Grant Proposal: TwikkL

Foundation Grants
#1

Project Name: TwikkL
Website: https://twikkl.xyz/
Project Lead: Jeremiah Abang

PURPOSE
Traditional video sharing platforms are controlled by a central authority, which controls the storage, management and distribution of videos. Users upload their videos to a central server, and other users can access and interact with the videos through the platform’s interface. The company that operates the central server is responsible for maintaining the infrastructure and setting the rules for the community.
Regrettably centralized video sharing platforms tend to have strict censorship rules, which limits the freedom of expression for users. Additionally, creators of content often receive little to no compensation for their work. We’ve seen a couple of their decentralized counterparts with attempts at reward systems and decentralization on distributed networks based on Blockchain technology.

Though decentralized video streaming applications aims at solving the problems faced with their traditional counterparts, they also have been greeted with some downsides like slow onboarding process and lack of concrete reward structure. Web3 applications rely on decentralized infrastructure, which can make the onboarding process for new users confusing and complex. Users need to have an understanding of blockchain concepts such as private keys, public addresses, and gas fees. They may also need to set up a digital wallet and acquire cryptocurrency or NFT before using the application. These steps can be overwhelming for new users and may prevent them from fully engaging with the application. Additionally, lack of user-friendly interfaces and inability to maintain reward structures can also be a problem, lacking a revenue generation model to constantly provide liquidity for tokens issued to users as reward will cause the value of content monetization to drop leading to users being demotivated.

Set to change the narrative and experience with decentralized video sharing platforms, TwikkL is a decentralized video sharing platform that utilizes blockchain technology and Sia storage network to provide a censorship-free and transparent environment for users to share and stream videos. By using a blockchain network, TwikkL ensures that the platform remains decentralized and the content is stored on a decentralized storage network, making it more difficult to remove or censor content. Using Sia Network, TwikkL provides a decentralized and secure alternative to traditional cloud storage providers by allowing users to store their data across a distributed network of nodes, rather than relying on a single centralized provider. Additionally, TwikkL utilizes it’s sustainable revenue generation models to provide a fair reward structure for content creators and users, allowing them to monetize their content and be fairly compensated for their contributions to the platform.
TwikkL’s plan on web3 intergration to Sia will be assisted by Lumeweb and S5. Also with plans on utilizing the Lens protocol API for it’s Social network graph and for low/efficient gas cost TwikkL is built on the Polygon Network and will see to advance to other chains when necessary.

Synopsis of TwikkL’s features/characteristics

Video groups: TwikkL allows users to create and manage their own video groups or communities, which could be focused on specific topics, interests, or communities. This provides users with a more personalized and tailored video sharing experience.
Decentralized data storage: TwikkL aims at the integration of Sia, the platform’s decentralized and blockchain-based architecture provides a secure and transparent way to store and access videos without relying on centralized servers.
Content monetization: TwikkL utilizes advertising and NFTs for content monetization and rewards are stored in an inbuilt wallet on the platform.
Governance proposals: TwikkL allows users to submit/vote governance proposals, related to changes or improvements to the platform.
Smart contracts: Like most web3 platforms, TwikkL incorporate Solidity smart contracts into its platform in order to facilitate transactions, interactions, and access controls.
Governance tokens: TwikkL issues governance tokens to users, which gives them the ability to participate in governance decisions or vote on issues related to the platform.

Project Timeline

Design prototype done and current development using React Native, solidity for the mobile application in progress.
The project follows a concise roadmap…
•UI/UX design prototype «This milestone includes project file setup, dependency, screen design etc.» [Oct 2022 - January 2023]
•Mobile app development with React Native and Smart contracts implemention «This milestone involves implementing the design with its functionality and linking to the backend»[January - May 2023]
•CDN and Sia intergration [May 2023]
•First Product test [June - July 2023]

Risk
The potential risk for TwikkL is the issue of mass onboarding in a short period of time. As the platform gains more users, the infrastructure and resources required to support them will need to scale accordingly. This can put a strain on the network and potentially lead to issues such as slow load times or transaction failures.
Open Source
TwikkL is 100% open source with a public repository located at
GitHub - JiggyDevs/twikkl-app: Modern video sharing app with social services and more

Budget:
The Project request for $70,000 for year 2023 with the detailing of expenses:

•$30,000 to be the full time salary of Jeremiah Abang, the Team Lead and Product manager. it’ll be paid at monthly intervals
•$40,000 to see the actualization of the product, with the detailing as follows….
“$15,000 to cover development and technical expenses, including the purchase of an extra MacBook cost $1200”
“$10,000 covers marketing and partnerships expenses”
“$15,000 covers all hiring, audits and testing expenses.”
In addition we will make strategic partnerships with trending artist and content creators to onboard their fanbase on the Platform, driving mass adoption.

