Fund3 of Project Catalyst is moving to the voting phase (currently there is voter registration, if you have 3000 ADA or more - you can register and vote for proposals).
This idea of the creation of the alternative to Amazon Kindle is my long-term idea, I've been thinking about it for years.
The link to the proposal on Ideascale is: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Aregato-ADA-ebook-marketplace/334187-48088
This will be a long post. So if in brief, my proposal received 57 reviews, and the average point is only 1.89. That's really low and it means the community advisers don't like the idea.
But it's good to accept critics and use it for the work on your proposal. So I'm happy to get the feedback and I'm sharing it here. This time I'm not putting here answers to each of the comments, I will just summarise of them
-I have a team of interested people, I'm not listing it as they will join if the funding is provided. Yes, you know that these days good developer have a lot of work to do, and I don't want to ask them to work on a volunteer basis. In the future maybe I'll try to develop this ebook marketplace with my own funds.
- I'm sure that such a platform is needed and that all the elements (crypto-payments, low margins, NFTs, the possibility to invest and support authors you like, etc.) are also necessary and they will be probably implemented by some other platforms in the future.
So here are the reviews:
The proposal contributes to the future decentralized and open-world by envisioning the Amazon-like bookstore based on Cardano and with potentially even bigger reach covering reading&arts.
The community interested in the material which is not available on current monopolist platforms as well as authors looking for another venue to access the customers would benefit. The advantage is seen in secure, cheap and independent Cardano network vs established players.
The proposal addressed the Fund3 challenge in an appropriate way.This proposal idea is not a competitive dapp at all and does not differentiate its decentralized components enough to warrant the implementation risk that comes when trying to build a competitor solution to one of Amazon's core competencies. Its also not clear how this would drive user adoption on Cardano at all, very niche use case i am not fully sure even warrants the need for NFT's/a public blockchain to operate effectively.
Here is the framework for how I estimate the level of IMPACT for the Fund3 dApp challenge:
1) How likely is this dApp to drive large volumes of transactions (think Uniswap) and/or life changing activities on this dApp (think Patreon)
This proposal does not seem connected very well to the type of information that is readily stored on the Cardano blockchain. It seems that there are a number of technologies that would have to be integrated to make this happen. While theoretically this is a huge market and yes, more digital marketplaces would be great for this type of digital content, but there is no WOW factor that I can see that would drive consumers to this new marketplace.
2) Is there anything intrinsic to this dApp that is unique and/or superior to a regular mobile app or web service?
It is hard for me to see why this would be more effective as a dApp. It is hard enough to develop a competitive webservice that provides a great marketplace and now you are adding an additional layer of complexity by trying to integrate this with the blockchain. The best part to design is no part and with this proposal, it just seems like the blockchain adds more problems. This might make sense as a new integration to an existing online marketplace, but the proposal as stated is trying to build this all from the ground up.
3) How much will the requested funds catalyze this effort and produce a meaningful result over the next six months?
This proposal is incredibly ambitious. When you have Amazon spending billions each year, it seems like $8000 would just be flash in the pan. I think there should be a much clearer plan for how $8000 can be leveraged to make this proposal happen.The proposer describes a reasonable problem, the possibility of decentralizing and distributing digital asset ownership rights provided by blockchain technology enables direct and digital asset trading between buyer and seller, this can reduce the number of intermediaries and costs for buyers, in addition to making sellers more profitable.
In the specific case, the proposer's idea is to improve the situation in the ebook market, but this can extend to many other niches.
The user adoption in this proposal would come at first by the use of dapp for trading digital assets (in the case of ebooks), but the doubt is in relation to the number of users and the number of transactions that this dapp can bring to Cardano, there is certainly potential, but the proposer doesn't address in detail how it will make the onboarding process efficient and bring in a considerable number of users.It's not made clear the decentralization use case for why this app needs to be on a public blockchain. Slightly less margins is not a 10x solution that will scale to compete with an Amazon Kindle.
the proposal is not focused enough. marketplace, blogging and social media in one platform? a marketplace might be good but how would it work exactly and why is it a dapp? the only thing i see is that ada would be a means of payment.
I like the idea - but it seems like a large undertaking. It definitely is aligned with the challenge brief but it lacks substance in some of the other departments.
The DAPP proposed does fit well into the challenge.
The idea is good, an eBook marketplace in Cardano is very feasible using NFTs. Although, some lack of focus seems to to prejudice the proposal since it would start competing with general NFTs marketplaces, which could also be competitors for eBooks. Creating smart contracts that make more sense for eBooks then for other general NFT items would be interesting and would have real value.
The proposer is supposedly an individual with limited experience and no team was referenced. It would be beneficial to have more details on the previous work or any commits that can be showcased to demonstrate capability.
The plan has an interesting general outline, however, it lacks details and has only grand vision from the start as well as a notion of changing direction. It might be more convincing to break down the grand vision into manageable chunks, concentrate on one portion, make detailed plan and then continue to build on top of it.
