MetaFactory Proposal for Funding
PROPOSAL
MetaFactory is seeking to finalize its grant of $6,000 USD to help fund the initial development of the MetaFactory auction platform. This grant was originally proposed and approved via soft consensus under MetaCartel’s Cohort I, Wave III as SwagDAO (https://medium.com/metacartel/metacartel-cohort-1-6336cdca05db).
What do we hope to achieve?
- Demonstrate the massive potential for crypto commerce and digital apparel brands.
- Demonstrate the potential of NFT wearables and their application in the emerging virtual worlds (Cryptovoxels, Decentraland, Sandbox, Somnium, etc.)
- Incubate new decentralized brand economies where artists/creators and their community have aligned incentivizes.
- Lower the barrier to entry for designers to create/sell apparel and validate market demand for their products
- Help project teams to create and deliver unique, exciting products in order to grow their brands
- Deliver a use case that appeals to non-crypto natives and can serve as a web3 on-boarding touch point and case study
- Introduce new technologies that provide NFTs with a base value beyond speculative market premiums (Charged Particles)
- Strengthen the ETH community through fashion, swag and culture. Wear it on your chest (literally)
Progress
- Branding competition to garner community support and attract potential talent to the project (https://medium.com/metacartel/swagdao-design-competition-3848ba2750de)
- Landing page launched with initial project outline (https://metafactory.ai)
- Initial prototype developed, evaluated and re-worked (after evaluation by a secondary team, a large portion of the initial build needed to be re-written).
- First platform test performed. After analysis, changes in UX and general auction format are being made. (https://beta.metafactory.ai/ MUST BE ON RINKBY)
- MetaFactory CryptoVoxels HQ purchased, designed and built which will host auctions and digital wearables (https://www.cryptovoxels.com/parcels/2074)
- Apparel production and fulfillment partnerships have been secured.
- Initial artist partnerships secured including first official public announcement with Twisted Vacancy (https://twitter.com/TheMetaFactory/status/1230730147482877954?s=20)
Deliverables
- A detailed retrospective on the entire development process including challenges and successes.
- The technical edge cases that were discovered and addressed through testing with real users.
- The UX and usability challenges that were encountered and overcome to enable a better experience and obtain our goal of capturing new, non-crypto native audiences.
- Ongoing feedback on the challenges and success of the project and validation (or not) or our previously stated hypotheses.
- New user behaviors and insights gained from the introduction of digi-physical apparel and the growth of digital, virtual world economies.
How will the funds be spent?
All grant funding will be used to pay for platform development costs only and will be directly re-distributed to the teams and developers who wrote the contracts / front end.
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND
What is MetaFactory?
MetaFactory is a new type of physical goods auction platform with a focus on apparel, empowering artists to expand their audience and reach through fashion. We curate and manage our product marketplace, cultivate community engagement and handle all product production & fulfillment on behalf of our design partners, so they only need to focus on their art. The auction platform includes some exciting game mechanics and enables supporters to be directly rewarded through a pro rata refund. MetaFactory believes it can cultivate more successful brands through higher-engaged communities able to directly participate in the brand’s success.
What is the current goal of MetaFactory as a project?
We are making a long term bet on the growth of virtual worlds. We believe that Ethereum, NFTs and the underlying economic foundation will enable success where previous attempts fell short (second life, etc.) The coinciding growth in VR will only further strengthen and support this growth by enabling new immersive experiences where users will desire to personalize their individual experience and appearance. We are looking to validate the potential demand for custom, limited run digi-physical apparel. Long term, we believe that the digital apparel brands will see significant growth and see physical apparel compliments as a great way to capture attention, add value and attract new audiences.
What does MetaFactory want to be?
THE leader in digi-physical apparel and an incubation platform for new, decentralized brand economies.
