Building the Connectivity Layer Between NFTs and DeFi
In the midst of the unstructured NFT boom, we are excited to announce that DIA will leverage its open-source platform to source, sanitise and deliver harmonised NFT data to enable efficient NFT market development.
The surge of NFT popularity during the end of 2020 resulted in more than $2 billion in NFT sales during the first quarter of 2021 alone. The majority of these sales are attributable to the art and collectibles space, where NFTs are widely used as proof of ownership of digital works, enabling artists to easily market their art online and offline. But NFTs and their uses cases are growing beyond digital art ownership. In this short piece we will outline how DIA approaches the organisation and delivery of data around NFTs.
Overview
An NFT is a smart contract that represents an item (photo, video, gif, etc) using the blockchain and certifies it to be unique. NFTs today, heavily rely on off-chain databases to store the vast metadata they contain/represent.
The majority of the NFT interaction data (price, bids, transactions, etc) is not stored on-chain but within a disparate ecosystem of marketplaces, metaverses and databases using custom logics for their data attributes.
Yet there are standard questions surrounding NFTs that should be answerable using a standardised data collection logic and architecture.
What serial number does the Lebron Top Shot NFT have?
Where did the hashmask receive the highest bid and who is the current holder?
What was the highest transaction in the last 24 hrs for an Aavegotchi on Polygon/Matic?
All these requests differ in data type, source and format and require structure in order to have a machine-based execution enabled.
The DIA Platform and NFTs
Data aggregation, standardisation and distribution
DIA, as an oracle provider, aggregates data from a range of off-chain and on-chain sources and sanitises this data with transparent, publicly verifiable methodologies, ensuring the highest quality of the data. This computation is executed in confidential computing environments, which are resource-efficient, verifiable and can ensure the provision of broad data sets for individual use cases.
The ability to aggregate disparate data and ensure its integrity is a core competence DIA will leverage for fetching NFT specific data from on-chain resources such as Ethereum, Polygon, BSC or Flow, as well as off-chain data from marketplaces such as OpenSea or Rarible.
By leveraging the DIA open-source platform and the wisdom of the community, DIA provides sanitised and standardised NFT data as a foundation for new business models and builders to execute their vision in a faster and more secure manner.
The DIA platform performs 4 key processes:
1. Fetch the data from various sources:
On-chain and off-chain data is sourced from multiple L1 and L2 Blockchains such as Ethereum, Polygon or Flow and different marketplaces such as Rarible or Opensea, to name a few.
2. Execute the data organisation:
Through transparent and publicly accessible methodologies, the DIA platform identifies, aggregates, harmonises and verifies the data. These operations are executed in confidential computing environments in collaboration with IBM.
3. Provide the data in its organised format:
More than 8.000 NFT data points are provided in a standardised and harmonised way. Some examples include the last sale of an NBA Top Shot, the holder address of a CryptoPunk, the category of an Aavegotchi, etc.
4. Deliver via various channels / platforms:
All these data points are easily available to be used off-chain via API calls or on-chain via oracles in networks such as Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Polkadot, to name a few.
Community-Sourced
When adding new data sources, DIA has been leveraging a community of contributors who write scrapers, provide input on methodologies and look for ways to improve the infrastructure. This approach has enabled DIA to build a product through a decentralised community, create DAO governance and define an efficient and scalable product infrastructure.
This community is more valuable than ever to provide input on the NFT ecosystems. The scalability of crowdsourcing makes it a very suitable tool to approach a heterogeneous data landscape such as that underlying NFTs. DIA leverages the crowd to structure the continuously growing NFT data ecosystem.
The first steps of categorisation of NFT classes and scraper bounties are already active on Gitcoin. We call on the web3 developer community to join the effort of surveying and collecting the world of NFT data. Explore existing tickets here. These will be updated as the project progresses.
Future outlook
DIA provides a unique way for builders to access NFT specific datasets that will enable the faster and safer deployment of marketplaces, decentralised funds or content but also completely new business cases that require harmonised data.
We see with the harmonisation not only the possibility for automating currently manual processes when it comes to transferring value in the NFT space but also the ability to create DeFi primitives for NFTs that will help the overall market development.
