Small Grant Proposal: Collect3 - Bookmark Now. Own Forever

Introduction

Project Name:

Name of the organization or individual submitting the proposal:

Diego Torres from Infinite Labs

Describe your project.

Collect3 is an innovative browser plugin that aims to redefine the preservation and engagement of digital content within the web3 space. It utilizes cutting-edge decentralized technology to enable users to save online articles and posts as reader-friendly versions that are permanent and immune to the common pitfalls of the digital era, such as website discontinuations or unwanted content alterations.

Our solution addresses the pressing issue of digital content’s transient nature by granting users unequivocal ownership and control over their saved content. Through the integration of upgradable digital asset technology, Collect3 not only preserves content but also enriches it, allowing users to add annotations and engage in discussions, thereby increasing the content’s value and utility. This feature transforms the static act of saving into an interactive and collaborative experience, ultimately fostering a dynamic digital content marketplace.

In pursuit of further development and market penetration, our grant proposal focuses on enhancing our technical framework, expanding our outreach, and obtaining specialized legal advice to ensure compliance with digital content rights. The grant funds would be allocated to support our dedicated development team, hire a talented frontend developer, and create informative materials that encourage adoption of our platform.

How does the projected outcome serve the Foundation’s mission of user-owned data?

The projected outcome of Collect3 directly aligns with the Sia Foundation’s mission of user-owned data, fundamentally supporting the vision of commoditizing data storage in a manner that is accessible, private, and efficient.

Promoting User-Owned Data: Collect3’s core functionality of enabling users to mint and store digital content as NFTs on a decentralized platform champions the concept of user-owned data. This directly reflects the Sia Foundation’s commitment to data sovereignty, allowing users to have complete control and ownership of their digital assets.

Enhancing Accessibility and Privacy: By leveraging decentralized storage solutions, Collect3 ensures that data storage is not only easily accessible but also secure and private. This approach is in harmony with the Sia Foundation’s goal to make data storage ubiquitous and safe, without compromising on privacy or performance.

Supporting Scalability Solutions: As Collect3 grows and demands more storage, it contributes to the development of network scalability solutions, a key responsibility of the Sia Foundation. This will help in handling the increasing data storage needs of the future, aligning with the Foundation’s objective to prepare the Sia network for broader adoption.

Encouraging Community Engagement and Development: Through our B2B API integration efforts, Collect3 will encourage developers and businesses to build upon and utilize the Sia network, fostering a vibrant community and promoting innovation in line with the Foundation’s goals to support developers and facilitate partnerships.

Broadening Sia’s Use Cases and Reach: Collect3 introduces a novel use case for the Sia network - content monetization through NFTs. This expands the network’s utility beyond traditional data storage, aligning with the Foundation’s mission to explore and establish diverse applications and partnerships.

Grant Specifics

Amount of money requested and justification with a reasonable breakdown of expenses:

There will be mainly 4 tasks to develop:

Task 1. Encode and Decode HTML Read Mode File into .car - 2 weeks

  • Development Resources: $2,200
    • Development of the encoding and decoding functionality for HTML read mode files.
    • Testing for compatibility and performance.

Task 2. Store the Content on Siacoin Network - 3 weeks

  • Development Resources: $2,600
    • Integration with the Siacoin network for secure and decentralized content storage.
    • Ensuring data integrity and security in storage solutions.
  • Testing and Optimization: $600
    • Comprehensive testing for reliability, security, and efficiency.
    • Performance optimization to ensure smooth user experience.

Task 3. Mint the Content as NFT - 2 weeks

  • Development Resources: $2,200
    • Implementation of NFT minting functionality, integrating with Siacoin’s blockchain.
    • Interface development for NFT creation within the platform.
  • Blockchain-related Expenses: $400
    • Costs associated with deploying and testing smart contracts on Siacoin’s network.

Task 4. Reading Mode User Experience - 2 weeks

  • User Interface Design: $1,600
    • Crafting a user-friendly and engaging reading mode interface.
    • Focus on intuitive design and accessibility.
  • User Testing and Feedback: $400
    • Conducting user testing to gather feedback.
    • Iterative improvements based on user insights.

Total: $10,000

What are the goals of this small grant?

The small grant for the Collect3 project is aimed at achieving a set of comprehensive goals. Primarily, it will support the technical development and integration of encoding and decoding HTML read mode files, as well as the integration of NFT minting capabilities using Siacoin’s blockchain. This grant will also enable the establishment of a secure, decentralized storage system on the Siacoin network. A key focus will be on enhancing the user experience, particularly in developing an intuitive reading mode interface and conducting user testing to ensure it meets audience needs. Additionally, this grant will help validate the Collect3 platform in a real-world scenario, assessing its market fit and laying the groundwork for future expansion, including potential B2B API integrations. Community engagement is also a crucial goal, as feedback gathered will guide future improvements and platform enhancements, aligning with our long-term vision of revolutionizing digital content monetization and preservation.

Potential risks that will affect the outcome of the project:

The main risks we foreseen in Collect3 are:
Regulatory and Legal Risks: The evolving legal landscape around digital assets and blockchain technology poses a risk. Changes in regulations or laws related to NFTs, copyright, and data privacy could significantly impact the project’s operations.

Market Adoption and User Acceptance: There’s a risk that the target audience may not readily adopt the new platform. User reluctance to embrace NFTs for content monetization or failure to understand the value proposition of Collect3 could hinder its success.

Development Information

Will all of your project’s code be open-source?

Everything will be open.

Leave a link where code will be accessible for review.

