Helping Doodles bridge the gap

Pioneering Innovation in the NFT Space

Doodles: A Trailblazer in Creative Digital Art

Doodles has emerged as a standout in the vibrant world of NFTs, known for its unique blend of creativity and fun. As of March 2023, it ranks among the top 10 most traded NFT collections globally, boasting a trading volume exceeding half a billion dollars. This remarkable achievement reflects Doodles' commitment to pushing the boundaries of digital art and community engagement.

Challenges on the Ethereum Platform

While Doodles’ initial success on the Ethereum blockchain was noteworthy, it also brought to light significant challenges:

• High Transaction Costs: Ethereum's growing transaction fees became a barrier, particularly for frequent, small-scale interactions which are crucial in the NFT world.
• Technical Complexity: The technical intricacies of Ethereum posed a significant hurdle for users, especially those without a background in blockchain technology.

These challenges were more than just operational hurdles; they were impediments to Doodles' vision of expanding its user base to include non-technical enthusiasts and maintaining the fun, accessible nature of its products.

Strategic Shift to Flow Blockchain

In pursuit of a solution, Doodles conducted a thorough assessment of available blockchain platforms. The decision was made to launch Doodles2 on the Flow blockchain, a move inspired by Flow's reputation for lower transaction costs and user-friendly interface. This strategic pivot was aimed at enhancing the user experience and expanding the Doodles community.

Collaboration with .find: Leveraging Expertise in Flow

Doodles' knowledge of .find's expertise in the Flow ecosystem played a pivotal role in this transition. Our track record with Flow, including efficient batch minting, NFT packs, and the successful development of Aera for Onefootball, showcased our ability to overcome the very challenges Doodles faced. Additionally, our innovative concepts for trusted bridges demonstrated our capability to provide secure and seamless blockchain solutions.

Requirements

When Doodles partnered with us, they presented a set of precise and ambitious requirements for their expansion onto the Flow blockchain. These requirements were essential in shaping the development of Doodles2, ensuring it would not only meet but exceed the expectations of their community and stakeholders.

1. Effortless Onboarding: A critical focus was to simplify the onboarding process. The aim was to make it intuitive for existing Doodles enthusiasts and approachable for newcomers, particularly those without prior Web3 experience. This inclusive approach was key to broadening the Doodles community.
2. Payment Rails: Ensuring a seamless payment experience was paramount. The new platform needed to cater for the existing community while also being easy for new users. It was important that both cohorts of users could be using the same system and transact with one another.
3. On-Chain Matters: It was important for all aspects of Doodles2 to be on-chain, making them resilient and aligned with the ethos of decentralisation and Web3.
4. Scalable Technical Framework: A flexible and scalable technical infrastructure was a top priority. Doodles2 required a foundation that could support ongoing customisation and evolution, adapting to future needs and innovations.
5. Zero Transaction Costs: A fundamental goal was to eliminate transaction costs for users when interacting with NFTs, especially in the context of equipping wearables. This was crucial to maintaining the playful and accessible nature of the Doodles experience.
6. Composability: Doodles2 needed to be able to own their own Wearables adding a layer of personalisation and interaction to the user experience. This means the NFTs need to be nestable.

Technical Challenges and Solutions

To create a Serverless On-chain Distributed Application (SODA), enabling Doodles holders to transition from Ethereum to Flow, thereby facilitating a richer and more interactive experience.

Core Flow Contracts: Enhancing NFT Functionality

• Doodles 2 Contract: Designed to support composable and nestable NFTs, enhancing the interactivity and complexity of digital assets.
• Wearable Templates: Developed a system of predefined wearable templates categorised into sets and positions, with functionality to signal retiring sets when editions will be discontinued.
• Admin Tools: Created comprehensive admin functionality to manage templates, positions, tags, and sets, ensuring ease of use and flexibility for ongoing management.

We used the new default implementation in interfaces feature in flow to create some really nice new patterns in cadence working with the doodles and frontend teams to create and improve on the NFT contract so that it fitted all the needs.

Dooplicator: Bridging Ethereum and Flow

• Concept: The Dooplicator is a novel one-way bridge allowing users to ‘dooplicate’ their Doodles from Ethereum to Flow using a Dooplicator, maintaining asset integrity and provenance.
• Process: We streamlined the dooplication process with a simple user flow involving logging into Ethereum and Flow accounts, running transactions to establish trust, and utilising an event listener to finalise the transfer.

We came into this having a concept for how a simple trusted bridge could work and we verified through this project that it works. We used go-ethereum to handle the event reading challenge from Ethereum, something that we at Find Labs had not done before.

Wearable Interactions: Elevating User Engagement

• Concept: To be able to equip and unequip Wearables to Doodles2.
• Solution: We enabled this through our contracts and are working to develop a standard for composable NFTs with other solutions in the flow ecosystem such as Flovatar.

Naming Feature: Personalisation and Identification

• Upcoming Feature: We are developing a Proof of Concept (POC) for a naming feature, allowing users to assign unique names to their Doodles2, such as poopie.doodle or bman.doodle.
• Functionality: Each Doodle Name will be an NFT in itself, embedded into a Doodle and registered, enabling users to locate and identify NFTs based on their names.

Conclusion & Reflections

Achieving Milestones Together with Doodles

Our partnership with Doodles in transitioning to the Flow blockchain was a journey marked by learning and mutual growth. It was a privilege to contribute to the design and development of Doodles2, witnessing its successful launch. We are grateful for the opportunity to work alongside a company as imaginative and forward-thinking as Doodles, and we feel honoured to have played a role in laying a foundational stone for their future ventures.

Achieving Milestones Together with Doodles

"I really have to thank the .find team, they’re absolutely brilliant, it was good to have like minded people who have the same passions and desires to make things on the blockchain matter and do it in a resilient way” Jordan Castro (@Poopie)

The kind words from Jordan Castro (@Poopie) of Doodles are deeply valued. His recognition of the .find team's dedication and our shared commitment to blockchain advancement is sincerely appreciated. His enthusiasm for future projects on Flow, with our continued collaboration, is both humbling and inspiring. We look forward to supporting Doodles as they explore new horizons in digital creativity.

Watch the excellent presentation by Jordan and Bjarte on working together on Doodles2.

Julian Holguin has very kind words about us in this interview