Small Grant Proposal: Mintyplex

Grants Approved
1

Introduction

Project Name:
Mintyplex

Organization Name:
Mintyplex Technologies

Project Description:
Millions of digital products are pirated annually, causing substantial losses in the creator economy. Read more stats here.

We are building Mintyplex, the Web3 Gumroad—a secure digital commerce platform using IPFS renterd storage and on-chain certificates of authenticity.

It empowers creators to securely host, distribute, and monetize digital products without compromise.

Project Beneficiaries

Mintyplex benefits the following key stakeholders:

  1. Creators: Empowered with secure tools for confident creation and monetization.

  2. Shoppers: Enjoy the freedom to explore diverse digital products, purchasing with confidence and privacy.

  3. Affiliates: Generate consistent income by promoting securely hosted and distributed digital products.

  4. Sia Ecosystem Members: Hosts, brands and everyone in the ecosystem can create, own, and monetize digital products on decentralized storage, enhancing the digital content landscape.

How Mintyplex serves the Foundation’s mission of user-owned data:

Mintyplex aligns with Sia’s mission, providing a decentralized platform for content creators to own and control their data, fostering user-centric content distribution.

Grant Specifics

Amount Requested: We are seeking $8000 for the product development and launch of Mintyplex v1 within 3 months. The amount will cover the following:

  • Development: $5,500

    • UI/UX - $1,000
    • Frontend - $2,000
    • Backend - $2,500

  • Operational Expenses: $2,500

    • Sia renterd storage - $1,000 in Siacoin
    • Frontend and Database Hosting over 12 months - $1,000
    • QA Testing - $500

Total = $8000

We agree to accept grant funds in $USD via ACH or Wire, we agree to monthly grant payments starting with Development budget upon approval.

Timeline: 3 months from December 15, 2023, to March 25, 2024.

Potential Risks:

  1. Blockchain Regulatory Changes: Mitigated through continuous monitoring and adaptation.

  2. Sia IPFS Renterd Storage Stability: Addressed by regular updates and collaboration with the Sia community.

Development Information

  • Open-Source Code: Yes, it will be available on GitHub.

  • Monthly Progress Reports: Yes, we’re committed to submitting monthly progress reports in the forum.

Contact Info

Other Preferred Contact Methods:

  • Telegram: @sadiqisiaka

  • X: @sadiqisiakaa

We look forward to collaboratively reimagining digital ownership and building a thriving, evenly distributed economy for all digital citizens.

Important Updates

• We have downgraded the grant proposal for a Small Grant to build our MVP, as recommended by the committee.

• Since December 1st, we have secured over 130+ usernames through our waitlist.

• We recently announced our rebrand to usher in the new phase of what we’re building.

2

Impressive proposal, Sadiq! Excited about Mintyplex’s potential. Any insights on user experience/security features?

1 Like
3

Thank you, mate! Regarding user experience, each segmented user—creators, affiliates, and shoppers—has a personalized interface tailored to their specific goals.

For creators, the focus is on facilitating the creation and monetization of products.

Affiliates experience a user interface designed for exploring and promoting products and creators.

Shoppers, on the other hand, benefit from a user interface emphasizing the discovery of exceptional products and creators, allowing them to shop confidently in fiat or crypto.

In terms of security, we’re implementing measures such as private but decentralized storage (Sia IPFS renterd storage) for all products, ensuring a secure environment for creators and shoppers. This wouldn’t be possible publicly hosting on IPFS.

Each product created will be issued a unique on-chain identity certificate at the time of creation, enhancing the verifiability of the authenticity of these products and their creators.

All users will have the option to sign in with their wallet address or email via account abstraction, ensuring secure access while performing various activities on the platform.

1 Like
4

Hi, thanks for your proposal. I have a couple of questions.

The risk assessment that you have made seems rather vague to me. What do you mean with “Sia Network Stability”? And how exactly are you going to address it, if the Sia network becomes “unstable” one day?

I see that your project is heavily dependent on another project, IPFS renterd storage. Is this not a risk in itself?

Also not quite clear to me is how the Sia community would benefit from your project.

1 Like
5

Thank you for your inquiry, @Mike76.

When we refer to “Sia Network Stability,” we are primarily concerned with the uninterrupted and secure operation of the services we utilize, specifically IPFS renterd storage.

To clarify, we understand that the wording may have caused confusion.

We want to assure you that we are committed to closely collaborating with the Sia Team and ecosystem.

This collaboration ensures that we remain up-to-date and can swiftly navigate and implement effective solutions should any issues arise.

In line with your concerns about dependency on IPFS renterd storage, it’s crucial to note that this serves as a gateway for IPFS users like Mintyplex to store data securely on Sia.

We acknowledge the need for clearer language and will make the necessary adjustments.

Addressing your final question, Mintyplex aims to benefit the Sia community by providing a valuable solution for creators, marketers, and potential shoppers within the ecosystem.

By aligning with Sia’s vision, we not only contribute to the community but also offer a platform for these members to utilize and promote.

As we scale, our usage of large storage necessitates ongoing collaboration with hosts (renters), fostering a symbiotic relationship.

