Minimizing Risk in the NFT Market!

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

There has been an increased cost to users in the form of rug-pulls and other dubious practices that make NFTs less attractive to users. Our CNFT Alliance will minimize these risks!

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

Co-founder (CF)/Game Design: Alex

CF/Marketing: Conward

Sr Programmer: Dirk

Projects Coordinator: Sam

Assistant PC: Jye

Narrative Design: Chris

Game Programmer: Simon

Artist: Dilara

Illustrator: Ann-Kathrin

Producer: Christian

SFX: Rudi

(More Details Below)

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Our CNFT Alliance will solve the issues of rug-pulls and other transparency issues by bringing about the next evolution in the NFT ecosystem. Up until now, the NFT ecosystem has been rather wild, and that can lead to some great outcomes and some not-so-great outcomes. Therefore, out CNFT alliance will provide services for many types of NFT projects, but with multiple requirements including, most importantly, transparency.

Though, how does this decrease risk any more than a team giving you names and photos? Well, the CNFT Alliance will be using our industry experts to facilitate these NFT sales, and each project will have its own project ‘vault’ where a percentage of all sales are put as collateral against a rug-pull or failing to provide what was originally promised to their buyers. This allows the CNFT alliance to use game theory to both create user confidence in the Cardano NFT Ecosystem, projects, and the CNFT Alliance by mitigate the risks of rug-pulls and, also, decreasing the benefits or perceived benefits of rug-pulling an NFT project.

EXAMPLE: NFT Project #1 (NP1) wants to partner with the CNFT Alliance. In order to do so, they must meet certain requirements including transparency requirements such as a fully doxed team, open goals and plans, and more. As for NFT sales for NP1, the CNFT Alliance will provide minting functionalities or partnerships with marketplaces, but could hold, in this example, around 40% of the ADA from NFT sales as collateral against a rug-pull. This means that if the project decides to rug-pull then this collateralized ADA from previous sales could be returned to the purchaser.

With our highly capable team with many years in coding, Cardano NFTs, and project management related experience, Fluxus is ready to bring the next evolution in the CNFT space.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Fluxus would be creating a system to increase transparency within the CNFT ecosystem and minimizing risks to users who participate in the CNFT ecosystem. This will lead to increased users in the NFT space whether it be with dApps or projects that are integrating NFTs (example: Paribus and VyFinance).

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

The main challenge would be funding. We have many industry experts and individuals who are ready to build the CNFT Alliance, but funding is needed to keep these individuals employed with the CNFT Alliance. Though, this is why we are seeking Project Catalyst funding.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

-- Q3 of 2022 --

• Complete CNFT Alliance website
• Reveal the 5+ CNFT Partnerships that form the CNFT Alliance..
• Begin development of code and standardized operations of the alliance.
• Release a Litepaper regarding the CNFT Alliance’s operations and goals.

-- Q4 of 2022 --

• Provide the first metrics of the CNFT Alliance’s efficacy (KPIs).
• Grown the Alliance to +10 projects.

-- Q1-2 of 2023 --

• Provide a marked increase in trust from users with Cardano NFT ecosystem.
• Provide a marked decrease in rug-pulls and other scams within the Cardano Ecosystem.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Website Development: $5,000 (front & backend)

Coding: $25,000 (~250 hours @ $100/hr)

Legal: $5,000

Marketing: $5,000

Project Management: $6000 (~120 hours @ $50/hr)

Total: $46,000 + tax(7%) = ~$49,500

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Game Design: Alex is the head of Game Design and Co-Founder of the CNFT Alliance. He has worked as a creative director at Ubisoft's campus and as lead developer of Faith and Honor Barbarossa. He has considerable experience researching psychological and neurological sweet spots in game-based learning. With over 4 years of experience in game design, Alex is geared to bring the best gaming experience to Cardano!

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-cimpeanu-b9507a112/))

Marketing: Conward is the lead of marketing and co-founder of the CNFT Alliance! He has been within the Cardano Ecosystem for 3 years. He is the host of The Cardano Convo Podcast, and he is an avid gamer at heart. After noticing the increasing number of rug-pulls in the CNFT Ecosystem, he began putting together the ideas that would define the CNFT Alliance!

