Please describe your proposed solution.
Problem statement - long form
In the traditional model of designing and selling Jewelry, the designers and jewelry manufacturers create a collection; which they then launch and market at the different events around the world, such as the Basel World convention <https://www.baselworld.com/> or the Dubai Jewelry Show <https://www.jgtdubaijewelleryshow.com/>
After the launch, the Jewelry pieces are sold online or at the retail stores of the designers. The design is fixed during production, and the uniqueness, or the number of units produced, controls rarity.
The traditional model does not allow for customization of Jewelry pieces besides engravings at the point of sale.
On the other hand, consumers are demanding more customization of their products. Think of custom car packages and paint jobs that can be selected when purchasing a new car. The trends for customization are expected to continue. Personalization is an essential marketing tactic that has been used for years. It allows marketers to understand their customers and better target them with ads and messaging. However, personalization will expand into longer customer journeys as technology becomes more advanced and data sets grow larger.
<https://ninetailed.io/blog/personalization-trends-to-watch-for-in-2022/>
Providing a complementary NFT with the details of the custom-designed Jewelry piece creates a sentimental connection to the uniqueness of the design. In addition, it has the practical aspect of clarifying what has gone into the Jewelry piece.
Several companies have created integrated production lines between a webshop and the manufacturing facility that makes individual jewelry pieces. However, this integration is still unique in that the company can create bespoke Jewelry pieces from a blueprint of different traits. Similar to how artists generate NFT collections on the web.
A couple of examples where companies offer a bespoke jewelry design service:
<https://chimeradesign.jewelershowcase.com/band-builder>
<https://www.jweel.com/html/tools.html>
On these platforms, once the customer is happy with the design of the Jewelry piece, they submit their order and go to the checkout area.
Upon checkout and payment, the webshop sends the 3d model to the production line, and the designer gets to work putting together the unique piece by adding the selected traits.
A few days later, a courier delivers the unique Jewelry piece to the customer.
Solution - long form
We will integrate an NFT minter into the Jewelry production process. As the client designs their unique Jewelry piece, they will have the information if the piece is truly unique and the number of other pieces with similar traits. This might lead them to pick different designs that are more or less unique, depending on the preference.
During checkout, the customer will receive an NFT with a picture of the 3d model and metadata with the traits of their unique Jewelry piece.
This will improve the customer journey by:
- Giving the customer clear information on how rare their piece is
- The customer will receive an NFT with the 3d model summary of the traits that they can then show their friends and loved ones
- Create a secondary market for the Jewelry market on the blockchain
Adding NFTS to physical jewelry pieces will bring new users to the Cardano ecosystem as every customer will become a user of the Cardano Blockchain.
During the checkout, the customer will have an option to provide the address of their Cardano wallet where we will send the NFT. If the customer doesn’t have a Cardano wallet, we will create one for them and send the NFT there. In addition, the customer will receive a 15-word mnemonic phrase for their new wallet, which they can use for other things in the Cardano ecosystem.
The transaction cost for minting the NFT will be bourn by the webshop, so the NFT for the customer will be complimentary (free). The customer will receive an NFT in their wallet and a small among of ADA to cover the future cost of sending the NFT should they want to transfer it to someone else.
We are in talks with a company in Portugal that has built a production line capable of linking their web app to their manufacturing facility. This proposal is to build the Cardandao infrastructure to plug into the production line and mint the NFTs linked to the physical jewelry pieces.
We will also investigate the possibility of uploading the 3d model CAD file into the NFT so the 3d model can be used in the manufacturing process.
On the technical side, the platform will have four components:
<u>1 - Backend NFT minting service</u>
We will build the backend service with NodeJs and will connect to the Cardano services with the help of community-built wrappers:
- It will connect to cardano-cli through a wapper such as <https://github.com/shareslake/cardanocli-js>
- It will connect to cardano-wallet service through a wrapper such as <https://github.com/tango-crypto/cardano-wallet-js>
It will use the cardano-cli to mint new NFTs and it will use the cardano-wallet service to create new wallets for customers.
The cardano-cli and cardano-wallet both depend on a running cardano-node service that syncs a local copy of the cardano database. Therefore cardano-node will also be deployed.
