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.
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!
I’d appreciate seeing the milestones and budget elaborated on. Its very lax on details.
This provides more detailed estimates on the budget, encompassing team salaries and additional services we plan to spend on.
Milestone 1: Finalize UI Design
Budget: $4000
Timeframe: 3 weeks (Dec 1 - Dec 21, 2023)
Milestone 2: Implement User Interface
Budget: $8000
Timeline: 5 weeks (Dec 22, 2023 - Jan 25, 2024)
Milestone 3: Develop Backend and Sia Integration
Budget: $15000
Timeline: 6 weeks (Jan 26 - Feb 29, 2024)
Milestone 4: Perform Testing and Launch
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
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?
Thank you, @Parox!
I appreciate your questions. Here are some UI designs as we’re currently undergoing conceptualization and secondary research:
Cart Section: Allows users to purchase with a card or wallet through our partner, Noramp.io.
Create Section: Where a creator adds important information about the digital product they’re creating.
Homepage Section: What shoppers see when they land on our page.
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:
Let me know if your questions have been answered. If you need additional clarity, kindly let me know.
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.
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.
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.
You have mentioned a “blockchain” where you are going to store contracts, certificates, etc., a few times already. What blockchain do you mean?
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.
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.
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
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.
As far as I know, you can edit the title the way you want.
Perhaps you need to have some reputation on the forum, but I’m not sure.
Title changed at request of submitter.
Hello @Sadiq,
Thanks for providing us with the requested updates to your proposal. This looks much better to the committee as a Small Grant, and after review they have conditionally approved this grant! The condition is as follows:
Should you agree to this term, please amend your proposal and reply with a new message in this thread indicating your acceptance. Thanks!
Regards,
Kino on behalf of the Sia Foundation and Grants Committee
