs for simple, verifiable, and secure transactions. We are building the core infrastructure to bring consumer adoption into crypto, expanding the scope of application, and bringing more utility to Cardano. Our goal is to create a paradigm shift of NFTs for the everyday consumer.

Our ability to compete and apply this to a wider range of products depends on our ability to lower costs. This includes the cost to mint NFT's and our ability to mass-produce NFQ tags. Firstly, we plan on utilizing Glow language to access any EVM-compatible blockchain that can mint a higher quantity of NFTs for a lower price. We will remain flexible to quickly take advantage of the best resources and technologies available. Secondly, as NFQ grows, our supply chain will need to be vertically integrated. We plan on building a semi-autonomous factory for self-production of NFQ tags as soon as it is economically viable. This will push our costs even lower and allow our reach to expand into commodity markets, solidifying NFQ as the leader of product authentication and the standard of trust between businesses and consumers.

Challenges: 

Funding is our biggest challenge. We've managed to avoid the bulk of HR costs by hiring an extremely capable individual who can build most of our system in a timely manner and trading equity upfront. Each milestone will correspond to bonus equity packages, solidifying his role in the company.

Marketing this idea to clients is another noteworthy challenge. The cost to travel to businesses and present the idea can build up fast, especially when a minimum of three people would be involved (PR rep, CTO, and a Co-founder). We plan on utilizing remote technology like Zoom to present our product to most of these companies to avoid that unnecessary cost. Of course, large and influential companies would require those travel expenses as that would increase likelihood of success. 

Implementing our NFQ tag into all sorts of products, materials, and applications can require massive effort and testing to ensure infallibility. Our head of hardware integration has already implemented a proof of concept into a physical wallet and is studying material science to better understand how to integrate our NFQ chip into different types of products. Ease of implementation is critical to our influence and that's why we are considering distinctive ways to apply NFQ. Our first iteration will be a tag and housing that can be easily embedded (stitched) during the manufacturing process without NFQ intermeddling. 

Budget:

This budget is based on reaching a hardware minimum viable product connected to blockchain within 3-6 months.

Equipment: $700

Supplies: $200

Software: $100

NFC engineer: $12,000 ($20/hr, 500hrs)

Glow custom integration: $20,000

Miscellaneous costs: $2000 

This is an extremely complex task that grows alongside our company. Our ask of $35,000 will be spent sparingly to begin relationships with programmers and get us started on the foundational work of making this vision into reality. With this award, we can pay our NFC Engineer (a founder with a sizable stake in NFQ) and cover some, if not all, of the contracting costs for a custom Glow integration solution for communication between our NFQ tag and blockchain.

Our project requires both the creation of the custom authentication device and indentured code library to allow implementation and retrieval of blockchain queries. A NFC engineer with a background in electrical engineering and knowledgeable in C language, microprocessors, Solidity, and NFC technology has joined our team to build NFQ as the Chief Technical Officer. Ryan Kinback (GitHub is linked) is extremely capable and can accomplish the tag, chip code, app structure, and Glow backend. After chip creation we need blockchain integration utilizing Glow language. This requires the contracting of Mutual Knowledge for connecting our NFQ code into the blockchain using Glow. Additionally, the triple trapdoor functions and cryptographic verifications are a serious task to make this technology secure from prying eyes. We are planning on contracting this security aspect to "Pay Stars" for building and testing the security of our system. Around 6 months, the payment functionality of both USD (bank and card) and cryptocurrency would be contracted through Pay Stars (they are specialized in payment solutions, hence the name). This budget of $35,000 would help us complete a minimum viable product to take to investors. 

When NFQ is fully established, system operation costs will be largely from personnel and implementation costs. Our project requires flexibility and a strong core of engineers and developers. HR costs should grow slower than NFQ scaling. Implementation costs will be based on the staff required, NFT minting costs, and the production of the NFQ chip. NFTs and NFQ will be less costly as we leverage economies of scale and adopt new, competitive methods of minting.

Roadmap:

The timeline starts Jan. 1, 2022

Three months: NFQ code library completed, Mutual Knowledge Glow integration started, and a working prototype (store and query an NFT address) communicating with Android device.

Six months: NFQ tag's chip combination and antenna completed and ready to manufacture. A provisional application for NFQ tag and code library is submitted. MuKn's custom Glow integration is is completed and applied into Portal. Minimum viable product ready to manufacture. When required, but preferably as late as possible, angel investment will be brought into NFQ.

Twelve months: 'Tap' NFQ into different types of industries by creating examples and commercially applying our product. Have a deal with a multibillion-dollar business and many other smaller companies by the end of the year. In September, attend the Blockchain Stampede to present our business and its applications to investors. Use these funds to furbish our product's functionality and design and build our brand focused on ease of use for the consumer, transparency, and a B2C trust model on blockchain to create a new standard for product authentication.

Final thoughts:

We see Near Field Query as the technology to deliver simpler consumer interaction with brands onto blockchain technology. Because of our integration of smart contracts and our focus on the consumer, we can enable a Portal™ into the Cardano ecosystem and support further crypto adoption. Blockchain drags us to the next stage of capitalism, where trust is not assumed, but established through transparency and decentralization.

Resources

Near Field Query tap authentication

https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Near-Field-Query-tap-authentication/384588-48088

Portal: NFQ's digital asset management

https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Portal-NFQ-s-digital-asset-mgmt/384580-48088

NFT DAO :

https://builtoncardano.com/nft-dao

UW Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation : http://www.uwyo.edu/acct-fin/cbdi/

BXCR : https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/NFT-DAO-Boxcar-framework/382053-48088

CTO Github :

https://github.com/rkinb

MuKn/Glow :

https://mukn.io

Pay Stars :

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-thornhill-194817/

References:

[1] 

https://www.nbr.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/publications/IP_Commission_Report_Update.pdf

[2] https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USPTO-Counterfeit.pdf

[3] https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USPTO-Counterfeit.pdf

Thank you to the CAs and voters who review this proposal and we hope you gain the excitement about NFQ and Portal that we have. :)