Launch Proposal - A Hyper-Realistic Accessible NFT Marketplace

Name of Project

Queendom

Proposal overview

The Product

A Hyper-realistic high fidelity metaverse platform accessible via any smart device (such as tablets or mobiles) paired with a user-friendly NFT marketplace payable via fiat that lowers the barriers to entry for non-crypto users.

The Problem(s) and Solution(s)

Problem 1:

Most other marketplaces or metaverse platforms require users to have crypto wallets before entering or making any transactions. This excludes those who are just getting started and unfamiliar with cryptocurrency.

Solution 1:

With Harmony, weā€™re able to simplify the process by enabling credit card payments and easy wallet creation - reduces friction, without the need to remember or record any long secret keys.

Problem 2:

Most other metaverse platforms either have pixelated or voxelated designs or require the user to have strong GPUs or VR headsets.

Solution 2:

We will use remote server-side rendering technology to display a high-fidelity 3D virtual NFT world on any browser - desktop, mobile or tablet.

The Platform

An end to end metaverse platform served via remote rendering technology so anyone with a browser can access this hyper-realistic world, without the need for powerful GPUs, AR or VR headsets.

Our virtual world is interconnected with a seamless NFT marketplace that blends the traditional social media and e-commerce experiences with web3 technologies in order to create a familiar, but augmented immersive experience to ease the transition for web2 users.

The Team

We are a team of women and minorities who believe the future of the internet to be accessible, diverse and inclusive. Our mission is to enable anyone to take part in the creation of this future by lowering the barriers of entry for web3 technologies. We envision demographics of all kinds, especially those whoā€™ve been historically marginalized (women, non-binaries, individuals with disabilities or remote or lower income communities) to come together and utilize our platform as full fledged citizens of the metaverse; thatā€™s when the real magic happens!

Nico Fara (CEO and Founder) is a woman, web3 strategist, tech futurist, executive consultant, engineer, serial entrepreneur and visionary with deep expertise in the retail and tech industries and bent on changing the world for the better.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicofara

Phillip Strefling (Director of Ops and Co-Founder) is a hispanic entrepreneur, scientist and our crypto ā€œOGā€, lead developer and team manager.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillipstrefling

Yuliya Bogonos (Unreal Engine Developer) is a woman engineer, educator and our game developer, programmer and virtual world creator.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuliyabogonos

We also work with several contractors in the fields of 3D design, concept art, frontend, backend and blockchain development.

Progress

We have a functional prototype, with the core of our application developed. Right now, our NFT marketplace is integrated with our remote rendering backend and users are able to sign in, receive a login link, edit their profile, freely explore the metaverse and transact NFTs inside or outside the 3D virtual environment.

Differentiation

1 - Design for accessibility:

Most other marketplaces or metaverse platforms require users to have crypto wallets before entering or making any transactions. This excludes those who are just getting started and unfamiliar with cryptocurrency. We simplify the process by enabling credit card payments and automating wallet creation via an under-the-hood option that requires the user to only click an emailed link to login to our platform - reduces friction, without the need to remember or record any long secret keys.

Also, most other metaverse platforms require the user to have strong GPUs or VR headsets. However, our platform uses remote server-side rendering technology to display a high-fidelity 3D virtual NFT world on any browser - desktop, mobile or tablet.

2 - Design for Diversity:

We understand that avatars are a significant part of expression in the metaverse so, as part of our onboarding process, a user is able to select and customize an avatar of their choosing, realtime upon account creation, and enter the metaverse with it.

We researched the market for the most diverse set of avatars and selected Ready Player Me to offer our end users the opportunity to freely represent their individualities. Even though there were many challenges with setting up their API on our platform, we took the challenge, succeeded and even contributed to their project.

We understand that Ready Player Me avatars are not perfect and have much room for improvement. They especially lack various body shapes, certain demographics and true non-binary avatars. Therefore, we are planning on creating inclusive avatars of our own, in a future project hopefully on Harmony, based on computer vision work weā€™ve done under our previous business.

3 - Design for social & commerce:

We crafted this end to end platform with the needs and desires of women and non-binary individuals in mind. We understand that this audience spends a significant amount of time socializing and shopping. So, we designed our platform to meet these types of applications. Multiplayer, voice, chat and follow capabilities are included for socializing applications. And, for commerce applications, we created a 3D Virtual Marketplace where customers can purchase within a 3D environment by simply walking up to an item.

