Teia Newsletter #9 - 12th July 2022

Of Nails and Thumbs

Click here for the Chinese translation by Jovi

Another month, another newsletter from the Teia lands, stuffed with news around the current tech discussions, community events (past and future) and a call for the next community curators. This month has another long list of topics and points, so we see the return of the infamous Table of contents right here:

Table of Contents

• Defining the Next Steps for Teia’s Development
• Improving Loading Speed via Thumbnails
• Proposal: TezTok Integration for Teia
• Proposal: IPFS Pinning as an Ecosystem-Wide Approach?
• Discussion: A New Token for Teia?
• DAO Building Process Update
• New Tool: TezTok Live-Feed!
• Events, Events, Events
• Current Event (Started July 11): #Tezos4Africa
• Upcoming (July 28th): #Tezos4Nature
• Disability Pride Month is Here!
• Upcoming IRL Event in Los Angeles: July 29-31
• Post Mortem: NFTNYC
• Post Mortem: #TezosPride
• The Space
• Post Mortem: #1of1
• TeiaArt Twitter: OPEN CALL FOR CURATORS!

Defining the Next Steps for Teia’s Development

A lot of ideas for improving Teia’s code and UX have been brought forth and discussed. Since we do not yet have a fully developed DAO structure, the Dev Team is currently discussing these points and deciding on a rough roadmap in regards to Indexer and IPFS solutions (which will be the next areas of improvement). The community is always welcome to join the discussions in the Dev channels on Discord and discourse; any input on these subjects is highly appreciated.

Improving Loading Speed via Thumbnails

Currently all media files on Teia gets loaded directly (in full size) from IPFS (”InterPlanetary File System”, a protocol and peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing data in a distributed file system). This results in loading speeds of OBJKT pages that vary based on location/IPFS factors and can sometimes be so slow that it often ruins the Teia user experience. The integration of thumbnails for the media content would improve this issue significantly and make Teia much more user friendly. Currently, the Tezos Commons are working on a ecosystem-wide IPFS approach that will also generate/provide thumbnails and upload them to IPFS. These thumbnails will be available to Teia, and allow us to improve loading times. Integrating these Thumbnails to Teia is one of the next steps that the Dev team will work on, since improving the loading speed is one of the most asked for improvements by the community.

Proposal: TezTok Integration for Teia

Developer Xat has been contributing to Teia since November and is the main dev for the TezTok Indexer. He proposed that Teia use TezTok as its new indexer. As of now, Teia runs on a (modified and updated) instance of hicdex, which was initially created by marchingsquare for tool building and subsequently became hicetnunc’s main indexer. Consensus among our Devs seems to be that hicdex should be replaced at some point. This is because hicdex was not originally built to be the main indexer for the marketplace, and it needs constant attention in order to keep Teia running smoothly.

Hicdex is built on the dipdup framework and only supports OBJKT tokens minted with the hicetnunc indexer. TezTok aims at normalizing Tezos NFT data, this means it is much more flexible; new token contracts can be added rather easily and it will be maintained by a dedicated team. The TezTok software is also open sourced.

Since Xat wants to apply for a Tezos Foundation Grant for TezTok, he proposed to add the costs and deliverables of making Teia run on TezTok part of the Grant Proposal. If Teia agrees and the foundation approves the grant proposal, TezTok’s team would work on Teia’s TezTok integration and the costs would be covered by that grant.

Of course there are counter arguments to consider, the main one being that TezTok is not using one of the well documented and widely used frameworks like dipdup that make contribution easier. However, one part of the proposal is adding better documentation to make working with the TezTok software easier for contributors.

If you have questions about this, feel free to join the discussion on our discourse forum. You can also find more detailed info about this proposal in the discourse thread for the proposal

By the way: Teia switching to Teztok doesn’t mean that hicdex will be switched off: Hicdex developer Marchingsquare shared that he plans to maintain hicdex.com in any case in order to keep OBJKTs that rely on it operational. This decision is only about the main indexer used for the Teia marketplace.

Proposal: IPFS Pinning as an Ecosystem-Wide Approach?

The media files associated with OBJKT Tokens are hosted on IPFS. In order for them to be available, files need to be pinned and Teia needs a gateway to work with IPFS. Currently, pinning is done by multiple actors as a intermediate solution, but the long term goal should be for Teia to have a sustainable solution for handling IPFS related needs.

