Create the first purpose built nft blockchain - run by nft projects

ABSTRACT

This proposal is to partially fund the first development phase of the Compose Network - a Permissionless NFT Utility platform run by NFT participant projects/DAOs. Compose will expand the possibilities and ecosystem of NFT projects by serving as a safe, fast, extensible, interoperable network of projects utilizing novel mechanics.

We are accelerating mass adoption of NFTs.


MOTIVATIONS

Having come on to the scene just 8 months ago, Nouns have already shown themselves as an instrumental brand and NFT community. With this growth, a deep interest in funding more ambitious and far-reaching projects has developed.

As a leader in the NFT space, Nouns should be pushing innovation in the technology that supports the DAO and promotes a better way to interact and engage with NFTs.

By co-funding the development for Compose, Nouns will become the first ever reflected NFTs, be amongst the first members of the Compose DAO, and will be earning POSE tokens - allowing them to direct the future of what utilities and collections are supported on the network.


PROBLEM STATEMENTS

When it comes to building with NFTs, Ethereum is expensive, slow, and has malicious code trying to take your NFTs. While layer two solutions are cheaper / faster, they are still subject to the exact same smart contract risks as well as flaws in bridging (bridge hacks are some of the largest hacks in blockchain history).

Existing projects are now beginning to create utilities for their NFTs and have been duplicating the same use-cases across projects, bringing the same security flaws along the way. So, if the original project ends up getting hacked, all derivative projects face the exact same exploit(s) and vulnerabilities.


SOLUTIONS

On Compose, we allow users to reflect their NFTs through non-custodial means, thus creating a synthetic version of their NFT on our network. We don’t expose users to contract risk, because we never have their actual NFT and all on-chain Compose contracts only interact with their synthetic NFT.

Between its DAO-based permissions model and consensus mechanism, Compose is able to prevent malicious code as well as preserve a high quality network of utilities while still promoting decentralization.

For more detailed details, refer to the Compose Abstract


ASK

125 ETH for the delivery of Milestone 1. Funds to be streamed monthly (~31.25 ETH) with an estimated 4 month delivery target.


RETURN

Core utilities provided on compose network:

  • Noun Lore Social Feeds - nouns.compose.art
  • Noun Fight Club Game
  • Noun Committee DAOs
    • Proposals and votes on compose, but treasury management and execution on Ethereum.
  • Noun specified utilities (what do nouns want?)

Economic incentives:

  • 1% of all POSE tokens will be split amongst all noun holders (vested).
    • Snapshot to be taken at the delivery of the mainnet
    • Allocation comes from advisory tokens pool
  • Nouns treasury will receive 6,875,000 POSE tokens (0.6875% of total supply)
    • Additional disbursements can be made available with sponsorship of additional milestones.
    • Nouns can use these POSE tokens for other builders to extend and build on Compose functionality.

TIMELINE

Milestone 1 (~4mo) - Bach Testnet

This first version of the testnet will allow users to reflect their noun NFT from Ethereum to Compose, establish a NFT centric social media feed and play a game (death.finance) within the Compose network.

Deliverables

  • v0.1 release of the Bach testnet
  • A handful of validators consisting of those who contributed to the funding of the network as well as the Compose Core team.
  • Ability to reflect a noun NFT from Ethereum onto Compose
  • “One click” validator setup for Ubuntu and MacOS
  • GUI interface to interact with running validator nodes
  • Landing page for nouns with a DNS router 244.nouns.compose.art
  • Ability to use nouns page as wallet and social media posting page
  • Ability to use nouns in death.finance game
  • POSE Earning Mechanics
  • Typescript SDK for node RPC

Milestone 2 - Validator DAO Governance

The second version of the testnet will include the initial implementation of a DAO-driven network whereby validators will be able to decide on parameters for what can be deployed to the network and how (e.g. by vote or deployer stakes).

