[Active] Wrapping AENS names into AEX-141 NFTs

æternity Crypto Foundation Grant Applications
#1

Application Status

Status: Approved on the 23.03.2023, submitted on the 17.02.2023
Last updated: 17.02.2023
Submited by: Marco
Team: Marco :slight_smile:
Approved Budget (in h):
Used Budget (in h):

Planned Delivery of Phase 1 (Scope Definition): ~4-6 weeks after start
Planned Delivery of Phase 2 (Smart Contract Development): ~4-6 weeks after scope definition is finished
Planned Delivery of Phase 3 (Frontend, hosted via gh-pages): ~4-6 weeks after contract development is finished

Specify the funding category

  • Open Source Development
  • Community Growth

Application Title

Wrapping AENS names into AEX-141 NFTs to allow batch transfers, batch updates and batch trades

Applicant

  • Marco

Value Application

  • Provide a way for the community to better manage their AENS names
  • Enable batch-actions for AENS names
  • Allow strangers to extend AENS names and get rewarded for that

Definition of Terms

Wrapping AENS names into NFTs will make it easy to perform batch-actions on the names and enable new use cases. NFT trading is also highly anticipated and is another topic to tackle in that regards.

Status Quo

  • No batch actions (updates, transfers) for AENS names are possible
  • No trading of AENS names possible (yet)
    • There is another ongoing grant which I am not sure about the exact status: [Active] Distributed otc domain name trading system
    • This proposal here differs a lot from the other approach because trading would be enabled via a regular NFT marketplace where the wrapped AENS names could be exchanged
  • Users still suffer from name expiration as they fail to consistently track name expiration

Required Work

1. Scope Definition

Although I have already a quite clear picture in my head this phase is very important to make sure I am developing the solution in the best way possible to serve the needs of various members in the community. It is a very good chance for everybody to get involved and drive the solution into the right direction :slight_smile:

Tasks:

  • Create different diagrams to discuss and define a clear scope
  • Topics to cover for the big picture:
    • Wrap AENS names into AEX-141 NFTs
    • Allow batch-actions (updates, transfers) on AENS names wrapped in the NFT
      • Provide a way for anybody to perform those updates and get rewarded for doing so
    • Consider an AENS DAO with its own AEX-9 token to handle changes on various parameters which might be defined in some contracts (e.g. a certain percentage of the update rewards could be moved into the DAO and distributed based on decisions taken by the DAO)
  • Iterate on the scope & diagrams based on public discussion with community

General design decision to take:

  • Should contracts be deployed in a way they could be upgraded later on to enable new features like e.g. the reward mechanism and the AENS DAO

Deliverables:

  • Different diagrams that define a clear scope for phase 2+3

2. Smart Contract Development & Deployment

Tasks:

  • Analyse how many batch-actions can be performed on AENS names to prevent out of gas issues and possibly limit the amount of AENS names to be wrapped into a single NFT
  • Development (incl. tests) of Smart Contracts required to cover the defined scoped
  • Deployment of the contracts
  • Documentation of contracts & deployment(s)

Deliverables:

  • Sophia Smart Contracts with test coverage

3. Frontend

Deliverables:

  • A frontend that does not rely on a custom backend (mainly using hosted mdw) and allows to interact with all entrypoints of the developed smart contracts.

Estimate

1. Scope Definition

  • Delivery: ~4-6 weeks after starting to work on it
  • Working hours: ~80-120

2. Smart Contract Development

  • Working hours: ~100-150 (can vary depending on the scope defined in phase 1)
  • The better the scope definition, the faster the development can be

3. Frontend

  • Working hours: ~100-150 (can vary depending on the scope defined in phase 1)

Known Limitations

I would ignore this limitation for the moment and later on apply for another smaller grant to update all components once this feature is implemented and activated on testnet and mainnet.

Outlook

  • Publication of a detailed blog article
  • Live presentation for the community
  • Make the NFTs tradable
    • NFT marketplace
    • NFT auction platform
    • …

Publishment

  • Research and development will be published free of any proprietary license (open-source, open-access)
  • GitHub Repo: marc0olo/aens-nfts · GitHub

Maintainance

  • I confirm that my research and code will be maintained with bug fixing free of charge for one year after publishing it.
    • Disclaimer: I cannot give any ETA for bugfixes as this will always depend on my availability. I will guarantee to fix problems as soon as possible.
  • This does not include new updates & features. If e.g. the mentioned limitation is fixed, I will apply for a follow up grant that allows me to update the services accordingly.
7 Likes
#2

Really looking forward to see this come into play :smiley:

1 Like
#3

Looks really good, I support this! I wouldn’t wait on the resolved limitations, rather propose something thats finalizable, then make a follow up once possible.

4 Likes
#4

fully agree on that. but I would consider to change the contract in that regards once this is possible :wink:

#5

Sounds promising, looking forward seeing where this goes. I think the diagrams approach could lower the understanding barrier.

4 Likes
#7

Dear @marco.chain, thanks for the interesting application. Can you please contact me for the details? Please note the maintenance should be at least one year provided.

1 Like
#8

Hey @lydia, I will come back to you soon.

My proposal has different phases where maintenance might not be so much relevant. I think most important is Phase 1 and 2. For phase 2, the contracts I do not see much relevance for maintenance. It would be more like new features to be added (e.g. delegation of all AENS names once this is possible).

The maintenance part would be more relevant for Phase 3 / 4. I am not even sure if I want to apply for Phase 4 of this proposal. There might be another team that could tackle this part as I am neither a designer, nor a good frontend developer. Phase 3 could be easily handled by me with a just functional UI that allows to interact with contracts.

Regarding maintenance I am currently watching the discussion here: [Withdrawn] Governance Aepp Improvements - #7 by philipp.chain

I think it should be clear what kind of maintenance is expected. As @philipp.chain outlined it could be a tiny effort, but it can also be a bigger effort if there are breaking changes in SDKs for example.

2 Likes
#9

Dear @marco.chain,
thanks for the explanation. Please put project hours per scopes in order to estimate the cost. Since the scopes are depending on each other and some are optional please specify the deliveries of the scope 1. and scope 2. for any user. A discussion in the forum on the known limitation and diagrams of your project can be recommended before the start of the project.
The maintenance requirement for the software project is needed to provide a quality software and documentation at least for a year. Some of the Chinese developers even confirmed and are doing the maintenance for several years. The goal of the software maintenance is to keep the software system working for the users. If a developer feels not responsible for the bugs created by him/her and requires at least double payment for the same task it arises the question for whom the broken software can be useful (who controls at the end the project cost). Please feel free to contact us under the Email: [email protected]

#10

Hey @lydia,

I just updated my grant application and also provided and approximate amount of hours on each phase. As I am solo developer on this I removed phase 4 and made phase 3 non-optional. I think a UI that allows to interact with all available contract entrypoints is mandatory for people to actually use it.

The estimates for phase 2 and 3 are very vague as long as phase 1 is not finished. It heavily depends on how many features we want to cover and how complex the proposed solution will be.

I will also reach out to you via e-mail.

2 Likes
#12

Dear @marco.chain,

your grant application phase 1 is approved by ACF.

2 Likes
#13

Cool :slight_smile: Will let you know once I start and provide weekly updates then.

1 Like