Launchpad

Launchpad: The go-to NFT generating and minting solution
https://goofy-neumann-fd67a4.netlify.app/
Algorithmic Artwork Generation
Smart contract deployment per collection
Create and Distribution your NFTs via your very own dApp

To learn more about our solution, you can head over to our medium write-up and slides:

https://medium.com/@kickstartwithlaunchpad/launchpad-the-go-to-nft-minting-solution-202af086e67d https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1is7rN8gtYgGrecR8nc653bLBN8FT0caA5buM4SZBkRE/edit?usp=sharing

Inspiration

Launchpad idea came about when one of us wanted to launch our own NFT collection. However, the challenges in artwork generation and smart contract deployment made it difficult for us to continue with the NFT project. The current NFT space is focused on user experience, but not much on the creator's experience. Hence, Launchpad aims to target aspiring creators and artists in the NFT Space. Empowering artist by bridging the gap between artist and technology

Problem Description

High barriers to entry in NFT space for artists without technical proficiency in smart contract development & algorithmic artwork generation.

What it does

Launchpad is a code-less, all-in-one NFT tooling solution that focuses on user experience, abstraction, flexibility, and is long-term oriented. Launchpad aims to overcome limitations in existing solutions, comprehensively address current pain points and add value beyond that.

The core of Launchpad is a cost-effective and no-code solution to handle algorithmic artwork generation, asset tokenization & smart contract deployment in a hyperconnected blockchain network.

How we built it

Please refer to our Github README for our solution architecture. We developed our solution with the Seven Phases of the SDLC:

Planning
Defined Requirements
Design and Prototyping using Figma
Software Development
Testing, Stress Testing
Deployment
Operations & Maintenance

Challenges we ran into

We often got lost while developing in ICON Network because there isn't really a best practice / standard we can follow. One of the challenge we experienced was to connect the ICONex wallet to send JSON-RPC requests to interact with the blockchain. Thankfully there were some open source repositories that we could reference to (e.g. Bonsai Exchange, TokenScoreFactory) although they may be dated.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We started this project in December during our winter break with zero knowledge on development in ReactJS and smart contract as well as deployment to the production server. We're proud to have delivered a functional and hopefully user-friendly product for the hackathon. Apart from this, we also got to learn more about the pain points from the artists' perspective as they enter the NFT space. Our focus, from start to end, had always been user-first to make the experience as seamless as possible to lower the technical barriers to entry for artists and creators. So in that aspect, we're also proud of our user interface which was the result of countless iterations to improve the user flow. Nonetheless, it was an extremely enriching and fruitful experience for us. Thank you for this opportunity! :)

What we learned

Smart contract development and deployment
ReactJS, Chakra
IPFS, Pinata Cloud
NFT Market and Industry Trends
How to bring maximum value to creators

What's next for Launchpad

In the short term, we want to integrate our smart contracts into existing marketplaces (e.g., Craft) to support secondary sales of their creation in the ICON Network.

Outside of artwork, we intend to enhance our bulk minting capabilities to support other NFT assets such as in-game assets, music, event ticketing, and many more that are typically generated in volume. On top of that, Launchpad can act as the primary market for creators to launch their NFTs, whereas secondary buying and selling can happen on marketplaces such as Craft.