Introducing The Unifty Gallery

We are proud to introduce our flagship product, The Unifty Gallery. As the name suggests, The Gallery is our interpretation of how a traditional physical art gallery would exist in the digital world, promising to change not only the paradigm of how art is displayed, but more importantly, how art is monetized and the value it brings to its creator and it’s beholder.

The initial concept behind The Gallery was outlined in our previously released litepaper, then called the Unifty Exhibition Program. While The Gallery carries the same underlying design, it has been refined to better serve the needs of all creators, collectors, and fans. 

The Need

The Gallery takes the traditional gallery business model and turns it on its head. Traditional galleries have a key flaw in how they operate, providing few protections or guarantees for artists in terms of foot traffic or sales, while still passing on the costs to the artist. Then, of course, they collect more than their fair share of the upside: charging commissions on sales that can reach as high as 50%

Needless to say, the traditional model is heavily tilted in favor of the gallery owner. We believe that this model can be recreated as one where the balance of power is distributed more in favor of the creator and their fans.

The Solution

The Gallery provides creators with a form of guaranteed income. Creators, of course, may sell their NFTs to collectors through their unique Exhibition, but even without a sale, Exhibitions provide creators yield earning ability from showcasing their NFTs to a global audience of enthusiasts and buyers. 

The obvious benefit of this model is that it removes the risk of loss that creators often face when exhibiting their work in a gallery, replacing that risk with income for simply showing their work to the community.

Exhibitions also come with the added benefit for creators whereby they can sell their NFTs during a live Exhibition, while still continuing to earn a yield on sold NFT during the lifetime of  21-day Exhibition.

Exhibitions also provide an additional form of utility for $NIF token holders. With the launch of our Community Governance Program, $NIF token holders are now able to participate in the voting process to help shape future decisions at Unifty, from future product launches, to adjusting the $UNT reward mechanism, to approving which Exhibitions are eligible to earn $UNT.

With the launch of The Gallery and its Exhibitions, $NIF token holders are provided with a value capture mechanism, as they are able to earn a yield on their $NIF holdings by “backing” their favorite creator or collector. In return for doing so, they will earn a majority percentage of the $UNT tokens allocated to that Exhibition. 

So how do these “rewards” work in practice?

Unifty is leveraging its dual token model previously mentioned in our litepaper to reward participants. Exhibition owners earn their yield or income through our Unifty Network Token, with the ticker $UNT.

The $UNT tokenomic design will be a truly fair launch. As outlined in our litepaper,  there will only ever be a maximum of 1,000,000,000 $UNT tokens ever created via our proprietary farming algorithm. They will be distributed proportionally between Exhibition owners and $NIF holders that choose to “back” an Exhibition by staking or allocating their $NIF to it. There are no tokens allocated to the team and no tokens pre-allocated to investors. All $UNT tokens will be earned by platform participants. The only $UNT tokens that are currently in existence are the 10,000,000 tokens that were farmed by our community members during our initial staking vault.

The remaining 99% of supply will be distributed fairly across Exhibitions in The Gallery using our proprietary algorithm. Below we will do a deep dive on how Exhibitions work as well as the logic that underpins our $UNT reward algorithm.

The Walkthrough

We designed our onboarding process to be streamlined and efficient for creators, collectors, and organizations alike. The process begins with pre-approval by the Unifty Curators Board, which will be tasked with screening Exhibition applications as well as appraising the NFTs submitted by Exhibition owners. The Curators Board will initially be composed of the Unifty Team, but will eventually grow to include elected members from the community who meet a series of requirements to be outlined in the near future.

The initial onboarding process for each category of Exhibition is identical and will follow the steps below:

The specifics related to artist onboarding are as follows:

• Candidates will be required to complete an online form providing information about their previous works, their social media profiles, as well as the collection in question to be showcased. These applications will be assessed by the Curators Board.
  
  
• Once pre-approval has been granted by the Curators Board, candidates will be given a tentative Exhibition slot within the Gallery, subject to final approval by the community through a public voting process via the Community Governance Program.

• Successful candidates will be given a limited number of invites to share with fellow creators, collectors, or organizations. 

• From here, owners can set up their Exhibition profile within The Gallery and provide key information about themselves, their social media profiles, and their NFT collection.
  
  
• At this point, creators will be subject to the following 5-stage evaluation model in order to determine the score given to their Exhibition for $UNT farming purposes:
  
  i) Their NFT collection will go through an appraisal process between the owners and the Curator Board to determine a fair market value for each NFT and, by extension, that of their entire collection.
  
  ii) The owners of the Exhibition will be required to complete a series of Unifty Missions to showcase their commitment to the Unifty community. These Missions will include things like promoting our social media profiles and our products. More details on these Missions will be announced in a subsequent article.
  
  iii) At this point, the Exhibition will be put up to a vote among $NIF token holders for final approval of eligibility for $UNT reward farming, with a proposal via the Community Governance Program.
  
  iv) If the proposal passes, an official “pre-staking” period will open for 72 hours during which $NIF holders can stake into the Exhibition. Following the end of the pre-staking period, no more $NIF can be allocated towards that Exhibition. The number of $NIF tokens staked will be taken into account in the Exhibition’s score.
  
  v) Finally, the algorithm will take into account the number of unique $NIF addresses that have staked into an Exhibition. The more individual stakers, the better for the Exhibitor.
  