Milestone 3 - Minting Factory

The third version of the testnet will include the backend and frontend infrastructure for an NFT launch platform - allowing anyone to come and launch an NFT project without any coding background.

Milestone 4 - POSE Bridge / Beta Utility Deployment

The fourth version of the testnet will integrate cosmos bridges for transferring POSE to other chains and kick off the ability for third parties to come and develop utilities on POSE to be consumed by supported NFT collections.

Milestone 5 - Requiem

In preparation for mainnet deployment, the fifth version of the testnet will open up the validator pool to any interested parties meeting the hardware requirements for joining. Validators will compete in a multi-month long game “Requiem” where they attempt to break various parts of the network for bug bounties. Fixes coming out of this game will be integrated into the codebase prior to mainnet launch.

Milestone 6 - Mozart Mainnet

After four weeks where no bugs have been found in the network, the mainnet will be deployed, testnet tokens will be converted to mainnet tokens, and validators will switch over to running the network. A new testnet will also be launched to meet the needs of developers wanting to eventually deploy to Compose.

At the time that the mainnet is launched, the token vesting schedule on Ethereum for validators / early network supporters will begin.


RATIONALE

  • Improved security. Presently, a number of contracts deployed to Ethereum allow for honey potting whereby user accounts can be liquidated by simply transferring an airdropped NFT out of their wallet. A DAO-run network would serve to inhibit the proliferation of such malicious contracts within the network and reduce state bloat by advocating for reusability of existing library code.

  • Ease-of-use. By employing a non-custodial NFT reflection protocol as well as native discord integration, users will be able to easily engage with the network, regardless of the layer one that their NFTs are located on.

  • Cross-project utilities. Right now, most projects are working separately to deliver similar value - providing a single standard that is reusable across projects will foster greater innovation and growth in the overall NFT community.

  • Greater transaction throughput. Native state-channel support on top of tendermint consensus provides for much higher transaction throughput required for running realtime games on the network.

  • Play-and-earn. Holders of supported NFTs projects will be able to easily generate yield on their NFTs simply by participating in the network.

  • No-code movement for web3. Artists shouldn’t need to know how to code to take part in web3 and take advantage of all the utility that NFTs can offer.


QUESTIONS / CONCERNS

  • Why not build this on Ethereum?

    • Cost - Ethereum is prohibitively expensive for mainstream users.
    • Speed - Tendermint consensus is much faster than Ethereum’s - enabling real time utility.
    • Security - Our safeguarded smart contracts greatly minimize potential for hacks and our non-custodial model allows users to interact with assets from other chains without them ever being jeopardized.
  • Why not build on L2 (other EVMs) / Solana?

    • While cost and speed are comparable, some of the largest hacks within the blockchain space have exploited bridges on some of these alternative chains - our non-custodial model prohibits hacks like these from ever occurring.
  • Why is this better than other options today?

    • There is nothing that does what reflection does that is presently deployed.
  • What does having more NFT functionality actually enable, bottom-line?

    • A more vibrant ecosystem of innovation and exploration (e.g. Bitcoin’s community vs Ethereum’s community).
  • What does Compose give to each reflected collection?

    • New utilities for their NFT projects out of the box.
    • Greater financial upside and value for their NFTs by offering add-ons, air drops, etc… (think beanz for azukis)

COST BREAKDOWN

125 ETH per milestone, 750 in total - We estimate the entire project will take ~2000 ETH but will be supplemented from other sources.

For more detailed details, refer to the Projected Budget

2 Likes

Very interesting, thanks for sharing all this info!

I’m still struggling to understand why the new network vs building a set of contracts say on StarkNet? Or another L2?

I dig the idea of having an NFT “reflection” so you never transfer your original; that can be achieved with any L2, no?

Aside from the reflection approach, sounds like you want to basically ship code that’ll be reused by many projects, also something that can happen on any L2?

