Non-Fungible Collectables

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Reduced Fees

Operational costs for auction houses include employing large numbers of staff. For sales, they need to prepare and print expensive catalogues, for which they have to hire collectable specialists, cataloguers and photographers on top of paying for large expensive premises. All such costs are passed on to the customers. Auction houses charge buyers and sellers huge premiums, and the final sale involves the buyer taking physical ownership of the item. Of course, arrangements can be made where the seller takes physical ownership at a later date, but this can become expensive, complicated and time-consuming if done for enough customers. NFTs provide a secure and inexpensive way to transfer ownership between individuals, eliminating the need for costly intermediary institutions such as auction houses. Compared to auction houses our platform will offer significantly lower buyer and seller fees. 

Ease of Access and Increased Liquidity

At the moment, there are only a few companies offering innovative ways to buy and sell collectable items. Tracking ownership of an item that a buyer is not in possession of through traditional methods such as deeds of ownership is inefficient, especially when the motivation to purchase an item is to sell it again at a higher price. The same collectables might be traded multiple times within the first few months of their release. Our platform will offer easy access to certified collectables without the lengthy process that traditionally accompanies it. Traditional companies need to make sure that the buyer pays and has the required documentation such as proof of identity, address, and proof of ability to pay. None of this is necessary with a decentralised marketplace and NFC’s role as an intermediary would streamline the whole process for both buyers and sellers, offering greater benefits to the individual.

How it works

• We will create an NFT marketplace that allows users to trade NFTs that are backed by certified real-world collectables.
• Verified sellers on our marketplace will deposit their physical collectables to our secure, London-based location.
• Once the verified sellers have deposited their items they will be issued an NFT that can be redeemed for the physical item by whoever owns the NFT.
• The items are fully insured and can easily be audited by anyone wishing to do so, as long as this person has been approved by the community. 
• NFTs that are redeemed will be burnt and permanently removed from circulation. 

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

The Cardano ecosystem does not have an NFT marketplace that allows users to redeem physical collectables, despite the eventual inevitability of such a platform. Current options that exist outside of the ecosystem use a process of deed ownership which is suboptimal when compared to NFTs that can be traded through the use of a custodial cryptocurrency wallet. The collectables market as a whole is worth roughly $370 billion as of 2020. For the categories, we intend to start trading with - banknotes, coins, comics, trading cards and video games have a total annual sales volume of $721,000,000. Users will be able to buy collectables that are securely stored while avoiding high transaction fees associated with auction houses and marketplaces such as eBay. An NFT marketplace on Cardano fulfils existing business needs through the use of blockchain technology and opens Cardano up to a vibrant collectables market. It has the potential to be a huge driver of growth for the ecosystem. NFTs are beneficial because they visually represent the collectable and are easily traded. Those within the Cardano ecosystem would benefit from NFTs that have redemption value for the following reasons: the NFTs can act as collateral for Defi loans, they can be used as a store of value during times of market volatility and they have a market of established collectors. Traditional collectors would also benefit from lower fees, greater liquidity and secure storage of their items.

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

Insufficient funding

This could be mitigated by using other NFT platforms on Cardano until we have secured enough funding to build it ourselves. We already have the collectables, we just need the platform to execute. 

Lack of interest

For the project to become successful, it needs to have enough active users. This can be achieved through targeted marketing and raising awareness among relevant audiences. However, with the current increase in awareness among the general public, engagement with blockchain technology, NFTs and such marketplace is inevitable.

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

• Create and design an NFT marketplace with funds acquired from project catalyst (18 weeks in total).
• Offer users a chance to experiment with the testnet.
• Start trading in the most established certified collectable markets such as banknotes, coins, comics, trading cards and video games
• A significant amount of Coin collectables are already secured from our first registered seller.
• Market our platform through established industry channels as well as social media, and directly engage existing key market players (to occur concurrently with the above points). 
• Onboard our first 1000 market participants.
• Expand user base, educate users, and send newsletters with the latest market developments and trends.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

• Platform build quoted at $150k.
• 2 employees at $25k/annum each. That would do the following: marketing, promotion, engagement, day-to-day admin, storage, redemption, issuance of new NFTs, and issuing newsletters.
• Initial set-up costs $50k (including insurance, deposit boxes, ongoing platform maintenance, marketing and promotion).

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

• Jamie George: experience as a researcher, analyst and operations manager for a multinational collectables company, and 12 years of experience working with collectables. 
• Arnas, head of Europe/USA Banknote Auctions, Auctioneer, NFT Project Manager - worked on the first-ever numismatic NFT.
• Tashoma Vilini: UI/UX designer, co-founder of liqwid.finance.
• Jemini Rock: Co-Founder of Imotion Media and responsible for Video Production, Ideation, Marketing and branding for Kaspersky, Royal Holloway, Delorean, University of London.
• In talks with leading Haskell developers.

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

No, because we should get all we need from this round and ensure sustainable growth.

[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?

• Monthly reports that contain information on new users, trading activity and volume, redemption, responses to user feedback and key demographic indicators.
• Community feedback. 

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

• Number of active users using our platform, which the community will be able to see in our monthly reports. 
• Growth in different user demographics: crypto community, collectable community, retail investors, institutional investors
• Questionnaires will be issued to determine how many of our users have come over from the traditional collectables industry.

[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 an entirely new proposal.