Proposal: nft.storage v1 Epic

proposals/nft-storage-v1.md

@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+# nft.storage v1 
+
+Authors: @mikeal @alanshaw
+
+Initial PR: TBD <!-- Reference the PR first proposing this document. Oooh, self-reference! -->
+
+## Purpose, Impact, Definition 
+
+We have a round of features and improvements we want to make to nft.storage.
+Each feature is the first step towards larger ongoing efforts so we're packaging
+this work as "v1" as it sets the scope of the project for the rest of the quarter.
+
+Those efforts are:
+
+* [Metadata Creation API](https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/nft.storage/pull/56)
+  * Most users don't want to create these metadata files by hand. We can significantly reduce
+  errors and inconsistencies by doing this ourselves.
+  * This interface also sets us up to extend the metadata for other use cases. Eventually this
+  will turn into a larger spec project to define schemas for common use cases in NFTs.
+* Import all Ethereum NFT data
+  * The beauty of a permissionless public ledger is that we don't need anyone's permission
+  to just go and grab this data and store it for the benefit of NFT developers.
+  * This will go a long way toward reducing the number of "missing" NFTs.
+  * Once we have the data indexes we can start to provide other web visualizations, APIs, and
+  widgets for developers to leverage the public chain data.
+* Wallet Auth
+  * We need to migrate to magic.link anyway for our authentication. Once that is complete,
+  adding wallet authentication will be easy.
+  * This substantially reduces the barrier to entry for using the service. Developers
+  won't need to signup with us or run any backend service, they can use our JS client
+  or widget to simply mint the NFT and sign an auth token with us that is leveraged for the
+  storage interface.
+* Batched Filecoin Deals
+  * The service should be batching deals on a regular basis even if there hasn't been a full
+  sector's worth of data added to the service.
+  * The exact methods and data structures for this initial version are simple and rely on 
+  a centralized index of the data.
+  * Eventually this process will migrate to a better collections data structure and is on a roadmap
+  to be fully decentralized.
+
+#### Background &amp; intent
+
+In its current state, nft.storage is a great free pinning service with a few APIs that provide
+sugar for NFT developers. After this work the scope, mission and roadmap of nft.storage will be clear
+and much broader than "pinning."
+
+* Both active and passive storage (you give us the data via an API **and** we pull data out of public chains.
+* We provide indexes and useful tools for developing NFT applications against public data.
+* Everything in nft.storage is backed up in Filecoin and *eventually* that process will be integrated
+  into the initial storage request/transaction.
+* We are storing this data on behalf of NFT **users** as well as *developers*. In a decentralized
+  application model data is leverage by multiple applications so it's important that the storage
+  solution is not scoped to a single application.
+
+#### Assumptions &amp; hypotheses
+_What must be true for this project to matter?_
+
+NFT development is currently popular and rising in popularity. If that changes this project would
+matter less.
+
+#### User workflow example
+_How would a developer or user use this new capability?_
+
+That varies by interface, detailed above and in individual feature PR's.
+
+#### Impact
+_How would this directly contribute to web3 dev stack product-market fit?_
+
+This will meet the user needs around NFT's **today**. It's not the fully realized decentralized
+dream since we are meeting these user needs with a centralized service, but it puts all of these
+user workflows on our core protocols which is the most important part.
+
+#### Internal leverage
+_How much would nailing this project improve our knowledge and ability to execute future projects?_
+
+This will lead to more users which we can continue to leverage to identify additional user needs.
+
+This will also capture a lot of data about NFT's in public chains that we can learn from.
+
+#### Confidence
+_How sure are we that this impact would be realized? Label from [this scale](https://medium.com/@nimay/inside-product-introduction-to-feature-priority-using-ice-impact-confidence-ease-and-gist-5180434e5b15)_.
+
+8
+
+## Required resources
+
+#### Effort estimate
+
+- Small, 1-2 weeks
+- Medium, 3-5 weeks
+
+Most of these will land in under 2 weeks. A few may stretch out beyond that but not by much for these
+initial releases.
+
+#### Roles / skills needed
+
+The whole Spark team along with key Product and Marketing folks.