Conclusion
The progress of the project will be communicated accordingly to the community.
We look forward to actualizing this unique product whilst contributing to the adoption and growth of the Sia Network.

#2

Hi,

This is an interesting project. How are you going to deal with any explicit content stored on the network and/or copyright violations?

2 Likes
#3

Thank you for the question mate, NSFW contents are an option (since the platform is Anti-Censorship) but all explicit contents are turned off by default for every user but can be turned on by the user in settings. Users get to choose the content they consume.
Also we don’t control contents on the platform but the community does, contents can be downvoted and get flagged by the community when it’s inappropriate (the content is blocked and taken out when it gets an influx of downvotes using smart contracts)

1 Like
#4

The video groups feature sounds interesting to me. but for a web3 project I noticed from your github you use an email sign-up process aside the connect wallet option there, why ?

2 Likes
#5

@Jiggythegrey Thanks for the proposal! Steve from the Sia Foundation here.

Just wanted to give you a heads up that we received this proposal too close to our meeting for the committee to thoroughly consider it. They meet every two weeks though, so TwikkL will officially be on the docket for March 21st.

1 Like
#6

yea Mike said same in the discord server thanks☺️. Also it creates time for the community to ask relevant questions about TwikkL as well which is better

#7

We’re looking at onboarding a large userbase most of which aren’t currently familiar with web3 procedures (there’s an option for those already into web3) while noobs can sign-up through a process they’re familiar with. That said users can access the platform through a web2 process but has to connect a wallet to mint usernames/access rewards, we believe this will motivate most users to get familiar with web3 thereby strategically increasing adoption.

2 Likes
#8

Hi, nice project you have here.
When someone uploads a content in a video group, will that content be visible outside of the group too?

1 Like
#9

@Cyberbug1 Thank you for this question mate… Members belonging to a group can see contents from the groups showing up in their feeds (like in Facebook) this way they don’t need to access their groups to view uploaded contents everytime.

#10

Adjustment on my proposal and bulletpoints.

- Project Name: TwikkL

Purpose

Traditional video sharing platforms are controlled by a central authority, which controls the storage, management, and distribution of videos. Users upload their videos to a central server, and other users can access and interact with the videos through the platform’s interface. The company that operates the central server is responsible for maintaining the infrastructure and setting the rules for the community. Regrettably centralized video sharing platforms tend to have strict censorship rules, which limits the freedom of expression for users. Additionally, creators of content often receive little to no compensation for their work.

We’ve seen a couple of their decentralized counterparts with attempts at reward systems and decentralization on distributed networks based on Blockchain technology. Though decentralized video streaming applications aim at solving the problems faced with their traditional counterparts, they also have been greeted with some downsides like slow onboarding process and lack of concrete reward structure. Web3 applications rely on decentralized infrastructure, which can make the onboarding process for new users confusing and complex. Users need to have an understanding of blockchain concepts such as private keys, public addresses, and gas fees. They may also need to set up a digital wallet and acquire cryptocurrency or NFT before using the application. These steps can be overwhelming for new users and may prevent them from fully engaging with the application. Additionally, lack of user-friendly interfaces and inability to maintain reward structures can also be a problem, lacking a revenue generation model to constantly provide liquidity for tokens issued to users as reward will cause the value of content monetization to drop leading to users being demotivated.

Set to change the narrative and experience with decentralized video sharing platforms, TwikkL is a decentralized video sharing platform that utilizes blockchain technology and Sia storage network to provide a censorship-free and transparent environment for users to share and stream videos. By using a blockchain network, TwikkL ensures that the platform remains decentralized and the content is stored on a decentralized storage network, making it more difficult to remove or censor content. Using Sia Network, TwikkL provides a decentralized and secure alternative to traditional cloud storage providers by allowing users to store their data across a distributed network of nodes, rather than relying on a single centralized provider. Additionally, TwikkL utilizes its sustainable revenue generation models to provide a fair reward structure for content creators and users, allowing them to monetize their content and be fairly compensated for their contributions to the platform. TwikkL’s plan on web3 integration to Sia will be assisted by Lumeweb and S5. Also utilizing the Lens protocol API for its Social network graph and for low/efficient gas cost TwikkL is built on the Polygon Network and will see to advance to other chains when necessary.

