This proposal requests funding to expand native NFT capabilities and seamless newcomer onboarding directly within Polkadot's Asset Hub. By closing critical gaps like limited minting, metadata modularity, interoperability, documentation and more, Asset Hub can transform into the welcoming hub for the next generation of digital ownership innovation on Polkadot.
Interest in advanced NFT functionality grows rapidly network-wide, but foundational work remains across Polkadot to actualize this. Gaps risk fragmented experiences across disjointed offerings from various parachains. Whereas strong features like XCM, components and tooling in the Asset Hub can transform Polkadot into a robust base layer ushering the next NFT paradigm. Without addressing barriers here, Polkadot risks missing the window towards mainstream cultural adoption of web3 models, by allowing rival chains to dominate the NFT ecosystem - a pivotal gateway application driving this adoption.
Core NFT activities remain severely constrained in Asset Hub presently with no unified platform addressing needs at scale. This exacerbates barriers to mainstream adoption by creators, developers and businesses exploring web3 models.
KodaDot, as the top Polkadot dApp according to GitHub metrics, bringing specialized Substrate/NFT expertise, will integrate an advanced NFT pallet enabling features like customizable metadata, composability and modular roadmaps. Additional UI, SDKs and XCM utilization will provide delightful, intuitive experiences catering to both technical and non-technical users across chains.
Unlocking robust minting, ownership and composability establishes Asset Hub as the preferred all-in-one platform for consumers to create, manage and exchange NFTs across the Polkadot ecosystem. Users access the full suite of capabilities within one place, rather than a disjointed array of tools. This convenience and consolidation democratizes access for community growth, while increased utility benefits stakeholders like validators, DOT holders and DeFi protocols building atop the foundation.
The work is structured across 8 milestones ensuring gradual, measurable progress:
Milestones 1-7 are complete. Milestone 8 funds continued bug fixes, optimizations and customer support over 6 months.
The $530k budget is allocated towards the combined ~21k hours of development work across the 8 milestones based on resourcing needs. This covers robust solutions tailored for Polkadot while upholding strong technical quality standards throughout. KodaDot is fully open-sourced and has a bounties program in place which has disributed over $500k to developers building on Polkadot.