collect

Inspiration

Current solutions for buying or selling secondhand products can be inconvenient and are not very effective:

If you want to buy something, it can be a lot of effort. You’re either sifting through stuff online or at a thrift store. And most of the time, if you’re looking for something specific, you can’t always find it, even though you know it’s out there.

If you want to sell something, that's also a lot of effort. You have to do the listing, the marketing, the distribution, everything —it’s a lot; and more often than not, it doesn’t even sell and you end up donating it or throwing it away. And then where does it go?

The idea is to create an organized, easily queryable "database" of all post-consumer products, and I call it "the common good". If this can be achieved, the opportunities are limitless.

This is an introduction to the reuse economy.

And it starts with people.

collect is a combination of six apps that work to effectively "collect", categorize, and label items into an easily queryable “database” of real, existing, and available after-market products. In order to build this inventory of everything, you first need to build a system to collect, store, organize, and transport these goods-- in other words, you need to build a supply chain.

The six apps are broken down as such:

produce

A tool for users ("producers") to take pictures of the item or "pile" of items that they wish to get rid of.

distribute

A dashboard for users ("distributors") to request these produced items or piles, so that they may do the work of listing and distributing them.

organize

A tool for users ("organizers") to sort, categorize, and label the distributor-listed items.

transport

A dashboard for users ("transporters") to see and fulfill transport orders created to move items between users.

store

A dashboard for users ("warehouses") to view the inventory of the items they hold.

vendors

A representation for users ("vendors") to view and query the common good so that they may build marketplaces, services, tools, missions, anything... atop this massive inventory.

Note: this is only a proof of concept and is not the only, or best, solution. The six apps described above are implementations of the six main roles in a supply chain-- how they interact with eachother and what roles can overlap is open for discussion. This is only my interpretation to best highlight the possibilities and flow of products from the producer to the consumer.

How we built it

This project is a React app built on NEAR Protocol, with smart contracts written in Rust, data stored on IPFS, and uses The Graph to create a subgraph representing "the common good".

Challenges we ran into

IPFS was tough. Understanding how to save data straight from the camera to IPFS and then those hashes, saved onto chain, indexed into the subgraph, queried from the UI, and then served as a data url for an tag... was tough. In the current state, images are saved to IPFS and read correctly, but I was unable to figure out how to save metadata to the same hash "directory" and then have a hash available to the subgraph to be able to retrieve that data.

I don’t really know how to do the economics of it all; I can imagine a few ways for it to play out, but I felt it was out of scope and decided to make it all free and sponsor all the fees. But I’m sure somebody knows a good way to do it…

NOTE: At time of submission, The Graph was having issues with subgraphs on testnet, so the data is all dummy data and not actually coming from chain (although it could if the graph was working)

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I came into this project knowing a decent amount of React, but not much else. NEAR, IPFS, and The Graph was all completely new to me and there were plenty of growing pains figuring out how they are incorporated and interact with each other. I also had to learn Rust to write the contracts, although a lot of it is still a mystery to me.

I'm also proud of the concept itself; I think its a novel idea and I truly believe that it is not only practical, but could really make a huge impact on the world today. I'm proud of myself for not only having the idea, but also carrying through with it.

What we learned

The concepts behind developing with NEAR are not that complicated -- in fact, they're pretty familiar. The easier these concepts can be explained (whether it's blockchain, IPFS, or The Graph), the easier it is for others to want to develop on them. It's fun, it's attainable, and it's invigorating to see immediate results using these technologies.

Specific to the project itself: sharing this idea and talking to people has shown me that there is a HUGE need for something like this. Three major problems in the world today are supply chain shortages, workers rights, and climate change. This project addresses all three, and it's been so exciting to be able to talk to different people, learn their problems and worries, and be able to come up with solutions to them through this concept.

What's next for collect

I know it's ** freakin' crazy**, but I want to build a new economy --one that is centered around people and that values practicality rather than over-production. I believe that collect has two very monumental byproducts: an inventory of everything, and a grass-roots supply chain to move it. With these two things, the opportunities are endless.

I would love to create a DAO that overarches collect and the projects that can be derived from it. I would like to offer grants to developers, designers, and entrepreneurs to create marketplaces, services, tools, missions, charities, anything on the common good.

We could offer entire new revenue streams for everyday people -- whether it's being paid for characterizing items in pictures from their mobile phone, sorting and distributing "donations" in the neighborhood, transporting items around the city or across the country, storing items in extra room in their homes/garages/spaces, gaining royalties on items they give away, or creating businesses from the products in the common good.

And the businesses that could be created... thrift stores could more easily create websites and reach wider audiences, hobbyists could curate and sell used furniture sets as if it were Pinterest; thrifters could curate and drop lookbooks just like artists release NFT collections, refurbishment services -- existing shoe repair, electronic repair, and more could have a constant flow of product, unserviced areas could have access to recycling and entrepreneurs could start their own recycling plants, new home owners could be gifted entire kits, disaster relief could be easily disbursed, food waste could be curbed--

We could hold corporations accountable for the waste they produce and implement closed loop packaging. We could find the true cost of items and a natural cost for all the resources we consume.

I want to build a new economy. This is only the introduction.

Built With

• ipfs
• near
• react
• rust
• subgraph