Executive Summary
Archisinal (ar-kis-in-al) is a community-driven ecosystem that fosters the creator economy for design professionals in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. By leveraging the immutable and transparent nature of Astar and Polkadot’s blockchain infrastructure, Archisinal provides a platform for secure and transparent data transfer, and for design professionals to have access to a creator economy and a global workforce.
The global AEC industry has an approximate market cap of $9 trillion, yet there is no current market leader that provides an all-in-one solution for design professionals to market their work in a bespoke environment and earn royalties as their profile grows. From an enterprise perspective, few toolings provide businesses the opportunity to attract, reward and retain top talent.
Archisinal aims to become the ‘go-to platform’ for architects and designers to accrue tokens by easily creating and selling unique, one-of-a-kind digital assets. Tailored to the specific needs of architects and engineers, Archisinal provides a platform for design professionals to; grow their profile, market their creations, and connect with investors and potential clients around the world.
By leveraging smart contract functionality, architects will be provided with a platform to showcase and sell their designs as unique digital assets and earn royalties from secondary sales. With its search functionality and clean user interface, it will also provide a smoother user journey for architecture enthusiasts to discover and purchase designs that interest them.
The Archisinal MVP is in the final stages of development. Archisinal 1.0 is a bespoke marketplace that leverages the benefits of blockchain technology in the AEC industry. It is written in ink!, using PSP34 standard NFTs and will be live on Astar testnet in January.
Archisinal 2.0 will introduce sophisticated methods to reward creators via staking mechanisms, packaged in a SaaS subscription service that leverages web2.5 onboarding and interface.
Archisinal 1.0 is for retail users. Archisinal 2.0 is for enterprise and commercial users.
Archisinal represents a compelling opportunity to showcase the ink! ecosystem and brings a significant user volume from the AEC industry to Polkadot and Astar. The platform’s deployment on Astar and integration within the Polkadot ecosystem not only highlights the scalability, interoperability, and security features of ink! and Polkadot but also offers a gateway to introduce these sectors to the broader benefits of innovative features such as staking and reward mechanisms. The strategic use of ink! and Polkadot’s advanced blockchain infrastructure in Archisinal serves as a unique opportunity to market the ink! ecosystem’s capabilities while simultaneously capitalising on the untapped potential of the vast AEC market.
ARCH 1.0 (MVP)
Archisinal 1.0 is a marketplace designed specifically for architects, engineers, and designers. By leveraging blockchain technology, Archisinal enables creators to take full ownership of their designs, giving them complete control over how their work is used and distributed. The platform aims to provide creators with access to the creator economy, optimise their cash flow and client pipeline, and ensure they retain self-sovereignty of their creations.
Archisinal’s platform is a community-driven ecosystem designed to cater to various stakeholders in the AEC industry. Its primary component is a blockchain-based system for managing and transferring built environment designs and concepts (design drawings, 3D renders, conceptual designs). This system ensures data integrity, security, and ease of access, addressing one of the industry’s most pressing challenges.
Designers can tokenize their designs as NFTs on the Archisinal platform, enabling them to earn royalties from secondary sales. This system incentivises designers and ensures they are fairly compensated for their work. Creators can create their own personalised profile, upload their work to the marketplace, control what design information (date, revision, additional benefits for holding the token) is included within the metadata and dictate the royalty % attached to each upload.
ARCH 2.0 (Post-MVP)
Looking beyond the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) launch, the primary focus for Archisinal is to explore and integrate solutions that deepen the creator economy revolution in Architecture and Engineering. By implementing creator staking mechanisms with an enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) model, web2 businesses have the opportunity to market their own product offering, retain and remunerate top talent and assist in enabling their workforce to grow their personal profiles through using a web2.5 interface.
Archisinal’s Creator Staking feature represents an innovative merger of blockchain technology with a SaaS model, tailored for the AEC industry. It is designed to offer architecture and design firms a unique employee reward mechanism and a dynamic marketing platform. The goal is to facilitate these firms’ entry into the blockchain world with ease, offering them a competitive edge in both talent acquisition and retention.
Similar to Astar’s DApp Staking, Creator Staking rewards are distributed from a pooled mechanism associated with the annualised inflation. However, instead of DApps, rewards are tied to individual creators (design professionals/designs). The model is fine-tuned to support creators, with an emphasis on longevity and quality of content, paralleling Astar’s emphasis on DApp utility and engagement.
Onboarding a business onto Archisinal for workforce marketing and token staking involves a streamlined process that benefits both employees and employers. As part of a subscription-based model, the platform guides businesses through an initial educational phase, a demonstration of its features, and a detailed explanation of the token staking mechanism.
