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QSTN

  • Team Name: QSTN
  • Payment Address: ETH (USDC) - 0x7056A5Da7D269B31Eb2E54E5579e41ef283d7D2C
  • Level: 1

Project Overview 📄​

Overview​

  • QSTN is a web application where users participate in surveys, quizzes and short questionnaires to earn virtual credit.
  • QSTN is a blockchain enabled market research portal where users answer questions, earn credit and spend these rewards in our digital marketplace for tokenized goods (e.g. NFTs, metaverse wearables).

When we agree to terms and conditions, most of the time, our data gets sold and commodified without permission or compensation. QSTN acts as an “interface” for consumers to pay gate their information towards businesses.

By compensating users for their data, we provide incentive for rich and meaningful insights. This information is then sold and accessed by our partners for market research purposes.

Since winning the Octopus Network Star Prize, we realize the importance of interoperability and the low transactional fees offered by Substrate due to their sharded blockchain mechanism; Octopus Network is supporting our app-chain.

  • Building on this, we would like Polkadot to be the next blockchain we implement; allowing its users to answer questionnaires, earn virtual credit and spend it for digital rewards minted and issued on Polkadot (e.g. NFTs).

The key to our platform is allowing users to monetize their personal information in a low gas, scalable environment and Polkadot meets both of these requirements. By supporting this initiative, the Web3 Foundation is investing in data infrastructure for the entire DOT ecosystem as well as creating a new “Play-to-Earn” model for data aggregation.

For scope, QSTN can be broken down into three different user experiences:

        1. User experience - general users create an account, complete on-boarding process and then have the ability to answer 5 daily questions in return for credit which can be spent within our NFT marketplace

        2. Business experience - businesses and corporate entities (e.g. DAOs and protocols) can establish an account to create their own questionnaire portal, reward users for their participation and track response rate 

        3. Commission experience - businesses and corporate entities can pay a fee to have their questions slipped into the "User View" rotation and glean insights from our daily, active audience for their own market research purposes

We want to bring all three user experiences to the DOT ecosystem, supporting the general user in scope 1, businesses and protocols who want to manage their own questionnaire in scope 2 and the opportunity for more traditional Web2 businesses to collect market research from Web3 audiences in scope 3.

  • Founded by NYU graduate Orrin Campbell, QSTN was birthed by a recorded conversation with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. During the interview, Neil argued that even if software is ‘free’, companies still profit from the sale, transfer, and storage of our information.

For example, did you know Google makes almost $120 million dollars a day in advertising revenue (e.g. targeted ads, placements)? Orrin thought about how to creatively address this problem and deliver his “promise to save the world.”

Orrin has released NFTs with Mintbase, spoken on Cryptovoxels and Somnium panels as well as created a large social following behind his afrofuturistic aesthetic.

Completing the QSTN team triad are the Suriel brothers, who Orrin met at NYU. Jose Suriel is an NYU graduate who handles project management at Forge AI — bringing this expertise to assisting the development and timeline of the QSTN marketplace.

Anibal Suriel is Jose’s twin brother and our head of legal, he is registered in New York and Miami; leveraging his time at KARM to create the legal framework and guidelines around data, compliance, and overall best practices.

With a desire to build meaningful products and experiences, Orrin founded QSTN with the aim to empower internet users and provide alternative means of passive income, aided by the invaluable expertise of the notorious Suriel duo.

Project Details​

Ecosystem Fit​

  • QSTN is Web3 infrastructure to accelerate the adoption of data monetization. Since users can earn with or without a Web3 wallet, but have the option to create one, shows we are designed to be a Web2 on-ramp into the world of Web3.

We aim to do this by taking advantage of the low gas, scalable environment offered on DOT to allow users to earn credits, mint NFTs and transfer assets without exorbitant transactional fees.

Our design is a centralized system “wrapped” with Web3 extensions so that users can sign up using Twitter or Facebook but still earn credits and NFTs once they decide to create a wallet.