I hope this provides a clearer understanding. Feel free to ask further if you have more questions. Thank you!

6

I’d appreciate seeing the milestones and budget elaborated on. Its very lax on details.

1 Like
7

This provides more detailed estimates on the budget, encompassing team salaries and additional services we plan to spend on.

Milestone 1: Finalize UI Design

  • UX Research
  • Wireframing
  • Mobile and Desktop UI Design

Budget: $4000
Timeframe: 3 weeks (Dec 1 - Dec 21, 2023)

Milestone 2: Implement User Interface

  • Frontend Development with Next.JS and Tailwind CSS.
  • Mobile Optimization

Budget: $8000
Timeline: 5 weeks (Dec 22, 2023 - Jan 25, 2024)

Milestone 3: Develop Backend and Sia Integration

  • Account and Authentication Integration
  • Sia IPFS renterd storage integration for storage.
  • Smart contracts for on-chain certificates and payments integration.

Budget: $15000
Timeline: 6 weeks (Jan 26 - Feb 29, 2024)

Milestone 4: Perform Testing and Launch

  • Frontend UI and backend integration.
  • Quality Assurance Testing
  • Launch Campaign

Budget: $3000
Timeline: 2 weeks (Mar 1 - Mar 14, 2024)

Some of the services we intend to use include AWS for hosting, MongoDB for the database, Brevo for email, and others.

Kindly let me know if you have any more questions @Nate

8

Hey there, welcome to the community, I have a few questions.

Most of the outline/milestones you added roughly describe any software project - for such a sizable grant I would like to see significantly, maybe a magnitude, more technical detail, diagrams, and specifics on what you are planning to build and especially on how it integrates with Sia.

Will this project generate any open source code that other projects can utilize?

Do you or the team have have any prior work that the Sia community could check out?

In terms of security, we’re implementing measures such as private but decentralized storage (Sia IPFS renterd storage) for all products, ensuring a secure environment for creators and shoppers. This wouldn’t be possible publicly hosting on IPFS.

For the above statement, can you elaborate on the technical details of what you mean?

1 Like
9

Thank you, @Parox!

I appreciate your questions. Here are some UI designs as we’re currently undergoing conceptualization and secondary research:

  1. Cart Section: Allows users to purchase with a card or wallet through our partner, Noramp.io.

    mintyplex Cart1-2
    mintyplex Cart1-21440×1117 103 KB

  2. Create Section: Where a creator adds important information about the digital product they’re creating.

    mintyplex-add product1-1
    mintyplex-add product1-11920×1489 85.3 KB

  3. Homepage Section: What shoppers see when they land on our page.

    Mintyplex Home Page-1
    Mintyplex Home Page-1660×512 128 KB

Now, let’s delve into the development details:

Frontend:
For the frontend of our app v1, we will be hosted on AWS Amplify.

Storing Data:
Digital products, including videos, images, ebooks, courses, and product certificates, will be stored on Sia IPFS Renterd Storage. This ensures that only the creator and the actual shopper have access.

Offchain Data:
User details will be primarily stored on MongoDB.

Blockchain Certificates:
Tokenized on the Polygon chain and stored on both the Blockchain and on Sia.

On-chain Payment Contract:
On Polygon.

Wallet Authentication:
Using Thirdweb for Wallet Authentication and other account abstraction functions we need.

Purchasing Products:
Integrating Noramp.io to allow users to use their cards or coins for purchases.

Now, let’s illustrate with a story:

  • Alice, an ebook creator, connects a wallet on Mintyplex and proceeds to create a product.
  • Once done and published, the actual ebook is stored on Sia, while an On-chain ID and certificate photo are generated and stored on the Blockchain and Sia.
  • Hosting on Sia or IPFS Renterd Storage provides more private and encrypted storage compared to publicly using IPFS.
  • Bob, a shopper, sees a certificate to ensure the product is from Alice. Bob purchases with his card or wallet, and after the purchase, it’s stored on his account with a link to decrypt and access the ebook.
  • Jane, an affiliate, promotes one of Alice’s ebooks. If Bob purchases using Jane’s referral, the money is split on-chain, giving Jane a commission and sending our fee to a Mintyplex wallet, with the remaining balance going to Alice.

Let me know if your questions have been answered. If you need additional clarity, kindly let me know.

10

I appreciate a little more detail on the user flows but you did not answer most of my questions.

  • Hosting on Sia or IPFS Renterd Storage provides more private and encrypted storage compared to publicly using IPFS.

what do you mean by the the above, how does using IPFS with Sia provide more privacy?

Personally I do not see how this project benefits Sia, it sounds like an online service that happens to use IPFS addressing. I would like to see a little more in terms of actual open source that benefits Sia or IPFS.

1 Like
11

What currency does the creator/promoter of the digital product get? Say they use a credit card and paid USD, do they get USDC? What about if they paid ETH or Bitcoin?

Having the funds under your wallet and control until they withdraw is non ideal. Maintaining a bunch of wallets for funds is also inconvenient. Are you able to have a system in place which automatically pays them in a currency of their choice and have it sent to their wallet after your fees are taken?