Value to the ecosystem

Our NFT Marketplace will be open-sourced, released under an Apache/MIT or ISC license.
Our components include:

  • Social/sharing; users can follow/ be followed and post to twitter/instagram etc. directly through the NFT Marketplace.
  • Integrated Harmony web-wallet
    • Send/receive Harmony/tokens
  • Automated email notifications/communications
  • Admin panel
    • View server config
    • View/edit users/permissions
    • Whitelist creators
  • Backend (express) and database (mongo) for storing user configs and site states
  • Minio S3 buckets for storing user data (images, files etcā€¦) and caching NFT IPFS/airweave files (reduces chain strain and speeds up user experience)

How will this impact the Harmony Ecosystem?

  1. Any business or brand can white-label our NFT marketplace and offer their digital goods as NFTs and onboard even their non-crypto native audience into the Harmony ecosystem. For those with existing games or virtual environments, this could be a great add-on as well.
  2. A Harmony wallet will be created for every new user of our hyper-realistic high fidelity metaverse platform and our NFT marketplace, which will boost the Harmony ecosystem with each Harmony transaction.

Why Harmony?

Accessibility is one of our core principles and we know our audience also value it. So itā€™s imperative that we also develop and grow on a chain that shares this value with us. Harmony is such a chain.

Also, with Harmonyā€™ developer friendly, secure and scalable stack, we are excited to bring forth new experiences to the world, eliminating the barriers of web3 adoption and enabling a more accessible and inclusive future.

Proposal ask

A grant of $50k would enable us to integrate the Harmony One-Wallet into our user creation and sign-in process and add the option to make payments via ONE.

$10K after launching a feature-complete product on our testnet
$10K after forming a DAO with 5-out-of-9 multisig with our DAOs
$10K after launching on our mainnet with audit
$10K after 1K daily active users (with launch video, full PR promotion)
$10K after 10k daily active users (with a detailed roadmap, governance process)

Metrics for success

Project success can be measured through the functionality of a user being able to login into our marketplace using their Harmony One wallet and complete the purchase of NFTs with ONE tokens.

External links

Pitch Deck

2 Likes

Following up on this application. Let us know if youā€™d like anything else from us or clarity on the project.

1 Like

The women and minorities need safe place on the Metaverse, thatā€™s why Queendom need to exist.

As a Latina, I have faced situations of discrimination and racism at work, but Queendom gives me hope for the future, their mission speaks volumes to me and I will always, 100% support them. Iā€™m so grateful thereā€™s a team working on inclusivity actively, they are the most authentic and genuine team I have ever met. Thank you Queendom!!

Iā€˜m a woman, Iā€™m ā€žoldā€œ, I am pansexual (but in love in a man) I am a cocktail of different ethnicities, I worked in fashion, Iā€™m creative Iā€™m trying to learn about web3/nfts/crypto and and I love the idea of a place that sounds like heaven on earth for everyone whoā€™s open minded, creative and want to express themselves without being discriminated and supporting each other. ā€¦ sounds like queendom

Hi Harmony team, weā€™re looking forward to any feedback on our application and excited to hear back. Let us know if thereā€™s anything we can do facilitate.

My name is Z, I am a dyslexic, HoH, non-binary human. My entire life has been a constant struggle for others to hear my voice; to see me. To listen to a perspective other than their own. This difference of perspective reaches into my professional life as well. I am an advocate for accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. I am Accessibility Consultant and owner of A11y Collective LLC. One of my mottos and # I plaster across social media is #EmpoweringSelf is #SelfEmpowering. Queendom provides unconditional support, safe and judgment free zone, and positive guidance for each person to learn, share, grow, and discover how they can empower themselves. In October of 2020, I was in a very bad car crash and still recovering. As a result my entire life is different. Before the crash, I was learning about NFTs and fashion starting my line. After the crash I lost all of my knowledge and had to start from scratch. Queendom is the place I go to when I have NFT or VR/XR wear questions. Without Queendom my creative voice would not have a judgement-free zone of unconditional support to learn and grow.

Women need a safe place in the Metaverse, Queendom will be a great place for them!

Thank you for your proposal. At this moment we are unable to approve this grant application as we have sufficient marketplaces in the ecosystem. We wish you the best and hope you continue to build on this concept. Thank you for choosing Harmony Protocol.