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conwardswift/))

Coding: Dirk worked for Ubisoft, founded two gaming studios as a Dev Lead, and is currently working as a Technical Architect. He is the go-to guy, well-versed in everything tech-related, with 20 years of experience!

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirk-potulski-71313428/))

Game Programmer: Simon Latusek studied in game design and worked as an application and videogame programmer for over 5 years and is proficient in a variety of languages including C#, C++, Lua and CIL as well as the Videogame engines Unity and Unreal. Worked previously with Alexander Cimpeanu on several projects including two titles with Ubisoft Campus and as Technical Lead on Faith & Honor Barbarossa at encurio. Further co-created the Harmony library for a high-level approach of altering compiled code in memory for .net framework applications at runtime.

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-latusek-094728143/)

Project Coordinator: Samantha has many years of experience managing projects ranging from small businesses to even city functions. It is these skills that she has honed over the years that will help keep all partners and projects within the alliance well informed and working smoothly!

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthacampbell1/)

Assistant Coordinator: Jye Tran gathered adequate experiences in his previous employment as Assistant of Sales to now assist Christian and Samantha with the coordination of the different teams and projects.

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jye-tran-918a08154/)

Narrative Designer: Christopher Smith is a highly experienced writer, and when he is not working on his writing company, Lazy Kid Imaginings, he is building out the questlines, storylines, and dialogue for many different games!

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-smith-783b6b93/)

Audio/SFX Designer: Rudi Veiguinha is an accomplished musician with over 10 years of professional experience in advertisement, for entertainers, in the videogame industry and as a solo artist. After his latest solo album release, he decided to focus exclusively on soundtracks for blockchain related videogames. In regards to this pursuit he achieved WWISE Certification and is currently undergoing advanced Certification regarding Integration with popular Videogame Engines.

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rudi-veiguinha-3a016710b/)

Artist: Dilara Bozkurt worked for years as a contract artist proficient in a variety of different art styles, settings and character types. Ranging from mood paintings over landscapes to character concepts she is capable of rapidly visualizing different concepts and ideas.

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dilara-bozkurt-2925a1188/%20as%20concept%20artist)

Producer: Christian Zehetmeier is the Head of Production of 3D Animation Studio Woodblock, working with Netflix, Universal, Riot Games and 343 Industries.

He is proficient in the management of multiple teams in a multitude of different projects across various timelines and will be responsible for ensuring that all teams have the relevant resources required to realize their projects.

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zehetmeier/)

Together, we have decades of coding, project management, NFT, and business experience, and we want to use the CNFT Alliance team’s skills to bring the next evolution of trust and standards within the CNFT Ecosystem.

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Though we have a plan/roadmap to get the Alliance to a point of sustainability, we will, most likely, have to apply for further funding in future rounds.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

The CNFT Alliance will measure its progress by the amount of CNFT and other Cardano Ecosystem partnerships. Most importantly, it will measure the increase in user trust through KPI metrics and compare the CNFT Alliance’s rates of rug-pulls, other scams, and % or value of lost to the average users compared to that of the CNFT Ecosystem. Lastly, we would measure the rates of these events and compare them with the larger CNFT Ecosystem.

We'd be measuring:

• The number of rug-pulls committed by members of the CNFT Alliance in comparison to the ecosystem average.
• The amount of ADA or USD losses that have been prevented by the CNFT Alliance’s actions and policies
• Comparing the CNFT Alliance’s KPI with the Cardano Ecosystem averages (ex: NFTs sold, finished projects, NFT Games completed, etc.)

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Success for this project would be a large decrease in the average losses of users who want to participate with CNFT projects in the CNFT Alliance compared to the CNFT Ecosystem on average. This would provide confirmation that the Alliance has succeeded in minimizing risk to users who participate in CNFT Projects that are a part of the CNFT Alliance.

Another later marker of success would be a largely unified CNFT Ecosystem that wants to or has joined the CNFT Alliance due to the decreased risk that the CNFT Alliance provides for users.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This is a new proposal on Project Catalyst.