Minting and selling Genuine NFTs on Smartists is in Testnet
Still fixing some details at this moment, but that’s the purpose of testing, isn’t it?
If you want to find out more about this testing and also participate as a tester, you need to join our Discord, verify, and join the Pioneers channel. This is a huge milestone, and it shows the way to a new stage in the Smartists App development.
Building a DApp on the web3 is all about taking decisions that can have huge consequences. We are creating the framework for new ways of exchanging value and this is as exciting as it is challenging.
So far…
Our founding team has been taking all the decisions, under my project-lead.
My personal involvement in decision areas has been complete.
Some decisions addressed technical matters, and for that I had the support and advice of exceptional advisors like Harini Rajan and Friedger Müffke, and the consistent work of our developer Fhil J. Fernández. Some other decisions were taken about delicate legal matters with IsabelYagüe Ballester, especially those concerning Intellectual Property and NFTs. Moreover, nearly every day there was something to explain to the community on Discord, in some private conversation, or else. Furthermore, there has always been that moment when you need to consider business matters, which is especially demanding for me.
So, I can count at least four hats that I have been wearing in the past two years! I had never been trained for that, and it has been a journey as exciting as bumpy, and let’s admit it, it has become more and more overwhelming over time.
Now…
I am very happy for what we have achieved, especially for those smart contracts to mint our genuine NFTs and attach a use license at the time of the sale. They are still in testnet and with a lot of pending work in UI-UX, but I can already see the potential of this tool for the self-management of independent artists.
All that said, the functionalities of our mvp are still limited, and it is still not so easy for our potential users to see all the services that we want to provide, and where we are heading to. This is why we need to complete what we have started, in order to reach a functioning beta version by the end of the year.
The feedback from the first testers showed us the way, yet there are new challenging decisions in view about different matters:
Technical: about integrating a messaging tool, completing our set of licenses for NFTs, and UX features like enabling the studios search…
Business: about how to fund and design a business model and structure that can effectively help Smartists be profitable for all stakeholders.
Legal challenges will come once the NFTs licenses are getting tested, so we are not focusing in this right now. We have done our best, and it is time just to keep in alert about how regulation and other projects deal with these matters to keep updated while we receive our feedback.
Growing our community with independent artists and art-users coming from the real world who are discovering the web3 ecosystem, is what we need now, as well as supporting our pioneering studios who have amazing projects going on.
I also believe that we need to focus in introducing the web3 and NFTs to newcomers while we progress with the development of Smartists, and as web3 ecosystem gets more mature and approachable by any artist-author in the real world.
At the same time, there are projects on Stacks that may facilitate adoption with whom we share our mission: to help artists as users thrive on the web3. We have frens in the ecosystem, and we are eager to start conversations, join forces and bring awareness... We are opened to meaningful partnerships within our community!
Coming up: Decentralization
As you can see, Smartists is a growing project which is reaching a moment where my criteria and experience are not enough to keep progressing as intended. We need more specialized lead, and our pioneers need to have a voice.
This is why I am trying to organize a first wave of ‘decentralization’.
I am happy to introduce Daniel R. who is going to take the lead for Business matters. He is an experienced COO, an enthusiast of Smartists, and he has been following our progresses and providing advice during the last year. Moreover, he is learning about all the possibilities for a decentralized business model.
The Smartists Tech Lead is still an opened position, as we look for next essential milestones before the end of the year. Fhil J. Fernández is specializing in Clarity programming language, and is committed to improve the smart contracts we need. He is the Smartists backend developer, who has been working with the advice and support of Friedger Müffke, and has also been making the interface for the mvp, exceeding his primary position.
As Community Lead, I will keep managing the Discord server, following and improving communication initiatives, until we define a strategy hopefully along with pioneers. So far, some members of the Stacks community are being very supportive and helpful, and for that I am deeply grateful. We have already opened a private channel for verified Smartists Pioneers, and I hope we can bring and test the best practices we can find in some existing DAOs. So I am not alone anymore there. Moreover, as we are in contact with Stacker DAO, we also count on their support to organize our community in the future.
For legal matters, we will keep consulting with Isabel Yagüe. Moreover, we will consider new lines of research and development for legal support in the future as the project grows.
To make this decentralization work, we are organizing the participation of Pioneers in our decision-making process.
Do you want to become a Smartists pioneer? If so, please join our Discord and get a Mirlo so you can join the private channel where we are building the best solutions for independent artists on the web3.
Join us and enjoy building a better Internet!
Georgina Mauriño
Founder of Smartists, built on Stacks and secured by Bitcoin.