This token staking mechanism is central to the platform’s appeal. Employers can stake tokens against their employees as a novel form of reward and retention. This method incentivizes employees by offering them a stake in the company’s success, leading to enhanced engagement and loyalty. For employers, this translates into a motivated workforce and a distinctive edge in employee retention, setting them apart in competitive markets.
Archisinal Long-Term Plan: Road to Decentralised Construction (DeCon)
Incorporating on-chain arbitration into the Archisinal platform involves leveraging the ARCH token for adjudicating dispute events in the AEC industry. This system enables token holders to participate in the resolution of disputes by voting on cases based on uploaded construction data. The community will act as an adjudicating body and vote (weighted on relevant experience to the case, verified with decentralised identities) on the recommended outcome of the case.
Post ICO, tokens will be ring fenced to invest in R&D to enable integration of on-chain arbitration, working towards a fully decentralised industry. We call this DeConstruction (DeCon).
Our intention is to continually add new features that provide a more secure and transparent user experience that aid marketing, communication and commerce.
Go-To-Market
As we approach the testnet launch in January, with mainnet being scoped for later in Q1 2024, we are working to align both the web3 and AEC communities to maximise reach and impact of the Archisinal product deployment.
We are set to graduate from the maiden cohort of the ink!ubator program and have Community calls planned with the Astar Community ahead of dapp staking enrolment. We will launch our presale token on Polimec early next year, and will be meeting with their team this week in London to record one of the first episodes of their ‘EarlyBird’ podcast.
With regards to AEC exposure, we are in open dialogue with architecture firms regarding beta testing and have demos lined up for the Construction Blockchain Consortium and ArchiDAO in Spring next year.
The ambassador program is pivotal to the education and onboarding of users to Archisinal and will be developed with the assistance of the Polimec team. The goal of the Ambassador program is to advocate for decentralised technologies in AEC, specifically promoting the benefits of using Archisinal on Astar and Polkadot.
Archisinal opens doors to a global workforce, expanding opportunities for collaboration and exposure. This aspect is crucial for young professionals aiming to make their mark on an international stage, offering them a platform to showcase their talents and connect with a broader network of peers and potential clients. In essence, Archisinal is not just a marketplace; it’s a springboard for young architects and designers to thrive in the digital age of the AEC industry.
Archisinal ‘anti-competition’
The concept of the Archisinal ‘anti-competition’ initiative is to invite architecture students to submit their work for a chance to be featured in Archisinal’s maiden collection drop. A ‘World-Cup style’ knockout competition will drive community engagement and offer a first glimpse to many, a decentralised method of evaluating design quality.
The competition will be promoted as an opportunity for creativity and innovation, offering not just exposure but also the possibility of their work being sold on the platform. To ensure widespread participation, the competition will be marketed through social media campaigns, direct outreach to university architecture departments, and partnerships with student organisations and architecture forums. The competition would not only showcase student creativity but also demonstrate the platform’s commitment to empowering emerging talent.
A Plug and Play Solution for Custom Marketplaces
Last month, Rarible announced the launch of RaribleX, an NFT marketplace turnkey solution that helps creators launch and grow digital communities through NFTs. RaribleX, with its focus on the creator economy, exemplifies the potential of community-centered marketplaces in generating new revenue streams through digital collectibles. This approach resonates with Archisinal’s vision within the Polkadot ecosystem. Both platforms prioritize empowering creators and fostering bespoke communities, but Archisinal tailors this concept specifically for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. Its unique offerings in tokenization and royalties for design professionals mirror Rarible X’s strategy but in a niche market.
Archisinal, therefore, can be viewed as a ‘plug and play’ solution for the AEC community within the Polkadot ecosystem, paralleling Rarible X’s role but with a specialized focus on architecture and design, underscoring its potential as a community-driven, creator-centric platform in the blockchain space.
The sky is the limit. We can perfect a plug and play solution that serves communities and creators in industries that stretch beyond AEC and break the siloed nature of communication and practice.
Team members
- Tom Humber - Founder
- Tim Hodgson - Co-Founder
- Safina Dafou - Community Manager
- Kassem Issa - Business Development
- Danylo Semirazov - CTO, Blockchain developer
- Oleh KulyKovskyi - Front-end developer
- Artem Smolyarenko - UI/UX designer
- Toma Sadova - Advisor
Current Progress
The team have completed Milestone One of the ink!ubator program and is approaching the submission of Milestone Two, with a targeted launch on Astar testnet in December 2023:
