Non-fungible tokens are poised to reshape the art world, changing the way collectors and artists interact. Artano’s team of eight developers seek to build an NFT marketplace that gives people around the world the opportunity to ‘auction, exchange and sell their art within a free market, without barriers to entry’. A Fund3 proposal was submitted on January 17th, 2021 by Matt, a software developer, Marija, a financial consultant to the project, and a duo from the Netherlands named Sandip and Ronald who have experience in blockchain development.
A whitepaper for this project is still being developed, however, he proposal states: “Our aim is to be as decentralized as possible, where the community dictates the art they see, not us.” The subjective nature of art will surely create many difficult curation dilemmas for up-and-coming NFT markets on various blockchains. A truly decentralized approach from the beginning would be beneficial to all involved. Inevitable questions will arise: Which art pieces are allowed? Which are not? Who decides? If this power is in the hands of the community, the developers can focus on refining the platform and maximizing its utility without getting bogged down in censorship issues.
Harnessing Cardano’s Strengths
Artano’s competitive edge (relative to the current leading NFT marketplaces built on Ethereum) would be its low fees and absence of barriers to entry. Unfortunately, there is very little in the way of technical specification provided in the Fund3 proposal. No whitepaper or any other details of platform design are offered. Artano references SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, MakersPlace, and KnownOrigin as direct competitors to their Dapp, so it seems likely their market would have a similar layout to existing offerings.
Funding Artano
The team is requesting $30,000, of which $20,000 would go to paying the core team for six months of Dapp development. The remainder of the funds would go to marketing and business development costs, financial consultant fees, logo & website design, and business registration fees. Work is set to begin April 1st, pending the results of Fund3 voting. A Dapp of this nature is not easy to build, so at this stage, Fund3 voters should know the requested amount of $30,000 is helping develop a non-fungible art platform more or less from scratch. However, one may consider that a reasonable price-tag for the potential formation of a homegrown competitor to existing marketplaces. With the roll-out of the Alonzo hardfork approaching, Cardano will soon be able to host a multitude of NFT marketplaces delivering different services and experiences to people in disparate regions across the globe.
Projected Timeline
The Artano project appears to be very open to contributions from the Cardano community, incorporating suggestions posted in the comment section of their proposal. The idea is very clearly in its early stages at this point, with lots of work to be done. However, the proposal does present a detailed goal timeline for the developers. When July 2021 arrives, they hope to have data on user experience from artists and buyers in the NFT space, storyboards for different actors in the Artano system, and complete system architecture based on microservices and modularity. When this is complete, work will begin on a minimum viable product showcasing plutus smart-contracts. When NFT capabilities are live on Cardano, the team will test the solution to prove it works and share information on their first transactions.
Final Thoughts
A NFT Dapp utilizing Cardano’s unique blockchain attributes throughout its design and implementation phases may have a substantial competitive advantage over its peers. If you’re interested in researching the proposal further, consider Artano’s ‘Monthly Update’ post to the Cardano Forum from February 28th, along with new information in the Telegram group ‘Artano – NFT Marketplace’.
If you’d like to know more information or have questions/comments regarding the Artano proposal, check out the link provided: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Artano-A-Cardano-NFT-Marketplace/333726-48088
