[CLOSED] Naksh’s Participation at NEAR Con 2022

Hi All,

I am Nivedita Vivek, Co-Founder of Naksh - NFT Marketplace (naksh.org).
@Srilakshmi and I have been a part of the NEAR Community since the Buildathon in April 2021, where we brought Naksh to life. We have always been huge supporters of NEAR and what the community stands for, which is why we have always focused on physical and in some cases virtual participation in as many Web3 events and conferences as possible in order to represent Naksh, our product on NEAR.

Some of the events we have participated in that you can take a look at -

https://gov.near.org/t/approved-report-marketing-budget-for-naksh-to-participate-at-the-sdnft-con-2022/16801/16
https://gov.near.org/t/approved-report-participation-in-namasteynft-metaverse-summit-bangalore-may-14-15/19274

We have also personally taken the initiative to attend major web3 conferences like ETHDenver (where our beta launch took place), ETHAmsterdam (where we were busy plugging naksh wherever we could :P), ETHNewYork and NFT NYC (which Srilakshmi attended and was able to speak to VCs and other interested investors) and most recently ETHCC week and Metaverse Summit where we were able to meet the NEAR Team at the NEAR UA Space!

https://medium.com/@naksh.org/nakshs-presence-ab345749cf37
https://gov.near.org/t/approved-sponsorship-for-web3-conf-to-represent-near-and-near-indian-projects-in-aug-2022/23101/11
We will be at Web3Conf along with Kalakendra DAO and Goa DAO representing our projects and the NEAR Community.
We have always taken these opportunities seriously as these are the best spaces for Networking and promoting Naksh and in turn NEAR to different communities.

Project: Naksh - NFT Marketplace

Funding scheme: One-time

Expected Impact and Value you foresee for the NEAR ecosystem/Community - This is the first time our team will be directly interacting with the majority of the NEAR community, which means great exposure for the marketplace which will help in expanding the user base of Naksh.
Also, we aim to get more artists from the European region since we are working on opening the platform for self-minting artists too. We are also targeting projects that could use Naksh as their white label marketplace.

We believe NEAR Con will be the right place to meet all the projects and find perfect collaborators within the ecosystem which will be a win-win for the projects and the ecosystem growth.

Goals/Metrics for success during NEAR Con 2022:

  • Find projects that we can collaborate with
  • Be part of one of the speaker sessions/Panels to talk about Naksh and the Indian ecosystem
    We have already contacted the NEAR Con Organising team so that we are able to contribute in a larger capacity (Setting Up a Booth, Volunteering, and gallery for our artists)
  • Expand the user base of Naksh and educate about the Indian art ecosystem.

Funding Details

Our funding ask is mainly for Flights, Stay and living expenses. (Since we are still not sure if we’ll be able to set up a booth) - 2400$ flights, 500$ Stay, 600$ for living and misc.

$600 for tickets has been redacted since we have been accepted to Hack at NEARCon.

We are based out of Bangalore, India.

Flight details -

https://www.skyscanner.co.in/transport/flights/blr/lis/220909/220915/?adults=2&adultsv2=2&cabinclass=economy&children=0&childrenv2=&currency=USD&destinationentityid=27544072&inboundaltsenabled=false&infants=0&originentityid=27539471&outboundaltsenabled=false&preferdirects=false&ref=home&rtn=1

Stay: https://www.booking.com/hotel/pt/ibis-lisboa-alfragide.en-gb.html?label=gen173nr-1FCAEoggI46AdIM1gEaGyIAQGYAQm4AQfIAQzYAQHoAQH4AQuIAgGoAgO4AqrRlZcGwAIB0gIkYzZmMTFiYzMtMzdhZi00MjFmLThhNDQtOTkxMDZlY2RkZDg22AIG4AIB&sid=849298e4c4f8fbf2d0975f48a9f583d2&aid=304142&ucfs=1&arphpl=1&checkin=2022-09-09&checkout=2022-09-15&dest_id=38505&dest_type=hotel&group_adults=2&req_adults=2&no_rooms=1&group_children=0&req_children=0&hpos=2&hapos=2&sr_order=price&nflt=ht_id%3D204&srpvid=9e357aa8206100cd&srepoch=1659202290&all_sr_blocks=4681801_309772532_2_2_0&highlighted_blocks=4681801_309772532_2_2_0&matching_block_id=4681801_309772532_2_2_0&sr_pri_blocks=4681801_309772532_2_2_0__44000&tpi_r=2&from_sustainable_property_sr=1&from=searchresults#hotelTmpl

Living and misc - 150$ * 2 (for 2 people).

Total requested amount in USD - $3200

NEAR Wallet ID: naksh.near

Tagging @marketingdao-council @Dacha @satojandro @Klint @cryptocredit @so608

4 Likes

you are applied for Hacking you’ll give stiphend also.

Why Naksh asking for funds here??

Isit legit? because marketing counsil give you funds then it needs to gives to other marketplace members as well.