The proposal is lacking timeline, budget allocation or even deliverables to seriously consider the implementation.There is no project plan, development milestone schedule, or technical documentation provided to describe how this protocol would function. This idea as a result has a low chance of successful implementation.
My framework for this assessment is as follows:
1) Product-market fit: is the technology capable and is there clear demand?
I don't think the technology is there for this proposal. There is so much competition, there would have to be an incredible advantage provided in order to build and grow a successful marketplace. I do not see a clear advantage in technology or other edge that would support driving costs down or providing more value than existing services.
2) Circle of competence: does the project have great leadership and synergy between team, partners and/or community?
I do not see details of the team that would make this happen. This would require an immense amount of creativity, technological ingenuity and perfect execution to be competitive. This proposal requires a whole team, yet is currently being proposed as a solo effort.
3) Accelerators: Are there clear network effects or other advantages that will drive adoption and success?
The proposal as it stands is stated more as a vision. It is a great vision and some great ideals, but execution is key and you need a great team and a technological advantage to make it happen. I do not see those in this proposal.The proposer describes experience with research, marketing, content in the blockchain area and experience as a writer, however this proposal in short is a marketplace for digital assets and requires developers and there is no mention of other people involved in the project or the need for hiring people.
There is no objective and reasonable plan for the execution of the proposal, the proposer describes several ideas that can be implemented in the proposal, such as integration with social networks, auctions, NFTs, and the possibility of selling rights over revenue sources, such as rights to a share on the profits from book sales. I recommend that the proposer focus on the most important aspects and keep his proposal aligned with the problem he described in the proposal. In addition, it is necessary to provide detailed planning of the proposal and budget.There is no detailed development roadmap or implementation strategy included in this proposal. It's also not clear there is any real demand from authors at scale for a decentralized Amazon Kindle.
proposer only claims to have experience in research, marketing, content so nothing can be said about the ability to program this highly ambitious project
I am missing more detail on what makes this requested budget appropriate amount. And how it will help the proposal owner to achieve the end goal. I am somewhat surprised - given the veteran status of the proposal owner that these seem to be missing from the text. Maybe it was forgotten or not focused on given other proposals are submitted, too? I would also have loved to learn more about roadmap and some milestones. How it works on timescales, too. Absent of these, it is difficult to quantify this project more effectively.
There is unfortunately not enough information on the team behind the DAPP prototype. Nor any explanation of what the prototype would include.
It seems that a single person with some experience in blockchain would work on the proposal. A lot will have to be done. It's feasible, but it would work better if there was someone to cooperate and review. Budget is suited for the proposal, but a schedule would support its evaluation.
The proposal is lacking a firm structure, such as roadmap, milestones, delivery schedule for parts or even the whole project. It seems like the proposer has a grand idea but needs some more focus on the execution and planning.
There are no KPIs mentioned, as well as any means to measure the success of the project.
There are numerous risks for implementing an alternative to Amazon but none are addressed in the proposal. Some thought should be given to potential risks and obstacles and how to solve them.
To conclude, the idea is noble, has merit, will address the growing need for alternative knowledge access and distribution but needs more refinement.This idea is for the creation of a proof of concept and lacks all of the technical documentation, project plan, metrics/KPI's and milestone deliverable schedule required to confidently assert it meets this challenge. Also since a dApp won't actually be created in the next 6 months this proposal is not effectively addressing the challenge at all.
My framework for this assessment is as follows:
1) Are there clear predictive metrics that will communicate to the community the progress of implementation?
This is a great aspiration and story in this proposal. I would love to see these types of marketplaces being built and integrated into Cardano However, this proposal does not show the steps it will take to get there.
2) Are there clear goals and metrics that demonstrate the product is achieving its intended value (ROI)?
There are no clear metrics for what this project is aiming to achieve 6 months, 1 year from now. As such it is hard to assess how it would contribute to ROI without making some very big assumptions.
3) Is there a clear plan to utilize the requested treasury funds as effectively as possible?
There is no plan or budget provided.There is not enough information to make the assessment and for the community to identify the auditability of the proposal. The proposer did not describe roadmap, milestones, KPIs, budget details, people needed to develop the proposal (also include their experience). I suggest that this information be described and that detailed planning be created based on the Catalyst documentation.
This proposal presents a weak decentralization use case and provides little technical documentation to describe the proposed solution in depth
there's no roadmap no plan. just ideas for a far away future potential. no exact information on how to realize any of this. its just not assesible this way
It really does not address any part of the success metrics. Would love to have learned how the project gets from point A to point B - I am not getting lots of that presently. There are great brainstorming ideas in the proposal text but it hasn't tied down as in what the next steps are exactly. I would not understand clearly where we are going on day one when this proposal gets funded. Which is pity because it potentially is a wonderful concept.
There is no clear information as to what the prototype would include in terms of features, or a description of the timeline to deliver the prototype.
Final objective is not clear, since it is stated that focus could change after start of the project. Roadmap, milestones and KPIs need to be defined in order to allow for audit. Also, a schedule needs to be implemented. Focus should be in a niche (eBooks) instead of trying to compete with big players, for a better chance of success.