Manitcor (of TezTools) brought his plans for a long term IPFS setup forward on Discord and Twitter to be discussed. The plan is to work together with the Tezos Commons organization, which has started working on a ecosystem-wide approach for pinning Tezos NFT content. The proposal includes setting up an IPFS node/Caching/Gateway. Manitcor would like to apply for a Tezos Foundation grant to pay for setting up these deliverables and cover one year of infrastructure costs for that. Teia can then decide the next steps after the DAO is formed and functional.

Discussion: A New Token for Teia?

Since Teia has become more than just a project for maintaining the OBJKT ecosystem, the question of whether we should develop our own FA2 Token is brought up regularly. While the consensus seems to be that we should at least offer the option to mint a Teia specific token at some point, the details haven't yet been determined. Making a new token available for minting on the Teia UI would change the foundations of the marketplace.

Currently, Teia is all about OBJKTs minted through hicetnunc’s minting contracts. Since hicetnunc’s discontinuation, Teia’s mission was first and foremost to take care of maintenance of the OBJKT token ecosystem. Now that we are moving forward, a new minter/token could be the right step into the future; Teia would have its own “collection” of minted tokens, a new token count, and could update the token contract with new features.

However, those new tokens would not work with tools built on hicdex as it currently works. A new Token would mean Teia would start a new ecosystem around the Teia-specific Token. This topic is being discussed now, but it is not on the top of the priority list. (Our current top priorities are improving file loading speed, building the DAO, updating the indexers, finding a IPFS solution, and improving the UI.)

Find and join the discussion around new Token contracts in this discourse thread

DAO Building Process Update

We are considering the details of our DAO structure at the moment: Which roles do we need to set up within our DAO? Which roles will have which responsibility? How are the teams voted on and in which regularity? What will the process be for submitting proposals for changes/improvements? How will we make sure proposed ideas are feasible prior to putting them to a vote?

We are currently in the process of figuring out these details. Join (or read up on) the discussion in the #general-operations channel on discord. Or find in-depth writeups of the discussions on the registration process and the DAO structure: Legal Registration working doc and Team roles/responsibilities working doc.

The next step is to clarify details about the registration and resolve legal questions with the registrar service and lawyers. We are also asking for people to lend Teia some Tez to cover the registration costs (currently we have around 1/3rd of the costs covered by community members). If you would like to help us by lending us some Tez, please come to the #general-operations chat on discord.

The organisational layout is not finalized yet, but here you can see a temporary overview of the planned roles and responsibilities within the DAO as a first impression:

New Tool: TezTok Live-Feed!

Since NFTbiker’s live feed is no longer available to the general public, people have started looking into alternatives. We are still interested in finding Devs that want to build tools or have already done so (as mentioned in the last newsletter). We do have some good news to share: TezTok set up a fresh live-feed! The new TezTok live-feed includes most types of Tokens in the Tezos NFT ecosystem, and has a lot of functionality: filters, a watch-list, event filters and more coming soon. Check it out at https://live.teztok.com/

Events, Events, Events

Current Event (Started July 11): #Tezos4Africa

The Kuoka Project has partnered with Objkt.com to feature a fundraiser aimed at raising 60,000 Tez (XTZ), to finance the first 10 permanent self-sustaining Tezos bakers in Africa!

ACTION:

We are calling upon NFT artists to sign-up to contribute any artwork to the project featured collection. Proceeds of the featured art sold on Objkt.com will go directly to the fundraiser.

The #Tezos4Africa fundraiser begins July 11th, 2022 and will run continuously until the 60,000 Tez goal is met. (Any additional funds collected will go towards establishing additional bakers beyond the initial 10 bakers).

Read Kevin Mehrabi’s Medium post for more #Tezos4Africa event details.

Upcoming (July 28th): #Tezos4Nature

GOAL: Highlighting environmental education and showcasing the #CleanNFT movement in general.

This is another cross-platform initiative (which means artworks can be minted on any Tezos marketplace).

Event begins on July 28th. Artists are encouraged to mint topical works relating to nature and environmental conservation.

ACTION:

• On July 28th: Mint artworks using tag #Tezos4Nature
• Suggested Price: 2+ Tez
• Suggested Edition Size: up to 28 editions

Find more info in these English and Spanish Twitter threads. Share widely and spread the word!