Also have question about you marketplace Why it is so inactive? No new blogs no buy/sell.
may be there’s no art which is sold on naksh.

Hi!

  1. Us hacking is separate from the work we do for our marketplace. As I have mentioned, we haven’t been accepted as hackers yet, and there is no mention of what the stipend will be. In the case that we do get accepted, we can remove the ask from here.

  2. Naksh is asking for funds because we haven’t raised funding unlike other marketplaces, we are still working on building a better product as well as finding people that are interested in the niche that Naksh has started off with.

  3. Our socials have been on pause since we were seeking help from the flying rhino guild and that has been stopped, while we have been doing socials ourselves! It has been a bit difficult to manage all that on a limited budget and a very small team of freelancers.

Please feel free to look through our website and take a look at the kind of art and the values that we stand for at Naksh, we are currently focused on a niche and all the artwork is curated by the two of us which of course is a much harder task than having an open marketplace.

You can see our transaction history it’s not like we have not sold anything but definitely, it’s not the same as the other marketplaces cause we deal with fine art! Hence, making it tough for us to find the perfect collector base. This is exactly the reason why we feel like we need to be at NEAR Con and be able to get collectors from NEAR interested in Naksh.

4 Likes

So you can partner with other to make your social media strong, also in naksh twitter not srring good engagement while checking. Apollo 42 comes after you and compare your growth with themas well.

In your telegram group i didn’t see any engagement from your aadmin side and not from community side and you have only 169 members in that. NO GROWTH? even your admins are attending so many places.

You can get collectors by doing marketing as well.

We have already collaborated with stars guild for influencer marketing, Kalakendra DAO and GOA DAO to spread awareness in India and get more artists onboard. We are also collaborating with NEAR NFT Club for marketing.

I don’t understand how you are able to compare marketplaces with different niches with each other.
If you take the time to look at our marketplace you will know that all the work on Naksh has been done by traditional artists from India. (This is V1).
On getting feedback, we are currently working on making our marketplace more inclusive and opening it up to everyone.

We have three channels of communication which currently have to be managed by the two of us (we do not have admins other than the two of us) and we focus our time on building out the product’s V2 mainly, which is why growth has been slow.

We have been speaking to marketing agencies, but going that route is expensive for us. If you know any marketing-based guilds on NEAR who could help us, let us know.

We are a niche marketplace. Finding collectors who are interested in fine art is a task. The very reason why we travel to various events that happen outside India is to find collectors in the Western market.
Another thing, having travelled to multiple events what we noticed is that it was difficult to find collectors who invest in NEAR Projects.
Since we are working on the V2, we also are looking to raise funds, post that. NEAR Con would be a great place to find VCs interested in investing in Projects on NEAR.

2 Likes

Hi,
@marketingdao-council @MktngDAO_Advisors , Awaiting your response for the proposal.

Would be happy to answer any other questions.

@Dacha @Klint @cryptocredit @so608 @satojandro

Hi Nidhi, thanks for your proposal.

Would you be able to provide an update on the application to join Hackathon status?

At the Marketing DAO we’ve been grappling with a new challenge: how to distribute funds fairly and widely across the entire ecosystem. This is a growing focus as we have noticed that a disproportionate amount of funds are going to the same two or three regions.

Would you be able to provide all the previous approved funding, with a particular focus on attending events?

We take pride in supporting and incubating projects. Would also be great to get an update on the progress of Naksh (since April 2021) and whether you’ve had access to or are seeking larger grants for NF or private investment.

Thanks,

1 Like

Hi AVB,

Thanks for your response. We just received the response from the hackathon that we have been accepted, Hence that amount can be waived off. We have edited the proposal accordingly.

Till now, we have only applied to one event from Naksh for funding to attend events, which is the SDNFT Con - [Approved + Report] Marketing Budget for Naksh to participate at the SDNFT Con 2022 - #16 by nidhi

All the other proposals are in collaboration with the other guilds and not us requesting funds for travel or for Naksh.
Apart from that, the other events attended have been funded either from our treasury or from a personal capacity.

Please check out our Newsletter, it has the updates till 2 months ago.

Post that, we have been focusing on building our 2nd version of the product for which we are in touch with the NF grants team for a grant of $20k. This is purely to build out the 2nd version.

Post the 2nd version of our product release we are looking to raise funds to better our marketing and community management.

Thanks!

3 Likes

Good evening; unfortunately, I cannot support your proposal because your marketplace is still in beta and not active. I believe you need to focus on onboarding famous NFT artists and growing the community (for example, start the work with Twitter, there are thousands of NFT AMA’s, and hangouts every day). Thanks.

2 Likes

Hi @Dacha , our marketplace is not on Beta anymore, we are live.
We are building the 2nd version of the product where artists can self mint, post that we can accommodate artists with more followers and community (famous).
Auto reach out to this kind of audience, it’s necessary for us to be present at these events specially Near con, to target the internal community and projects.

I would request you to reconsider your decision.

Please, add your marketplace to the dapp radar.

