Please describe your proposed solution.

There are three stages to the proposal, each of which build on the ones before, but can be started before the previous ones finish.

1. Standardization - The process of getting an addition to the CIP 68 standard written, reviewed and ratified. The first two drafts of the proposal have already been written; however, this does not mean the process is over. Once submitted for review, many CIPs and CIP additions go through significant revision before ratification. As revisions become smaller and less-contentious, we’ll be able to start work on the next step.
2. Implementation - The design and development of a reference implementation to be included in the Cardano Foundation’s CIPs repository for all developers to reference & use as desired. Like the existing CIP 68 reference implementations, this is to be written in PlutusTx for onchain and Lucid for offchain, all done entirely open source.
3. Integration - The identification of and integration into 3-5 of the most vital open source libraries & tools in the ecosystem, such as Lucid, Blockfrost, or Cardano-Transaction-Lib. We also intend to provide assistance to dapps who need help implementing the protocol into their own system.

With these three pieces in place there will be plenty of resources and documentation for any project or dapp to use CIP 68 onchain royalties without needing to worry about implementation or ambiguity.

How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

The inability to create trustless onchain royalty validation is a major drawback to Cardano NFTs. By upgrading the standard to support onchain validation, we can eliminate that drawback and demonstrate better support for NFT creators, ultimately attracting dapps & NFT projects that would otherwise have taken their talents to another blockchain.

The reference implementation also makes Cardano more attractive to dapps & projects. When it comes to choosing a platform for your dapp, limiting uncertainty is a major consideration. With the reference implementation, developers will be able to more quickly gauge how much effort it will be to implement the standard, allowing them to make a more informed decision.

By creating a reference implementation we also help to kickstart adoption of this new standard, as developers in the ecosystem will be able to refer to it to more quickly & easily implement the standard in their own products & libraries. In order to amplify this effect, we also plan to wrap up the project by assisting these developers in the implementation process.

How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

• Engagement on the CIP proposal
• Number of open source libraries implementing the standard
• Number of downloads of open source libraries implementing the standard
• Number of dapps enforcing the standard
• Number of projects using the standard
• Volume of projects using the standard

Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

• Twitter
• Grabbit Twitter
• Ikigai Twitter
• Personal Twitter
• Newsletter
• Ikigai Medium
• Discord
• Grabbit Discord
• Ikigai Discord
• Catalyst
• Presentation to Project Catalyst Town Hall
• Telegram
• Grabbit Telegram

Most of the metrics will need time for adoption, so we will share updates as the three stages of the project are completed, as well as fourth retrospective once some time has allowed for developers to implement the new standard.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

We are a team of experienced smart contract developers backed by Ikigai Technologies, one of the largest private companies in the ecosystem. We’ve worked on and with Emurgo, anetaBTC, WingRiders and more. We built Discovery, an open-source LBE for DAOs, and are in the process of launching Grabbit, a NFT marketplace built on the first fully decentralized auction protocol on Cardano, which will be leading the way by making use of this royalty standard.

What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The goal for this project is to create a better scheme for NFT royalties that is consistent and can be adopted on a wide scale. In doing so, we hope to increase confidence in Cardano’s fitness for NFT use, driving further adoption of Cardano among NFT collectors, artists, projects and dapps. When Cardano grows, we all grow.

Every part of the process has well-documented precedents. The CIP process has been used for nearly 100 CIPs, and over 500 individual contributions to CIPs. A reference implementation for a CIP has been done many times, and is already done for other uses of CIP 68. CIP 68 royalties have also been done before by projects like Nebula, which the standard is based on. Because proof of concepts are already available for everything proposed, we have no doubt of feasibility.

Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

These milestones will overlap to some degree. All will be finished within 6 months.

1. Standardization (~2 months, starting immediately)
2. Initial Draft & PR (Done!)
3. CIP Review Process
4. Implementation (~2 months, starting a month or less in)
5. Reference Implementation
6. Minting Implementation
7. Offchain Reading Implementation
8. Onchain Validation Implementation
9. Final tweaks based on changes in CIP review
10. Integration (~3 months, starting 3 months or less in)
11. Research and select open source libraries for implementation
12. Integrate into 3-5 open source libraries (sequentially, with 4th, 5th libraries added if time remains)

Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

1. Standardization
2. An addition to the CIP 68 standard, reviewed and approved by the community
3. Implementation
4. A reference implementation stored in the CIP 68 folder in the CIPs repository, which demonstrates:
5. Minting a CIP 68 NFT with royalties
6. Reading a CIP 68 NFT’s royalties offchain
7. Reading and validating against CIP 68 NFT royalties onchain
8. Integration
9. 3-5 open source integrations in major libraries, which make the three parts of the reference implementation available for use (where it makes sense*). These integrations will be created as forks of the source libraries, and submitted as PRs to the source libraries.

• To expand on this, if we take the example of Lucid, an offchain library, it makes sense to be able to mint a CIP 68 NFT with royalties using Lucid, or to read those royalties offchain. However, Lucid is not used for onchain validation, so reading and validating royalties onchain is impossible.

For each of these milestones we will announce on social media when they are reached and how to view the code.

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

According to Crunchbase & LinkedIn, the average global salary for a smart contract developer is $146,259 per year. The following calculations are based on that estimate.

• Standardization (1/4 dev, 2 months = $6,094.13 / ₳21,245.50)
• Reference Implementation - (1/2 dev, 2 months = $12,188.25 / ₳42,490.96)
• Minting Implementation (1/2 dev, 2 weeks = $3,047.06 / ₳10,622.74**)**
• Offchain Reading Implementation (1/2 dev, 2 weeks = $3,047.06 / ₳10,622.74**)**
• Onchain Validation Implementation (1/2 dev, 2 weeks = $3,047.06 / ₳10,622.74**)**
• Finalization (1/2 dev, 2 weeks = $3,047.06 / ₳10,622.74**)**
• Integrations - (3/4 dev, 2 months = $18,282.38 / ₳63,736.44)
• First Integration (3/4 dev, 2 weeks = $6094.13 / ₳21245.48)
• Second Integration (3/4 dev, 2 weeks = $6094.13 / ₳21245.48)
• Third Integration (3/4 dev, 2 weeks = $6094.13 / ₳21245.48)
• First Stretch Integration (3/4 dev, 1-2 weeks - Free!)
• Second Stretch Integration (3/4 dev, 1-2 weeks - Free!)

**Total - $**36,564.75 / ₳127,472.87

While the estimate using 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 devs may look strange, please take into account that some of these stages will overlap each other, and that our devs are busy people with other work obligations.

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Sam Delaney - Project Lead, Smart Contract Developer

Philip DiSarro - Smart Contract Developer

Jonathan Rodriguez - Smart Contract Developer

Krzysztof Szymański - Full Stack Developer

Sam will oversee the proposal, the CIP review process and the implementation and integration work.

Philip, Jonathan & Krzysztof will assist in the implementation and integration.

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The project's cost offers value for the Cardano ecosystem beyond its deliverables.

All money spent on this project goes directly into open source developer community resources. This project will establish a better standard for NFT royalties, create reference materials for implementing that standard, and make utilities for working with the new standard immediately available for all projects on Cardano and easily integrated without changing tooling for most.

It will also help drive adoption as the legitimacy and fitness of Cardano for NFTs grows. The newfound confidence in Cardano NFT royalties will attract many more new users, creators, developers, investors and more.

All this for the cost of employing a single, average US smart contract developer for less than 3 months. We’re confident this is one of the most efficient value-adds the ecosystem has available at the moment.