Do you agree to submit monthly progress reports?

Absolutely! Happy to receive feedback to improve Collect3

Contact info

Email:

[email protected]

Any other preferred contact methods:

1 Like

Thanks for submitting your proposal to the Sia Foundation Grants Committee. After review, the committee has conditionally approved your grant! The condition is as follows:

  • The committee would prefer to see Task 2 and 3 switched in your timeline.

Should you agree to this term, please reply with a new message in this thread indicating your acceptance. Thanks!

4 Likes

Hi Steve!

Thanks for the conditionally approved! We can switch those tasks, no problem. Actually, I’ve updated the post with new task order.

Please, let me know what the next steps are.

Best regards,
Diego

2 Likes

Thanks for the update. Consider this grant approved!

We’ll reach out via email with onboarding info. It can take 1-2 weeks to complete, so please feel free to update your timelines however you must.

2 Likes

Hello friends!

Here our first delivery:

Let’s continue with the next milestone!

Best regards

Progress Report Form

What progress was made on your grant this month?

Please summarize your progress in 3-5 sentences or bullet points:

Task 1:
  • Implemented base64 encoding for images and content, ensuring articles are accessible offline with a single file and optimizing storage efficiency.
  • Introduced a migration function with the latest update to standardize this encoding process, significantly reducing storage space by approximately 130kb per article.
Task 2:
  • We employ our new API as middleware to facilitate file uploads to the Sia Network.
  • We utilize renterd and s5 to manage the processes of uploading and retrieving files to and from the Sia Network.
  • We allow our users to host their own APIs and use them if they prefer, creating a federated system.

Summarize any problems that you ran into this month and how you’ll be solving them.

Please summarize your issues into a few sentences or bullet points:

  • Currently, it is difficult to spin up an instance of the Collect3 backend service; we plan to automate part of this process.
  • We faced some issues with configuring renterd, but we resolved them with the help of people in the Discord server.
  • We noticed a lack of monitoring tools for renterd.

Links to repos worked on this month:

What will you be working on next?

Please summarize your development goals into a few sentences or bullet points:

  • Task 2. Store the Content on Siacoin Network: deploy the API in a server
  • Task 3. Mint the Content as NFT
  • Task 4. Reading Mode User Experience

Progress Report

What progress was made on your grant this month?

Please summarize your progress in 3-5 sentences or bullet points:

Task 2:
  • Finalizing testing and bug fixing.
Task 3:
  • NFT creation following the ERC1155 standar
  • Smart Contract deployed in testnet for minting using FVM chain: Address Filfox
  • Example of NFT in testnet: Transaction
Task 4:
  • Researching and benchmarking best approach: using browser native read-mode or implement a new one for our own.

Summarize any problems that you ran into this month and how you’ll be solving them.

Please summarize your issues into a few sentences or bullet points:

  • It was difficult to try to interact with Metamask from another plugin. The first approach was that but now, we have defined a better approach in terms of user experience: creating a dashboard for minting (app.collect3.me). There you can access and control all your content, NFTs and configurations from a web application, following the same user experience like the well-known bookmark app: getpocket.com

Links to repos worked on this month:

What will you be working on next?

Please summarize your development goals into a few sentences or bullet points:

  • Task 3. Mint the Content as NFT:
    • Add button to mint in “my articles” cards.
    • Fix&Clean small bugs.
  • Task 4. Reading Mode User Experience.

Hello @diegotorreslopez81 ,

This is a reminder that your April progress report is now late. Historically you’ve been very punctual with your progress reports, and we really appreciate that - it makes our jobs a lot easier :)

Progress reports are due by the end of the 2nd day of the month, in this instance your April progress report was due on May 2nd.

Please be sure to follow the Progress Report Template and submit your progress report so we may continue funding your grant.

Regards,
Kino on behalf of the Sia Foundation and Grants Committee

Progress Report

What progress was made on your grant this month?

Please summarize your progress in 3-5 sentences or bullet points:

Task 3:
  • Add button to mint in “my articles” cards.
  • Fix&Clean small bugs.
Task 4:
  • Crafting a user-friendly and engaging reading mode interface.
  • Conducting user testing to gather feedback.

Summarize any problems that you ran into this month and how you’ll be solving them.

Please summarize your issues into a few sentences or bullet points:

  • Testing with users proved challenging due to the non-trivial nature of installing the plugin in developer mode for the average user.
  • Feedback from six users highlighted confusion surrounding the installation and minting process, particularly regarding the use of Metamask.
  • Concerns regarding potential copyright issues arose, emphasizing the importance of obtaining author consent before minting content and selling NFTs.
  • Positive reception was observed among all users regarding the concept of indefinitely saving articles.

Links to repos worked on this month:

What will you be working on next?

Please summarize your development goals into a few sentences or bullet points:

We have finished the grant tasks but in our roadmap appears new challenges to be addressed:

  • Web Application for content management
  • Share your articles
  • Add comments into the article
  • Read comments from any other article owners
  • Boost article discussions
  • Sell articles NFTs to other users
  • Marketplace for articles
  • …any idea?

Thanks for the reminder, @Kinomora! We were aware of the situation and apologize for the slight delay.

@Steve, we have completed the tasks outlined in this grant and are eager to explore the possibility of continuing our work on the project with a new grant. Regardless of the outcome, we want to express our sincere gratitude for your ongoing support. Thank you!

Hello @diegotorreslopez81

Thank you for your progress report!

Regards,
Kino on behalf of the Sia Foundation and Grants Committee