VarsityFair - A Decentralized Data Hub And Marketplace for Scholars and Researchers https://e-mathias.github.io/VarsityFair/
Name of the organization or individual submitting the proposal
Miracle Egberi
Describe Your Project
Overview
Problem Statement:
The academic and research community faces several critical challenges in the current landscape of centralized platforms for sharing and accessing scholarly materials. These platforms often impose restrictive access controls, limiting the availability of research to those who can afford expensive subscriptions or belong to privileged institutions. Such costs contribute to a significant disparity in access to academic materials. In low-income countries, up to 75% of researchers report difficulties in accessing the research they need. Even within wealthier nations, independent researchers, small institutions, and students often face barriers to obtaining critical resources, stifling their ability to contribute to their fields.
Moreover, the current academic ecosystem is fragmented, with limited opportunities for cross-institutional collaboration. Students and researchers often struggle to find and share resources across different regions and disciplines, which hampers the development of new ideas and solutions to global challenges. Additionally, there is a significant barrier to entry for monetizing research, as current platforms do not provide adequate mechanisms for scholars to be fairly compensated for their work.
These challenges highlight the need for a decentralized, transparent, and user-owned platform that democratizes access to academic resources, empowers researchers to maintain control over their intellectual property, and fosters global collaboration.
VarsityFair is a decentralized data hub/marketplace designed specifically for researchers, students, and scholars. It allows users to upload, share, or trade research papers and academic materials seamlessly. High school/college students can form local (same institutions) or global research groups to work on topics of interest. Trades are made with in-app credits that can be purchased with crypto and cash and facilitated by smart contracts. The platform leverages blockchain technology to ensure transparency, security, and fair value for contributors. The smart contract would help maintain the integrity of content ownership by recording and enforcing the terms of ownership and use. For instance, when a researcher sells or shares a paper, the smart contract would include terms such as usage rights and any attached watermarks, ensuring the original author retains the appropriate level of control.
How does the projected outcome serve the Foundation’s mission of user-owned data?
With Sia’s technology at its core, VarsityFair aims to revolutionize research/academic material ownership by:
- Letting researchers retain original ownership of their materials after sharing or selling with custom watermarks on materials.
- Increasing confidence to share findings/research with a decentralized back-end storage far from censorship’s reach.
- Giving researchers the platform to value their months/years of work.
- Providing students across colleges globally to share works and findings in similar fields.
- Enabling access to an ocean of data and information for college students.
- Creating a platform for potential collaborations amongst students and researchers without a location barrier.
Grant Specifics
We are requesting a budget of $9,900 for a total of three months to deliver the proposed MVP. Funds to be utilized as follows:
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UI Design & Branding - $2,000
- Design all necessary interfaces to ease the experience on the platform.
- Logo/brand design.
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Development - $6,900
- Front-end development to provide responsive interfaces.
- Back-end development.
- Smart Contract development
- S5 integration for storage.
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Hosting and Contract Auditing - $1,000
Milestones Breakdown
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October - November
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Completion of the UI design
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November - December
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Design Implementation
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Front-end Development
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Smart Contract Development
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December - January
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Back-end Development
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S5 Integration
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Contract Audit
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Hosting/Testing
What are the goals of this small grant?
- To deliver an MVP on a hub/marketplace for research and academic materials that fosters global collaborations, knowledge sharing, and community building.
- To Build a “no premiums” version of the platform so as to deliver within the timeline. Although we intend to implement the premium feature in later stages of the project.
- To integrate Sia Storage via S5.
Potential risks that will affect the outcome of the project:
- Technical difficulties may arise due to the platform’s reliance on blockchain technology
- As a platform dealing with valuable academic materials, VarsityFair could be a target for cyberattacks. Breaches could lead to the loss or theft of sensitive data.
- The three month timeline may not be enough to develop a functioning MVP.
- Legal issues may arise on content ownership disputes.
Mitigations
- Users who upload premiums will provide valid proof of ownership of said content, and if found guilty of content theft, a takedown would occur. Additionally, we would provide a robust and clear terms of service and user agreements to our users
- Implement advanced security measures, such as multi-factor authentication, and regular security audits as the platform grows
- We are focused on delivering the MVP on time, which also depends on when our proposal gets reviewed.
Development Information
All VarsityFair codes will remain open-source and can be accessed https://github.com/E-MATHIAS/VarsityFair.
We agree to submit a monthly progress report.
Contact Info
Email: [[email protected]]
Discord: miraclemathias._08868