Thanks

2 Likes

I’m also agree. I can’t support as well.

I can’t see any roadmap on your website. and how much time it’ll take? Do you need anything for develop? My DM is open.

DM that community. there are many ways to connect

Also seeing your NAKSH proposal on Harmony as well did you get audience?

Hi!
Thank you, we were not aware of this but we have included this in our second version and are working on it. I have just submitted Naksh on DappRadar anyway.

1 Like

Please check our newsletter that is tagged above it mentions our timeline and roadmap.

Being able to meet a community + representatives in person is way more effective according to the experiences that we have had. We met the NEAR community during ETHDenver and we were able to make great connections then. We recently met the NEAR Team again during ETHCC and were able to make a proposal regarding a grant for V2 of Naksh as well.

We are looking forward to meeting the larger NEAR Communities and smaller projects like ours and making connections which will lead to collaborations and partnerships.

And let me reiterate, that this also helps us find VCs who are interested in projects on NEAR.

As for harmony, we wanted to be on an EVM chain as well, but as you may know, harmony is going through some structural changes hence, our product launch is on hold.

You can’t fully setup your marketplace and without strong marketing on near you send proposal on harmony as well.

I think Naksh takes funds only and didn’t do any development. share some development which has been done on NAKSH in past 2 months.

Share Link here I didn’t see newsletter or roadmap in you website

THANK YOU
HINA

We are a grant project which has depended purely on organic marketing and services from NEAR like the flying rhino guild, stars guild, kalakendra DAO, and NEAR NFT Club for marketing and onboarding. With limited funding, and having never taken a large amount of funding from NEAR for our activities we have always tried to do what is within our budget but always focused on product and quality first.

First of all, building on NEAR and building on Harmony are very different, we sent a proposal on Harmony so that we could be on an EVM chain as well. I hope you understand that building on harmony is like building the project from scratch since the backend languages are completely different. We have already spoken to Aurora regarding integration but they did not have a bridge for NFTs yet.

We have designs for V2 ready, but it is not something I am willing to share publicly yet since our design is our USP as well. We have not taken any funds in the past two months either.

It’s published on our Medium. I noticed that it hasn’t been added on the website, will do it ASAP.

Congratulations on entering the Hackathon and thank you for updating your proposal.

Considering my experience at previous conferences and hackathons, where accomodation is quite close to venues and there is A LOT of food provided by conference, seems to me like $50 per day is quite a lot, specially considering Portugal is an quite affordable.

I would be willing to support this proposal if the Living, misc. item were removed (-$600)

In regards to other comments and observations on this thread;

  • If the team in interested in expanding to EVM, I would encourage you to be looking into Aurora.
  • I can understand the frustration of some community members, I’ve been explicitly told by several influendtial people that ‘there is nothing happening on NEAR’. Some of it may be a challenge of Marketing (hence we have funds available to best initiatives to help us grow) and some of it is the need for projects and developers to be ambitious and deliver. Unfortunately, some feel like this is a leisurely walk around the park while everyone continues to get paid for minimal work.
  • The comments above are not intended as Naksh specifically, but rather to provide context on some of the challenges that we are facing. We don’t have a funding issue, we have a performance issue.

Thank you!

We did not know what the living expenses in Portugal would look like. We saw a few approved proposals on the forum and just mimicked the amount. Same with the hotel recommendations as well.

We have brought the living and Misc expenses down to 300$ in total, if not for food then at least for transport and volatility.

Our first go-to when we wanted to expand to EVM was Aurora, we have been in contact with them since Jan 2022, but their product to bridge NFTs has not been developed yet.

We completely understand, we have been in the NEAR Ecosystem for over a year now. We are extremely grateful to everyone who has been giving us constructive feedback and supporting our project despite knowing that our development has been slow the last two months.

We completely understand and realise what our weaknesses are as a project, and will try to be more focused on delivering what our project is capable of!

Thanks again for your feedback!

Would love your support as well @Klint @so608 @cryptocredit

1 Like

Thanks for revising the amount. Happy to support. Happy hacking!

4 Likes
  • Yes, but your social media are not active (telegram, discord, Twitter (last post 7/21 about participating in Paris ethcc);

  • and milestones 2, 3, 4, 5 not achieved according your roadmap;

  • Since the marketplace launched, you onboarded only 20 artists (mostly from India);
  • looking forward to seeing Naksh on dapp radar to see actual statistics; or you can connect with Metabase team and add your marketplace in our dashboard.
  • how many artists and new users did you get at SDNFT Con ? NYC NFT week? Paris Eth? Do you have a weekly meeting ? Monthly plan of activities?
  • As I know, in May, you requested a list of artists from Creatives DAOs, the list was provided, but Naksh team still hasn’t contacted the people.
  • What the plans on Web3India conf?

  • it would be great to see reports from the events.

Aslo Naksh received $10K grant from DAOcubator. Unfortunately, couldn’t find any reports.

You have $2100 in your DAO.

Thanks.