Aside from the reflection concept, I don’t see how this is way more secure than building all the features on an L2?
And given the reflection concept I don’t see why the “bridges are scary” point is a strong one?

Thanks!!

Forgot to add the team section!

TEAM

Brennen Peters (brennen.eth)

Founded multiple companies, adopted Bitcoin since 2010, participated in the public Ethereum sale in 2014 (genesis wallet holder), started building on Ethereum in 2016 and co-founded LMNOP (decentralized wireless networks turned bitcoin hedge fund). Art collector and now NFT collector holding Nouns, Punks, BAYC, MAYC, Azukis, XCOPY, Doodles, and many others. Full-stack engineer, with a background in economics and finance, game designer by hobby, and a lifelong pursuit to make the world a funner place.

Eric Olszewski (honkdiddly.eth)

Building on Ethereum since the beginning of 2016, worked with dozens of projects and protocols over the years, co-founded Transmute (decentralized identity business), ran the Austin Ethereum Meetup from 2016-2018, part of multiple technical committees relating to scaling (Plasma Implementers and State Channel Researchers), and full stack software engineering for over a decade.

Evan Mallory (esopian.eth)

Lifelong Engineer and Entrepreneur. Evan has co-founded a dozen companies over his career and has built products and teams for Fortune 50 companies in healthcare, fintech, cloud services, data intelligence, and systems automation. Long a fan of accessibility, Evan has a passion for turning complex systems into simple to use tools that anyone can adopt.

1 Like

By allowing the DAO to control the actual smart utility contracts deployed on the network. It’s not a complete open ecosystem to control security and bloat on the network. By using another L2 you still have issues with how approvals and other smart contracts interact with your utility.

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Does this apply to NOUNish only projects or will this blockchain include others yet to be created or minted opportunities?

It will include any NFT projects whitelisted from the compose DAO aka validators and POSE token holders. A set of projects can be included on the initialization of the network and the testnet.

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I wonder if there is a way to validate builders maybe form some sort of a guild and that would assist these projects that may have great art/concept but no blockchain experience or the other way around. also set aside a “Skunkworks/R&D” budget to explore new opportunities to bring into this DAO. There are so many smart creative people in this network and we should all try to harness their full potential.

Great that you ask that! We are building a green light system to get contracts and utility deployed. People delegate POSE to the builder to initiate a vote. Our goal is to give grants with POSE/ETH to bring on as many builders as possible.

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i have a NOUN extension project ( a true NOUN 2.0) and a couple of originals that I would love to share with you but can’t connect on discord.I have 25 years of content and solid connections in the creative spaces but the back end blockchain stuff is alien and intimidating most of the time. I am all in on CC0 and the collaborative nature of this space. I feel that if we had access to a team to do the contracts and back end things we can really do some next level work. Would be happy to guinea pig a couple of projects to see how things work.

Hey @verb-e, appreciate your thoughts, here.

One of the main reasons for building a new network is to provide a DAO-centric chain where what all is deployed to the chain is agreed upon by the validator pool (representatives from NFT collections). This would involve an internal auditing as well as ensure that things were deployed in a fashion which promotes best design patterns as well as code reusability. The DAO aspect is built into the messaging-layer of the network’s state versus an on-chain contract (this can be added as an extension of this messaging layer, however).

No, it can’t be achieved with any L2 - we have oracles built in to the validators and they run consensus on the ownership of NFTs on the originating chain - this is something not done on L2s. L2s typically use bridging to be able to facilitate this - to be clear, bridges have been the reason for some of the largest hacks in blockchain’s history, for example:

We previously released https://dev.death.finance and found that many many people were pretty terrified to interact with the chain, this would completely mitigate that fear. On our network, a subset of transaction fees are also paid by validators - which greatly decreases cost to users.

It’s important to keep in mind that mainstream users who might have NFTs might be very wary of using any sort of utilities - the reflection approach allows us to completely abstract away the wallet.