The cardano-cli has a set of commands to mint a token (NFT) and add metadata. The Metadata will follow the CIP25 standard with the label 721; the standard imposes the minimum amount of information such as the PolicyID, Asse Name, Image URL, media type, and a description. Beyond this minimum amount of data, it allows for setting the traits of the Jewelry in a freeform JSON format
<https://cips.cardano.org/cips/cip25/>
We will create a backend service to upload the images of 3d models and the 3d CAD files of Jewelry pieces to the IPFS using the Pinata IPFS gateway https://www.pinata.cloud/
<u>2 - Connector to the webshop checkout process</u>
The NodeJs implementation of the backend will run an Express Server to receive connections from the front end and interact with each of the backend services described in section 1 above.
Additionally, the cardano-graphql service will be deployed to monitor the blockchain and confirm when the minting transaction of NFTs gets completed.
The cardano-graphql will also be used to read all the NFTs that were minted within the same Jewelry collection (PolicyID) and tell the client how unique their current design is
As the client is experimenting with the design of their Jewelry piece the information on the selected traits will be sent to the backend, which will query the blockchain for NFTs within the same PolicyID that have at least one of these traits and send it back to the client the other variations that have already been sold. The client can use this information to inform his decision on if they want something that no one has yet, or otherwise.
When the client is happy with the design, they will use the checkout function of an existing webshop to pay for the Jewelry piece. The webshop will then POST to the backend service an image of the final 3d model that the client chose and the traits of that model.
The backend service will:
- upload the image of the Jewelry 3d model onto IPFS,
- Generate the CIP25 compatible metadata standard with information on the traits
- Build and send a minting transaction with the IPFS URL of the image and the metadata
<u>3 - New Cardano Wallet generator</u>
The newly minted NFTs of the Jewelry piece will be sent to the client’s existing Cardano wallet if the client has a Cardano wallet. If the client doesn’t have a Cardano wallet, the backend service will create a new one.
The backend service will generate the wallet mnemonic in the front end with the help of the BIP39 library. The wallet will then be synced using the cardano-wallet backend service. The client will also receive a wallet address to which the NFT will be sent.
<u>4 - Front end with NFT certificate</u>
After the client completes the checkout and pays for the Jewelry piece, the webshop will present them with an NFT certificate in a pdf format with the following information:
- Image of the 3d model
- Selected traits
- PolicyID and Asset Name of the NFT
- Wallet Address holding the NFT when the certificate was issued
Also, optionally the client might choose to have their mnemonic phrase printed on the NFT certificate and instruction on how to open a compatible wallet.
Our partner design agency <https://www.davidegolias.com/> will design the layout and branding of the NFT certificate
A separate one-page application will be built and made available to clients where they will be able to check their NFTs by supplying the PolicyID and Asset Name of their NFT. In addition, the page will show them the image of a 3d model of their Jewelry piece and the metadata with the traits.
The one-page application will be served by cardano-graphql backend service.
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
The project addresses the challenge setting by creating a novel and viable application of NFTs to the real world and onboarding non-crypto users to the Cardano Ecosystem.
It will create NFTs for real-world assets to which people attribute economic and emotional value, Jewelry.
It will help onboard new users into the Cardano Ecosystem as every person who buys this particular Jewelry will get an NFT on his existing Cardano wallet, or if they don’t have one, then a new Cardano Wallet will be created for them and a mnemonic phrase provided which they can use elsewhere in their lives. So every new customer is automatically a new Cardano user.
It solves a real-world problem of tracking and communicating uniqueness in Jewelry pieces, which is also one of the prerequisites for a transparent secondary market.
What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
The technology is well understood, and several projects on Cardano use similar technology in the back end to mint and show the images and metadata of NFTs. Several projects have also linked the minting of NFTs to a fiat onramp which is the closest to checkout at a webshop. An example project that has successfully implemented a more sophisticated version of this <https://www.nft-maker.io/>
The company Dynamic Strategies that will be delivering the project has the experience in delivering projects using the Cardano services stack (more on this in the relevant experience section further below)
A dedicated design studio will design the layout of the NFTs
The project delivery also depends on a functioning user interface where the client designs the bespoke Jewelry pieces and an operational checkout process. We are in talks with a company in Portugal that is setting up its manufacturing and will offer a webshop for clients to design their jewelry. If there are delays with the delivery of the webshop and Jewelry design features, then delivery of the project might get delayed. Mitigating action: we will aim to plan the delivery dates with the Jewelry company as closely as possible. However, should there be uncertainties with the layout or technical stack, we will remain flexible and delay our project delivery. Should the delays extend beyond reasonable, we will create a sample frontend and pitch the solution to other manufacturers.