Disability Pride Month is Here!

Accessibility is one of the Core Teia Community Values. This month we encourage our community to take the time to find, follow and learn from Disabled and Neurodivergent Creatives, Devs and Collectors in the space!

There are ongoing efforts to improve the accessibility of Teia as well as efforts to build accessible tools and guides for community members. Updates on this will be provided when available. As always, you may join the Teia Community Discord and help contribute to these efforts.

Upcoming IRL Event in Los Angeles: July 29-31

NFT Expoverse Event will take place in Los Angeles at the end of July. If you are attending please connect with ryangtanaka in the #events-planning channel inside the Teia Community Discord!

Post Mortem: NFTNYC

On Tuesday, June 21st, Teia Community hosted a #NFTNYC2022 conference after-party at Hunters Point Studios in coordination with the art gallery Lydian Stater. The after-party featured free food and drinks, NFT giveaways, artist/collector on-boarding, a Teia artwork showcase from 100 artists, and the opening of Post Industrial Digital Dysmorphia, an exhibition of works by Nando Alvarez-Perez & Joiri Minaya curated by Carlos Franco at Lydian Stater. 🕸

The event was streamed by Teia Community members on Instagram Live. Find the full archived video here:

Post Mortem: #TezosPride

Total minted artworks: 294

Artworks sold (so far): 162

Total sales (so far): 1472.96 Tezos

The Tezos Pride event had a great turnout from 2SLGBTQ+ Artists and allies, and it brought community members together. There were several collaborative events including a build in Protoworld to create a beautiful space, as well as a pixel project by Spaces (see above for details). Some examples of this work included below!

The Pride Logos

With the end of Pride month, we will switch the "regular" Teia logo rotation back on (soon). The submitted pride logos will be added to the Logo rotation. By the way: You can still submit your logo for being added to the rotation via the Logo Submission Form

And as announced in the last newsletter, here is an overview of our 2022 Pride logos and the artists:

Protoworld Pride Build 🌈

Watch this screen-recording of our Build-together Vol.1! A really huge thanks to everyone again! You can also find & visit the zone via Zone Explorer!”

The Space

The Space is a pixel co-creation art game governed by Radical Market based on Polygon. In The Space (app.TheSpace.game), everyone can easily connect their wallet to The Space, and leave their creation on the blockchain by giving each pixel a color using $SPACE. (You can get $SPACE through: TheSpace.game/claim)

To celebrate #TezosPride, SpaceDAO initiated a co-creation activity within the community on The Space canvas by changing the color of the lighthouse to rainbow and creating more rainbow elements on this canvas. Thanks to our community members, we finally finished our artwork and created a rainbow flag beside the lighthouse.

You can leave any element you care about in the real world, or any element you wish in Web3 Utopia on The Space Canvas. If it’s too much work for you to draw alone, you can go to The Space Discord and ask more community members who share the same idea with you to draw together! Find out more about the Space on Twitter: @TheSpace2022”

Post Mortem: #1of1

Total minted artworks: 7956

Artworks sold (so far): 2069

Total sales (so far): 116,738.55 Tezos

In a surge of activity, artists across the Tezos ecosystem created incredible pieces for the #1of1 event! Sub-communities took up the challenge and worked together to promote each others’ work through spaces, hosting buy parties. This event also drove on-boarding of new collectors to the wonder of Tezos and the amazing work being done here.

An incredible 4 story rotating gallery dedicated to #1of1 in Voxels will run until the end of July at the Tears in Rain Gallery (hosted by GoldCat): Voxels.com/play?coords=SW@345W,637S See the walk-through in the video below.

TeiaArt Twitter: OPEN CALL FOR CURATORS!

SIGN UP HERE to help collaboratively curate the @TeiaArt Twitter account!**

The Teia Community Twitter Curation Project has been a great success to far, and we are now re-opening applications! The community has so many talented creators, we want to see more of them! If you prefer to help coordinate the curators, please come and introduce yourself to the community of volunteers in the Discord!

We will be taking the next batch of curators, so please fill out the form to apply! This batch will be limited to the first 50 applications, and will again re-open when we have gone through the list. Please be ready to check into the #🐦teia-art-twitter-curation Discord channel when your application has been processed and a team member tags you to coordinate your dates!