Synopsis Of TwikkL’s Features

  • Video groups: TwikkL allows users to create and manage their own video groups or communities, which could be focused on specific topics, interests, or communities. This provides users with a more personalized and tailored video sharing experience.

  • Decentralized data storage: TwikkL aims at the integration of Sia, the platform’s decentralized and blockchain-based architecture provides a secure and transparent way to store and access videos without relying on centralized servers.

  • Content monetization: TwikkL utilizes advertising and NFTs for content monetization and rewards are stored in an inbuilt wallet on the platform.

  • Governance proposals: TwikkL allows users to submit/vote governance proposals, related to changes or improvements to the platform.

  • Smart contracts: Like most web3 platforms, TwikkL incorporates Solidity smart contracts into its platform in order to facilitate transactions, interactions, and access controls.

  • Governance tokens: TwikkL issues governance tokens to users, which gives them the ability to participate in governance decisions or vote on issues related to the platform.

Project Timeline

  • Design prototype done and current development using React Native, solidity for the mobile application in progress. The project follows a concise roadmap:

    • UI/UX design prototype «This milestone includes project file setup, dependency, screen design, etc.» [Oct 2022 - January 2023]
    • Mobile app development with React Native and Smart contracts implementation «This milestone involves implementing the design with its functionality and linking to the backend» [January - May 2023]
    • CDN and Sia integration [June - July 2023]
    • First Product test [August - September 2023]

Risk

The potential risk for TwikkL is the issue of mass onboarding in a short period of time. As the platform gains more users, the infrastructure and resources required to support them will need to scale accordingly. This can put a strain on the network and potentially lead to issues such as slow load times or transaction failures.

Open Source

TwikkL is 100% open source with a public repository located at GitHub - JiggyDevs/twikkl-app: Modern video sharing app with social services and more

Budget

The Project request for $58,000 for the year 2023 with the detailing of expenses: (

  • $18,000 to be the 6 months salary of Jeremiah Abang, the Team Lead and Product manager. It’ll be paid quarterly.

  • $40,000 to see the actualization of the product, with the detailing as follows:

    • $15,000 to cover development and technical expenses, including the purchase of an extra MacBook cost $1200
    • $10,000 covers marketing and partnerships expenses
    • $15,000 covers all hiring, audits, and testing expenses.

In addition, we will make strategic partnerships with trending artists and content creators to onboard their fanbase on the Platform, driving mass adoption.

Conclusion

The progress of the project will be communicated accordingly to the community. We look forward to actualizing this unique product whilst contributing to the adoption and growth of the Sia Network.

#11

HI Jiggy, it is was insightful to talk to you.

I’m glad to hear of people getting on and building Web3 businesses in Nigeria. You mentioned that lack of a good education system there and having to self-learn a lot. Luckily that’s not such a big disadvantage for new tech as there are so many free internet resources like YouTube. So I shouldn’t feel you are at a disadvantage there.

As you said, you are not a programmer and will be working with two other developers. I believe that in your proposal that needs to be highlighted. So a suggestion is to have bios of all the team members.

Your role, you mentioned is as project manager. If you are lacking experience, as you mentioned you had been previously on a project and had to leave, you can try and make up for it by understanding the tech inside out. A lot of Web3 projects are CTO driven, because a lot of tech has to be invented as very few have even tread in that direction before.

As I understand it, the two developers are working on a decentralised exchange. I believe you should also state in the proposal how much time they have to put into your video streaming project. You mentioned Pancake Swap (which was originally a fork of Uniswap), a lot of defi projects for sure fork that code. In their bio, be good to know what projects they have coded and any other programming experience.

Having built largely what you have mentioned in your proposal myself, the timescale of a few months to build the bulk of a “Web3” video streaming application seems unrealistic. You won’t know yet the unknowns and have to rely on loose estimates. If you google, can take teams one to two years to do what you are doing. You mentioned that you have designed your screens in Figma, going from that to a functioning prototype takes time, especially with Web3 tech. Maybe the tools have improved and you can do it much quicker than what I am aware of? I personally would like to see in the proposal an expanded timeline with much more of the technical things to be achieved itemised.

#12

Hello @juleslai it seems you didn’t quite understand what I was saying here tho, I responded when you asked about what they’ve built with solidity before and not what they’re currently building.

#13

Also like I mentioned, I’m not planning on launching the next Tiktok in months to come, we are starting at a capacity we can handle without issues and grow from there “Rome wasn’t built in a day, was it?”