NFT Marketplace Consulting for a US Startup

Customer

The Customer is a US startup business considering to step into and capitalize on NFT trading.

Challenge

The Customer had an idea to launch a marketplace to sell digital assets. The Customer wanted to employ NFT technology to transfer the right of ownership to a buyer and thus justify an asset’s uniqueness and value. The NFT market was relatively new so the Customer was hurrying to take a niche until the competition severed.

With the idea in mind, the Customer was looking for a competent team to plan out an NFT marketplace.

Solution

The Customer commissioned ScienceSoft to prepare an elaborate concept of the NFT marketplace and roadmap the development project taking into account our profound expertise in the development of blockchain-based apps.

ScienceSoft’s team started by analyzing the original idea of the NFT marketplace. As the Customer’s vision of the marketplace to-be was vague, the team built a business case to understand the marketability of the Customer’s idea and uncover possible risks. The idea was verified and the project moved on.

ScienceSoft’s team prepared the technology stack, the feature map, architecture and infrastructure design for the marketplace. We fully planned user journeys for marketplace sellers and buyers and provided a detailed specification of needed functionality. Along with standard marketplace features, the team offered:

• Multiple login options (via email and password, social media, digital wallets).
• Custom catalog widgets helping in navigation, like new or most expensive items on sale.
• Flexible payment via a crypto wallet, credit cards, mobile payment.
• NFT minting capabilities for non-technical people.
• Integration with numerous blockchains.
• Auction bidding for NFT.
• Intuitive navigation and a Web3 compatible interface.

We complemented solution specifications with an interactive marketplace prototype to visualize hands-on user experience.

A high-level architecture of the NFT marketplace comprised:

• A user-facing web application integrated with web3 and multiple crypto wallets. The integration simplified the payment step for users who could instantly convert a fiat currency into crypto assets to pay for NFTs. The front end of the web app was planned in React.js and the back end – in Golang.
• Data storage solutions. LevelDB was used to store the binary data of Ethereum nodes while AWS S3 and IPFS were intended to store digital assets.
• Smart contracts were used to automate the verification of blockchain transactions. To speed up the development of smart contracts, ScienceSoft’s team offered to use ready libraries of OpenZeppelin.
• An Ethereum-based blockchain network built on Polygon framework. Polygon was employed to bypass high transaction costs and slow processing of Ethereum.

Results

The Customer got a third-party take on the feasibility of their business idea and a blueprint of their NFT marketplace. They interacted with the marketplace prototype and confirmed its usability for both user roles – buyers and sellers.

Now, the Customer is planning the marketplace implementation stage and considers ScienceSoft as an end-to-end development partner for it taking into account that we have all the required competencies in-house.

Technologies

Golang, React.js, Web3, Solidity, OpenZeppelin, Polygon framework, LevelDB, AWS S3, IPFS