Main Information
Project Name: VEX
Project URL: VEXNavbar by vex-hackathon.testnet | Near Social
Github: VexFoundation (VEX) · GitHub
Twitter: https://twitter.com/betvex
Early Community (Telegram): Telegram: Join Group Chat
Linktree, find out more: vexfoundation | Twitter | Linktree
Project information
Briefly Describe your project
VEX is a pioneering community-focused decentralized online esports betting platform that leverages the NEAR blockchain to offer a secure and transparent betting experience. The platform looks to stand out by providing users with innovative betting options, passive income opportunities through staking, and an unparalleled community experience.
With the esports betting market projected to reach $12.5 billion by 2030 (Grand View Research), VEX is determined to capture a significant share of this thriving industry. By combining the power of blockchain technology with user-friendly features, VEX is well-positioned for success.
What is the USP (unique selling point) of your project?
The central USP of VEX is its community betting experience. VEX will allow users to vote and propose how the platform evolves through a DAO structure and earn passively through staking options of the VEX token to earn rewards from the betting smart contract. Along with its parimutuel betting system and introducing a leaderboard, we plan to create a competitive environment adjacent to a sense of comradery by pitching betters with and against each other to see who will come out on top.
How does your project align with the NDC and Gaming WG KPIs?
KPI 1: Active Wallets . To bet and stake on VEX, users require a wallet. We are set to introduce gamification aspects to make sure that these users, thus wallets, remain active.
KPI 2: Transactions. Each bet, stake and vote with VEX is a transaction. The number of transactions on VEX will increase the number of transactions on NEAR.
KPI 3: New Game Launches. Whilst not inherently a game, here at VEX Labs, we strongly believe that gamification is the way to generate a high number of active users and ensure they remain active. Gamification aspects we look to introduce are as follows:
In the future, we plan to implement a leaderboard that will showcase the biggest winners and those who beat the greatest odds each month. Using this leaderboard, our parimutuel betting system and the community that is at the heart of VEX, we plan to create a competitive environment adjacent to a sense of comradery by pitching betters with and against each other to see who will come out on top. Those topping the leaderboard will be rewarded with giveaways and it will allows others to copy their trades, making them additional revenue (all subject to DAO approval).
Before launch, we would look to potentially incorporate a similar system but for points, which ultimately could result in rewards. This would help us gain traction pre-product release, build a community to help us test the functionality of the platform and advise on any pre-launch additions/ changes.
VEX will initially start by facilitating betting markets for large esports games, but further down, VEX would look to allow the community to open a betting book for whichever game they like (even being a private p2p game). Considering that VEX is building on NEAR, we would love to strive towards providing a betting market for various competitive leagues of games that are building on NEAR.
By rewarding VEX with this grant, it is pushing VEX one step closer to launch. Our plan is to achieve a small amount of funding through grants or angel investment, which will set us on course to become VC-ready, which will give us a runway to fully launch VEX.
User demographic
An in-depth analysis of our potential user base and TAM can be found in the “Market Analysis” and “In-depth Customer Overview” sections of our business plan.
What is your Tech Stack?
VEX’s backend is on NEAR blockchain written in Rust. VEX is currently creating its frontend on BOS. We plan to host a gateway on Vercel. We plan to use the Lake Framework indexer as a method of tracking transactions and active wallets. We are set to introduce a meta transactions relayer to offer gasless stablecoin betting. We are set to use Sharddog as a method of onboarding users with prefunded wallets at esports events.
Status of the project
What is the status of your project?
We are currently in the development stage of our project; we have a testnet BOS frontend you can check out, but it is by no means production-ready. We look to launch when we have a product that has gone through multiple smart contract audits and we have consulted legal advisors regarding regulation. Our timeline is highly subject to funding.
What is the financial status of your project?
All funds this far have been from proprietary capital.
Monthly burn rate in USD
Approx $300
Team
How many Team Members are working on the project?
4
Please Tell Us About Your Development Team
Owen is head of development. Owen has a background in theoretical physics and software. He is currently a near/dev/hub developer relations advocate and president of Leeds Blockchain Society. We look to hire a part time dev through this proposal.
Please Tell Us About Your BD Team
Our CFO covers our BD. He has experience in Business Development working in a web3 BD guild. Due to the stage of our project, BD is not our priority.
Please Tell Us About Your Marketing / Community Building Team
Bradley heads up our marketing team. Bradley is an engineer by trade and has an extensive experience in arbitrage betting. We have also recently onboarded a part-time social media coordinator.
Support
Marketing 
Business Concepts
Technical Support
Funding
We are looking for support in marketing, technical support and funding. As a community focussed open-source project, we more than welcome contributions; please join our early community to find out how you can accelerate VEX’s growth Telegram: Join Group Chat
Grant
Amount requested
$3720
Breakdown + milestones
M1: $1680 - Hire a part-time rust smart contract developer within the community at $40 an hour for 10 hours a week (4.2 weeks in a month).
M2: $1200 - Have our business documents (business plan, one-pagers and deck) assessed and professionally styled in preparation for VC.
M3: $840 - Payment for our part-time social media coordinator at $20 an hour for 10 hours a week.
NEAR integration
As of now, NEAR all the way. We are planning to launch on NEAR mainnet. We have considered other chains mainly because of funding reasons, but we love the tech at NEAR. We are not considering web2 since blockchain technology is what allows us to do great things at VEX.