  • Right now, our target audience can be broken down in the following groups:
  1. Data privacy enthusiasts (Web2 and Web3)
  2. High school and college students seeking additional income
  3. Web3 DAOs and Protocols which need to capture market research (e.g. DAO governance)
  4. Web2 users wishing to matriculate to Web3 but no upfront capital or resources to get into the space

Currently, we have over 3,000 sign-ups for the waitlist, confirmed private test sessions with Encode Club, Octopus Network and a couple projects on NEAR Protocol.

Since we also have a desire to partner with Web2 organizations to help demonstrate the value of our platform, we are currently in talks with the following educational institutions to run private sessions.

  • Jack & Jill of America, Inc.
  • New York University
  • The Gray Matter Experience
  • Our platform is able to act as a Web3 on-ramp because our design easily onboards novice, less experienced internet users. This is important because in our initial feedback, we learned a lot of internet users want to get into blockchain but do not have the capital, resources or know where to start.

We were inspired by the Pi app, as well as Sweatcoin which are two “Play-to-Earn” models where users get rewarded for daily, micro tasks based on actions taken in-platform.

QSTN builds on their concept by offering more exciting, engaging rewards, increasing the educational value behind our mission statement as well as creating a cohesive community for participants in our network (e.g. NFTs, metaverse).

  • There are currently no other projects similar to ours in the Substrate ecosystem. However, we do see a potential partnership with Ocean Protocol as we can sell and aggregate our data profiles within their primary market.
    • There are no other Web3 data market research portals but similar Web2 solutions include Google Form, Nielsen and Survey Monkey; the problem is these agencies do not have blockchain infrastructure currently in place.

Our unique offering is the ability for Web2 users to answer questions, earn credits and buy NFTs within a "gas-less" environment but having the option to connect their wallet and mint once familiar with the technology.

We spent the past year participating in over 5 accelerators to help drive the brand awareness within the Web3 space and ensure we become the "go-to" market research portal in blockchain.

  • There has been an increase in the “Play-to-Earn” model and a couple players who are making noise in the space would include Rabbit Hole (educational), NEAR Crowd (micro task), Axie Infinity (gaming), Pi (validation), and Sweat Coin (exercise).

We see a market opportunity to use this model for data aggregation, gamifying marketing research and then selling this information to corporate sponsors who offer digital goods or discounts to our users.

Team 👥​

Team members​

  • Orrin Campbell – QSTN founder, CEO and blockchain architect who will be designing the workflow and user experience team leader

Twitter - https://twitter.com/realorrin

Instagram - https://instagram.com/realorrin

Linkedin - https://linkedin.com/in/realorrin

GitHub - https://github.com/@qstnus

  • Anibal Suriel - QSTN Head of Legal team member

Linkedin - https://linkedin.com/in/anibal-suriel-esq

Lafi Raed – QSTN Lead Developer team member

GitHub - https://github.com/shadow111

Phillip Coleman - Entreprenuer In Residence team member

Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillip-coleman-791b1475

Contact​

  • Registered Address: 67 Edgehill Drive, Wappingers Falls, New York, 12590, USA
  • Registered Legal Entity: QSTN, LLC

Team's experience​

We incorporated QSTN in December of 2020 and immediately began seeking institutional guidance on how best to bring this product to market. Below is a chronological recount of incubators and hackathons we partook:

  1. QSTN graduates from the 1871 x BLK Tech Verizon incubator (first cohort) [2021] https://1871.com/accelerator-blk-tech/

  2. QSTN places 2nd and 4th in the Encode Club x Filecoin NFT Hackathon https://medium.com/encode-club/nft-hack-finale-prizewinners-and-summary-a68be99f6c66

  3. QSTN graduates from the Filecoin 2022 accelerator program https://medium.com/encode-club/filecoin-accelerator-summary-94e30a571563

  4. QSTN graduates from the Octopus Network x Huobi incubator program https://medium.com/oct-network/spring-2022-octopus-accelerator-star-prize-winners-d884456ce248

  5. QSTN is 1 of 5 teams to receive the official Star Prize https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72QqZ6MIxeo

Orrin Campbell Along with his entrepreneurial pursuits in Web3, Orrin has a large following in entertainment due to his national television appearance on Dr. Phil during an hour long episode about his experience as a "cyborg from the future."