What are your fees? What will be the currency exchange fees? E.g. If a developer wants to earn $10 USDC for their game, how much should it be listed for?

Do you handle VAT and sales tax on behalf of the creators? Are you prepared to handle income tax reporting compliance ?

Will the digital product be hosted on Sia? Can you detail technically how you will create links to download files from the Sia network that are not sharable/abused.

1 Like
12

My apologies. Let me break it down for you @parox .

Currently, we utilize smart contracts to assign unique IDs to each product created on Mintyplex.

Similar to NFTs, these smart contracts, along with their respective IDs and details, are stored on the blockchain.

When I navigate one of these smart contracts and index it, I can easily discover a link redirecting me to the actual digital product resource on IPFS.

Traditionally, this link is hosted on a public IPFS gateway.

However, with Sia in the equation, we have the option to perform this process directly on Sia or the IPFS renterd storage.

Consequently, even if someone accesses the link to the product, the content remains encrypted and only the authenticity certificate is public, allowing only the shopper at the other end to access the actual product via their profile.

Regarding how we contribute to the Sia ecosystem, it’s essential to highlight that all digital products created are stored on Sia and distributed using IPFS renterd storage.

The growth in digital product creation directly correlates with our increasing storage needs from hosts.

Also, by catering to a broader audience of creators, shoppers, and affiliates, we are actively onboarding more individuals into the ecosystem.

As we rely on Sia for product data storage, encryption, and distribution, we play a role, both directly and indirectly, in expanding the Sia community.

Here’s a link that shows how easy it is to get a resource from public IPFS.

13

You have mentioned a “blockchain” where you are going to store contracts, certificates, etc., a few times already. What blockchain do you mean?

1 Like
14

I’ll refer you to this: A Quick Workflow of Mintyplex

Also, here are a few reasons we are deciding to use Polygon in v1:

  • Our payment partner, Noramp.io, doesn’t currently support Sia.

  • We need to create a smart contract to facilitate payment disbursement, and we aim to use stablecoins more, which are readily available.

  • Polygon boasts millions of users, and we believe this will be beneficial to the Sia ecosystem, given our reliance on Sia for data storage.

If there is a straightforward way to facilitate these functions with Sia, we are ready to explore it in v1 or build something more robust in v2 if none is available, since it’s open source.

15

Hi @PxC,

Thank you for your thoughtful questions. It’s evident that you have a keen interest in both Sia and Mintyplex.

To address your inquiries:

In our current plan (v1), we’ve strategically separated functions to optimize time, cost, and resource efficiency.

Storage on Sia is a central component, while payment processing will occur on a Blockchain with a substantial user base, such as Polygon.

Our partner facilitates seamless transactions, providing creators or affiliates with a Polygon version of the supported currency, like USDC.

Funds won’t be held under our wallet. We employ account abstraction, allowing creators the flexibility to freeze, view, or even stake their earnings (in v2).

Our website (https://www.mintyplex.com) uses domain names with attached wallet addresses for decentralized fund disbursement through smart contracts.

Our smart payment contract automates fund disbursement directly to creators’ wallets after deducting our fees, which currently range from 5-10% (5% for registered creators, 10% for unregistered ones).

Exchange fees are limited to those imposed by our partner.

To earn $10 USDC on Mintyplex, a developer should list their game for approximately $10.6 (verified) or $11.2 (unverified).

Verification requires linking at least one social account (e.g., X or Instagram) with a custom username.

We’re actively exploring handling VAT and sales tax on behalf of creators and welcome support or advice on this matter.

All digital products will be hosted on Sia, ensuring security.

Upon purchase, the product is stored on the buyer’s profile and is viewable only from their account, plus product is encrypted, restricting sharing or downloading by anyone else.

Our next version (v2) will expand features and introduce a mobile application.

I hope these answers sufficiently address your questions.

If you have further inquiries, I’m eager to discuss them in more detail.

16

Hello @Sadiq,

Thanks for your proposal! The committee is requesting some changes to this grant proposal:

They would prefer to see this first proposed as a Small Grant. Delivering an MVP of the project proving that Sia works for your use-case is a great way to demonstrate feasibility to the committee before asking them to commit to a larger grant.

They would also like to see a more detailed budget breakdown. For Standard Grants, the committee appreciates a slightly more granular breakdown, specifically detailing estimated values next to your line items like “Development Costs, Operational Expenses, and Miscellaneous”. This requirement is slightly more relaxed but still required for a Small Grant should you decide to go that way.

Thanks again, and let us know if you have any questions!

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

1 Like
17

Hi @Kinomora

Thank you for your feedback, I have done the needful by downgrading to a small grant to build our MVP.

I would like to know, is there any way the title of the proposal could be changed from Standard Grant to Small Grant?

Thank you once again, I look forward to the committee’s response on what’s next.

18

As far as I know, you can edit the title the way you want.

19

@mike76 It doesn’t work on my end. Neither on mobile nor on desktop.

20

Perhaps you need to have some reputation on the forum, but I’m not sure.