Proposer

Submitted By:

Ash

Twitter:

Must_be_Ash

Discord:

Must_be_Ash

Team:

Binder.Studio https://binder.studio/ Ash team lead and product design http://arashnouruzi.com/ Anon, Doodle #276 Full_Stack Dev. Anon, Doodle #6436 and #6864 Full_Stack Dev. Both Devs are part of leading web3 companies and have extensive crypto resume beyond Binder Studio and frens.city projects (the 4 projects executed by the three of us the past 8 months)

Intro

Name of Experiment:

NFT Ticketing

Experiment Duration:

2 months total. 1 month for development: custom smart-contract and web-based application. 1 month for testing, iteration and improvement.

Experiment Type:

Other

Experiment One-Liner:

Understating if web3 folks would prefer NFT ticketing over web2 hosting if the web3 platform offered the same experience for RSVPing and hosting events.

Experiment Cost:

15000

Details

Experiment Description:

There's an exhaustive list of NFT ticketing services and no one uses them because frankly none of them are good. Even NFT NYC - the year’s most anticipated NFT event - had to resort to using Eventbrite for their event. Having tried 34 of them, we can confidently say that most usually focus on explaining the benefits of NFT ticketing before prompting you to reach out for more information. Essentially operating as B2Bs with private sales, which you need contact them for and can’t just create an event on the fly similar to Luma or Partyfull.

Our goal is to develop an NFT ticketing app as user-friendly as Mint and Claim pages – requiring no coding and offering self-service. Essentially, we want to bring together the NFT minting experience (Eg., Zora or Manifold) with the simplicity of event management tools (Eg., Partiful and/or Luma).

We believe that by improving the user experience to the point where it's indistinguishable from existing web2 platforms, we can enhance the event management experience of the web3 community. Looking through Luma and Partiful, a noticeable (if not the majority) of users are actually web3 native communities and projects. Through this experiment we want to find out, if our platform existed, would we be able to at least capture the existing market (i.e. active web3 native event hosts who don’t need onboarding to web3 or being red-pilled).

Part of the Inkubator's fund itself is dedicated to events as we know. So far most of the budget has been spent on these events. Most complain about the location of said events and are frustrated that mainly only US-based holders get to benefit while the majority of holders (outside of US) don't get to attend them (because of time, money, work, location, or visa). This problem isn't isolated to Doodles. Many other web3 projects and communities share the same issue.

We propose that NFT ticketing could partially alleviate this problem by allowing non-attendees to profit while ensuring fair pricing through contract-level caps on secondary sales. Beyond that, NFT ticketing would also solve the transferring of tickets and RSVPs. If an individual is no longer able to attend, they can legitimately pass their ticket on to another person. Preventing getting scammed through over-the-counter deals, or having to borrow your friend's (ticket holder’s) ID/credit card to prove they actually passed you their QR code or ticket. For example, our friend, Eddie here (https://i.ibb.co/99pvpr7/IMG-5094.jpg), should be able to just visit ME (Magic Eden, THE LEADING NFT MARKETPLACE!) to get their yacht party ticket and not have to post who has an extra QR code on Twitter. Lastly, these NFTs end up as souvenirs in your wallet reminding you of memories you've made. After all, not every NFT event issues POAPs.

Experiment Success:

We're not trying to replace Luma overnight or become Ticketmaster. Our goal for this experiment is to make the process so seamless that it would be a no-brainer for all Doodles events whether hosted by the Inkubator or the LLC, to host their events through our platform. We will persistently iterate until we reach this goal. Outside of Doodles we would like to see if we can get %10 of our own network who host web3 events (Cryptoon Goonz, Long Lost, Quirkies, Crypto Morries, EthSign, EthVan, DCRTL, EthGlobal, OffChain, AndCo, IRL Alpha...) to convert and will be measuring: Total number of events hosted Number of unique event hosts Number of tickets secondary sales or transfers Number of unique wallets registering (RSVPing to) events

Experiment Product:

An NFT ticketing web application that is as simple as a Manifold/Zora mint/claim page – no code and self-service. Essentially Manifold/Zora type mint/claim tool, repackaged and presented in Luma/Partiful style, with a custom smart-contract (to provide features normally ticketing or mint pages can’t such as time-bound token expiry or capping secondary sales prices).

Product Distribution:

Our primary goal is to capture the entirety of Doodles’ events market, making sure all the gatherings are facilitated through our platform. Given the support of the council, Inkubator and the community, this should be relatively easy to achieve if our product is no different from those currently used (Luma/Partiful) while also offering the added benefits of NFT integration. We will also be reaching out to our personal network who host or sponsor web3 events (Layer0, RugRadio, Polygon, Kernel, Cryptoon Goonz, Long Lost, Quirkies, Crypto Morries, EthSign, EthVan, DCRTL, EthGlobal, OffChain, AndCo, IRL Alpha...) though we don’t expect them all to convert. We believe word of mouth from happy consumers and a simple watermark at the bottom of the page can even go a long way.

