Entropy Ecosystem

Inspiration

Our team has always been fascinated by NFTs. NFTs came in as a fad but what more to it? Can they provide value to the users in the long run? If yes, how? Value that helps them supplement their lives? We then set out to find the touch point through which NFTs could add value to users life. After several tries, we found it. It was by introducing it through their beloved brands!

What it does

Do you remember Pokemon Go? Odyssey is the same, but for Utility NFTs. It’s rare. It’s exclusive. If you find it, you are lucky

NFTs are exclusive. How can we make users be a of exclusivity? But, how do we also make it fun? Here comes the Odyssey that will take you on a hunt to be a part of exclusivity.

Imagine you get a Nike NFT that has the utility of giving their new shoes at a 50% discounted rate but only you can redeem it. Trust me that would make others jealous.

NFT hunt/game- An exciting and surprising game to capture the rarest NFTs of their favourite brands dropped at different locations around them. Go out in the physical world to find NFTs in the virtual world.

Augmented Experience - A stimulating AR experience that introduces new environments, visuals on a daily basis. You see a new world through your camera. Capture the best of the best to utilise.

Real value to users - Humans get hooked onto things they like. If they provide them with value. Odyssey creates a continuous stream of value which is verifiable. For eg, I have a NFT of my favourite clothing brand Zara and if I keep staying loyal to them (by going on a search to find their NFTs) I can get access to Zara shows in the Metaverse or exclusive collections that can be redeemed right on our app through a link attached as the utility of the NFT.

Exclusivity - Humans like things other don't have, thats human behaviour. By having access to a Tesla Car launch event because you own the NFT through the hunt, we create excitement.

For businesses,

Entry into the Metaverse Odyssey - Web2 brands can get an opportunity to enter into the Metaverse. This ecosystem can allow them to experiment with the Metaverse,. Create exclusive gated hunts for their loyal customers with customised worlds and assets that match their brand language.

Create dynamic NFTs - By dynamic we mean, NFTs that have various layers and move in various directions in terms of the utility attached to it. NFTs can have an omni-channel presence, be integrated in the socials. Brands can create collections that are recurring, that add value to the user at different stages. For eg, If i have found a certain NFT of a brand, only then I am eligible for the exclusive NFTS drops of that brand. Through token gating, the perceived value of brand will increase which in turn increases user sentiment.

Focused marketing through geotagging - Brands can drop their NFTs at locations where they would be relatively unpopular to increase user base. The better the utility, the more the engagement from users too.

An interactive distribution channel - Marketing campaigns don’t need to be 2d, the degree of interaction could be much more if brands start creating fun, exclusive and 3 dimensional hunts all around the world. ( A secret - Brands can literally post interactive ads in AR)

This part of the ecosystem, we have already experimented with, you can check out the vision for it here - [https://youtu.be/fSXIKER8mkU]

How we built it

Mobile App - We built the mobile app using React Native to leverage its cross-platform abilities. The mobile app supports and AR experience built using viro.

Web Application - Lets users deploy NFT smart contract on tron and add utility to these NFTs. The web application is built using ReactJS.

Challenges we ran into

Building - Building a Mobile first dApp was not very straightforward, adding augmented reality on top of that was all the more challenging. Narrowing down on the tech stack we want to go with took some time but taking that time definitely helped with clarity in the development cycle. Geotagging NFTs and their discovery is one good problem we were able to solve.

User Experience - A fun challenge was to define the user experience, the interaction had to be familiar but also create excitement since this product is fairly novel. The really narrowing down of processes into something our stakeholders would understand took on-ground research, observations , discussions, mind maps and decisions.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to metamorphosis our smaller ideas into a concept that could essentially initiate a great ecosystem. We were adamant on the fact that we wanted to explore the possibility with utility NFTs and finally we landed onto a concept that we can hence take up to create with detailing to user and business experience. We were also proud to demo our app at Fil-Singapore 2022. It was a great experience.

What we learned

Ishika - Odyssey is complicated in terms of user experience but that’s what is fun about it. I am learning to define what new experiences will be like in Web3.0, it’s like a playground with a lot of responsibility. In this journey I had to and will have to keep looking into the several important aspects which come together to become Odyssey. To be able to work with so many different moving parts was a big learning for me.

Ayush - Odyssey stands on 3 important pillars - Mobile app, Web3 and Augmented reality. Laying a strong foundation for all three of them was important. Striking the right balance between user experience and performance was important. Getting so many different moving parts (APIs, camera views, blockchain transactions, etc) to work in harmony taught me lot about good development practices

What's next for Entropy Ecosystem

Make it a tool for businesses to plug and play. Businesses should have a chance to customise these hunts more and more to utilise the NFTs in the best way!