In an attempt to build on this platform, Orrin has amassed a large following on social media who follow his advice and input on topics ranging from music, fashion, entertainment and technology (Web3).

Dr. Phil episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReRddYVYfHU

Press links - https://vman.com/article/orrin-discusses-indie-rap-persona/ https://lyricallemonade.com/p/meet-orrin-the-cyborg-rapper-sent-from-2050-to-save-us-all

Socials - https://tiktok.com/@realorrin (250,000 followers) https://instagram.com/realorrin (18,000 followers) https://youtube.com/c/realorrin (41,000 followers)

Team Code Repos​

Please also provide the GitHub accounts of all team members. If they contain no activity, references to projects hosted elsewhere or live are also fine.

Team LinkedIn Profiles (if available)​

Development Status 📖​

Development Roadmap 🔩​

Overview​

  • Total Estimated Duration: 12 months
  • Full-Time Equivalent (FTE): 8 employees (4 developers, 3 designers, 1 blockchain architect [Orrin])
  • Total Costs: 10,000 USD

Milestone 1 Example — Implement Substrate Modules​

  • Estimated duration: 12 months
  • FTE: 8 employees
  • Costs: 10,000 USD
NumberDeliverableSpecification
0a.LicenseOpen Source
0b.DocumentationWe will provide both inline documentation of the code and a basic tutorial that explains how a user can generate a Polkadot.JS wallet during on boarding, connect this wallet to our web application, mint and/or transfer NFTs from our marketplace to their specified DOT wallet and save their "survey ID" on a local substrate chain as immutable proof of completion
0c.Testing GuideCore functions will be fully covered by unit tests to ensure functionality and robustness. In the guide, we will describe how to run these tests.
0d.DockerWe will provide a Dockerfile(s) that can be used to test all the functionality delivered with this milestone.
0e.ArticleWe will publish a Medium article that documents our transition to Polkadot and details how users of QSTN can connect their DOT wallet to our application, mint & transfer purchased media onto the DOT blockchain as well as save their survey ID on-chain on a local substrate chain.
1.Survey palletWe will create a Substrate module that will allow users to create a survey, invite other users to create a survey for their business, add questions (metadata), remove questions (metadata), give permission as to who can answer and list created surveys.
2.Survey pallet UIWe will create a new UI for DOT users to be able to ask questions, receive credit and screenshot their response on-chain; these design assets will include landing pages and layouts which we will open source to the DOT community
3.Substrate chainThe survey pallet of our custom chain will interact in such a way to allow users to connect their DOT wallet to our application, mint media on a local substrate chain as well as create surveys, invite businesses to create their own surveys, and give permissions as to who can answer a survey [1.] and then save the completed survey ID on-chain as proof of completion [1.] these transactions take place within our new UI [2.]

...

Future Plans​

  • In the short term, we are competing in hackathons to better our understanding of Web3 products and services we can use to scale out the QSTN market research portal.

Particularly, we will be participating in the Filecoin Sustainable Blockchain Summit Hackathon, Encode x Chainlink Hackathon and submitting for a couple accelerator programs which include VC pitching.

In conjunction with our hacking and education, we will be testing our existing application privately with different companies ranging from Encode Club, Filecoin, Octopus Network, NEAR Protocol to Ocean Protocol.

  • Looking towards the future, we are excited to host our first NFT launch event on NEAR Protocol (October) and work with more traditional Web2 businesses in music, entertainment and market research to onboard the next million users into Web3

Additional Information ➕​

How did you hear about the Grants Program? Web3 Foundation Website

Here you can also add any additional information that you think is relevant to this application but isn't part of it already, such as:

  • Please request a private invite to our repo (https://github.com/qstn-ansr) for our existing prototype on NEAR Protocol
  • If there are any other teams who have already contributed (financially) to the project.
  • NEAR Foundation (grants program)