In parallel to this experiment and beyond the Inkubator scope, we are developing an application centred around web3 IRL meetups. Essentially helping folks find their web3 communities IRL. Our first experiment was to aggregate all events during NFT NYC, helping people to find things without referring to spreadsheets (which is how currently people find events) and leaving community notes to provide live status (eg. long line, rough bouncer, dead party…). At the time of writing this application, it has already garnered over 200 users within 72 hours of launching. Right now, we are planning our next iteration which will be live for Token2049. We anticipate these two products will synergize effectively and complement one another – mutually attracting users to each other.

Logistics

OG Holder Participation:

Since we plan to start the experiment with the focus entirely being on the Doodle community, OG holders will be the first to take full advantage of this platform for free from day 1, influence how it’s shaped and have a front-row sit. Whether a host or an attendee, Doodles (Inkubator itself included) will have free access (to even the future paid features) period.

As mentioned previously, part of the Inkubator's fund itself is dedicated to events as we know. So far most of the budget has been spent on these events. Most complain about the location of said events and are frustrated that mainly only US-based holders get to benefit while the majority of holders (outside of US) don't get to attend them (because of time, money, work, location, or visa). NFT ticketing could partially alleviate this problem by allowing non-attendees to profit while ensuring fair pricing through contract-level caps on secondary sales. Beyond that, NFT ticketing would also solve the transferring of tickets and RSVPs. If an individual is no longer able to attend, they can legitimately pass their ticket on to another person. Preventing getting scammed through over-the-counter deals, or having to borrow your friend's (ticket holder’s) ID/credit card to prove they actually passed you their QR code or ticket. For example, with the previous Doodles event (project grey) 8270 had to personally sort some Doods out who missed out on RSVPing in time. What happens to those who don’t know 8270? Lastly, these NFTs end up as souvenirs in your wallet reminding you of memories you've made with other Doodles. After all, not every NFT event issues POAPs.

Dependencies:

Thirdweb SDKs for metadaa ipfs uploading Airstack for token gating Vercel for hosting and backend services Supabase: for Database

Revenue:

Will be free to create events initially Can charge for premium features later on (Eg., adding featured events on the homepage and sponsorships. The go-to spreadsheet in web3 makes about of $10,000/month from sponsorships)

Self-Sustainability:

Our experiment holds significant promise for self-sustainability due to the positioning we have in mind and the product features. With careful execution and ongoing refinement, we are confident in the project's ability to thrive independently in the long run. Starting with a niche (Doodles events) and slowly growing from there not only gives us a safe platform to experiment and iterate on but also puts the application in a tight feedback loop with the users.

There are quite a few ways we could add revenue streams into the application - eg., adding a featured event section, charging larger events, capping free RSVPs, making event management or analytic insights as a premium feature or simply eliminating watermarks from the event page. As evidenced in our recent launch of a sister application with a similar idea (frens.city) garnering 200+ users in less than 72 hours we are confident that making it self-sustainable would be the least of our worries.

Future Inkubation:

We are prepared to scale the application given the technical stack we will be choosing and Implementing monitoring solutions and optimizations from the start. Our team is prepared to meet the demand both by breadth and depth. We can’t say with confidence what would be needed at that point to scale further as it is purely speculative at this point and each product/service requires different traction methods at different phases of development (e.g. BD, partnership might be the best approach at one point, while content sponsorship might prove more effective at another point in time). What I can say right now with confidence however, is that should this experiment yield possessive results we are ready to even go full-time and would be looking to join programs such as Orange DAO, Alliance DAO, SeedClub or similar programs if not the Inkubator. Beyond receiving a sufficient marketing budget, these programs will connect us with all the right people which is actually more valuable than the grant or investments they provide.

Detailed Budget:

ThirdWeb api keys: for uploading IPFS metadata, querying NFT apis ~ 20$/month x2 months Vercel: for website and backend deployments ~ 20$/month x2 months Supabase: for Database ~25$/month x2 months Base Eth for testing, deployment and covering gas fees for uninterrupted UX for roughly 50 events (proxy contracts) and 200 RSVPs: 0.1 ETH Giveaways and event sponsorship $500 Team compensation (two full-stack developers and a product designer whose hourly rate or contract compensation would already beat the proposed budget) libor will include UX/UI, Brand Identity (logo, colour pallet, font… development of the web application and custom smart-contract, auditing) $14,000

Marketing

Marketing Plan:

As mentioned before, in parallel to this experiment and beyond the Inkubator scope, we are developing an application centred around web3 IRL meetups. Essentially helping folks find their web3 communities IRL. Currently, it is just an event aggregator, Frens.City (https://www.frens.city/), helping people to find out every single event that is happening right now at NFT NYC. Since its recent launch, it garnered 200+ unique visitors in less than 72 hours. We believe these two products can be highly complementary and can fuel one another.

Beyond that, utilizing our own network, word of mouth, and watermarks on event pages, we will also run giveaways and sponsor events.

Materials:

No existing material regarding the experiment we have in mind but you can refer to the event aggregator we've already launched (Frens.City) to view the product being developed in parallel to this.

Extra

Insurance:

Own insurance.

Third Party Insurance:

Extra Details:

Think Luma meets Manifold/Zora. No code, self-service, easy-to-use NFT ticketing that brings the benefits of NFT (programmability) to the ticketing industry which currently has major problems it's looking to solve.

PS. happy to disclose the identity of Doodle #276 and Doodle #6436 (the two devs) to a selected council member.