[Ideation] PANDORA - Market for hidden NFTs that are only revealed upon purchased

Ecosystem NFT Onboarding
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Summary

The key idea is to create a market place (namely PANDORA) whereby every NFT on sale is wrapped and hidden, and its content is only revealed when a buyer complete a purchase using Near and decide to open it afterward.

Mechanism

When an artist sends an NFT to Pandora, the content of that NFT (i.e the artwork) is automatically wrapped in an envelope (displayed as a gemstone).

The gemstones have different colours/types depending on their tier, which are in turn depending on the ranking of the artists (as store owners). The store ranking may be decided by one or a combination of criteria such as number of likes, views, visits or purchased NFTs in the store. The higher the store is ranked, the higher tier the gemstone belongs to and the higher price it is.

Upon purchased, the gemstone cracks open and the buyer has a short time window (say, 2hrs) to decide if they want to keep the NFT or wrap and send it back to Pandora. If they choose the later, the buyer receives a voucher that allows them to choose another gemstone of the same tier, or to pay more to choose the one of higher tier.

There is a limit to the total number of NFTs sent by a store, so as to prevent saturating Pandora with NFTs from the same store at any single point in time.

Monetization

Buyer can pay NEAR tokens to:

  • purchase a gemstone (or a voucher) in Pandora. All the gemstones of the same tier share the same price.
  • (small amount) send an NFT to Pandora

Other than a small fee taken by Pandora, most of the payment returns to the store owner of the respective NFT wrapped in the gemstone.

Alternatively, an artist (A) can also select a gemstone (of the same tier) for free, in exchange for an NFT that they send to Pandora. If A chooses to do so, the original owner (B) of the other NFT will receive the gemstone of A. B can choose to accept or reject the deal.

Motivation

  1. Seller:
  • Pandora is an opportunity for artists to get an equal opportunity of exposure. This is especially beneficial for new artist whose store may not be visible in the recommendation page/search.
  • It is also an opportunity to exchange their artworks with other artists.
  1. Buyer:
  • The main attraction is the element of surprise, and a hope that they may get a bargain from selecting a lucky gemstone.
  • Since gemstones of the same tier have the same price, buyers can purchase vouchers and send it to their friends, who will choose the gemstone themselves.

Team:
Terence (ter.near)

The above is my initial brainstorming about Pandora. Let me know what’s you think. Thanks!

5 Likes
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Fun! Blind box mechanic. I tried this one on rarible and it was a disaster because it wasn’t supported at a platform level and no one knew how to use it or how it would go.

I believe that MTVRS is planning on blindbox/packs for paras.id cards as well. May want to speak with them and see if there’s anything to be gained from collaboration.

I would skip this mechanic. It defeats the purpose of a blind box. It takes all of the risk out. If a user doesn’t like what they opened then they can put it for sale in the secondary market.

Is there a reason you would want to limit the number of artists and collectors on the site? If you want to prevent flooding here are a few mechanics to consider:

  • you could say each NEAR address can only mint one time a week.
  • You could make it so that each mint costs more money but if you wait some time the cost “cools off”.
  • You could have a dao that votes in new artists, or who votes which artists can mint each week/month.

This sounds fun but is also an idea for another nft platform in it’s own right.I would save it for phase 2 of the project.

The ranking system (likes, views, visits or purchased NFTs) seems at odds of the “opportunity for artists to get an equal opportunity of exposure” goal. It’s also very complicated to implement a ranking system like that (again, on chain ranking is a project in it’s own right). I would simply map the gems to rarity: edition of 1, 3, 5, 10.

Lots to chew on here, looking forward to seeing your idea refined and in a deck!

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Wow, thank you so much for your feedbacks. They’re gold!
Gotta admit that there are many aspects that I missed. Will think it over and present in a slide. I’m excited. Thanks!

1 Like
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I’ve worked out the presentation here. Look forwards to feedbacks and recommendations from all.

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Hi Ter:

  • Pitch Deck (20N) payout is approved
  • What role are you playing in the project (PM, dev, ux)?
  • What roles do you need to fill for this project to move forward?
  • Do you have any idea on timeline for your tasks?

Do you plan to make a video presentation of your pitch or are you going directly into building it? We’re setting up monthly check-ins with projects that want to continue building after the hackathon. DM to set something up if you’re interested!

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Hi starpause,

  • Thank you very much for the approval, I am actually working on the video presentation this week.
  • At the current stage I am mostly doing the task of PM and UX. I have yet known how to code in NEAR and am taking the NEAR Developer L1 course to see if developing is cut out for me.
  • To facilitate the project I will need at least a back-end developer for Pandora. Also it would be great if there is some experience dev to discuss on ideas such as how to “wrap” and “unwrap” the NFTs behind the scene, so all recommendations are highly welcomed.
  • I have some ideas about the steps to be taken, but a more detailed one with vivid deadline is yet finalized.
    Thank you and keep in touch. Cheers!
1 Like