  
• At this point the creator, collector, or organization can stake their NFTs into the Exhibition smart contract and begin earning $UNT rewards. 

The 5-stage evaluation process will determine a final score, based upon which the $UNT reward algorithm will assign a  yield for each Exhibition. This score will dictate how much $UNT is allocated to the Exhibition to reward the owner as well as the staked $NIF holders. There will be a publicly accessible spreadsheet showcasing the score for each Exhibition, as well as the weighting of the individual categories.

Pre-Staking Period 

For added clarity, as mentioned above, there will be a pre-staking window where the community decides which exhibitions they want to allocate their $NIF to as part of the exhibitor selection process. The window will open up 72 hours before the Exhibition goes live, after which no new stakers can allocate $NIF to that particular Exhibition for its entire duration (21 days). 

This helps to ensure that the maximum amount of $UNT distributed to an Exhibition is determined for the full 21-day duration of the Exhibition. As a result, all Exhibition owners, whether Artists or Collectors, can have a higher degree of certainty of the amount of $UNT they can expect to farm during the 21 days. This figure will be a guide, as the total $UNT earned may be less due to dilution from the addition of more Exhibitions.

And how much $UNT is farmed per month?

As mentioned previously in both our litepaper and this article, there will only ever be 1,000,000,000 $UNT tokens that can be created following the monthly mint schedule below at a decaying rate of 5%:

Month 1: 50,000,000 UNT tokens are created
Month 2: 47,500,000 UNT tokens are created
Month 3: 45,125,000 UNT tokens are created
Month 4: 42,868,750 UNT tokens are created

Etc.

At launch there will be 9 Exhibitions that are competing for the $UNT being released in every block. With each additional Exhibition, there will be a natural increase in competition for the limited number of $UNT tokens created.

This will lead to an inherent increase in competition for a limited supply of $UNT on a monthly basis.

So how long can I run my Exhibition?

Firstly, The Gallery will feature only high quality creators or collectors, with an initial launch of 9 Exhibitions. Going forward, there will be approximately 6 to 10 Exhibitions launched every month.

Please note, each Exhibition can run for a maximum of 21 days.

If an Exhibitor chooses to remain within the Gallery, they would need to provide a new or updated collection as well as pass a vote by our community $NIF holders.

And how much will I earn?

Well that depends on who you are in this model, a $NIF holder, a creator, a collector, or an organization. The exact amount earned will also be determined by the amount of Exhibitions that are live at the same time. However, it is important to determine what is meant by the word “earn” in this context:

1. Creators will earn 15% of the farmed $UNT tokens as pure yield that will vest daily over a 6-month period following the completion of the Exhibition. An example is shown below:

(i.e. Creator A has an Exhibition running for 21 days. During this period they earn 1,000,000 UNT, which then vests daily over 6 months after the completion of the Exhibition.)

2. Collectors and organizations will earn the right to purchase 15% of farmed $UNT tokens at a discount from the average market price over the past 7 days from the moment the $UNT is earned. An example is shown below:

(i.e. Collector A has an Exhibition running for 21 days. During the first day they earn a call option, which is the right to purchase 5,000 UNT, which have an average market price of $1.00 over the past 7-days. The call option gives the collector the right to purchase these tokens at a discount to the market price, for example $0.50 per $UNT. That $0.50 difference is the profit to the collector or organization.) (Prices and discounts are for illustration purposes only.)

3. $NIF token stakers will earn the right to purchase 85% of farmed $UNT tokens at a discount from the average market price over the past 7 days from the moment the $UNT is earned. This is true for $NIF stakers that stake in creator-owned, collector-owned, or organization-owned Exhibitions. An example is shown below:

(i.e. $NIF Staker A has staked tokens to an Exhibition running for 21 days. During the first day they earn a call option, which is the right to purchase 5,000 UNT, which have an average market price of $1.00 over the past 7-days. The call option gives the collector the right to purchase these tokens at a discount to the market price, for example $0.50 per $UNT. That $0.50 difference is the profit to the staker.) (Prices and discounts are for illustration purposes only.)

This is a basic outline of the model. The full math behind it is somewhat beyond the scope of this particular document and we will release a complete document outlining the logic behind it all.

However, there are a few points that need to be clarified, starting with where the money is going when a collector, organization, or $NIF holder purchases $UNT from the $UNT minting smart contract. These funds will be held in a treasury multi-signature wallet controlled by the Community Governance Program. These funds can and will be used for the good of the ecosystem, for example to provide liquidity for both the $UNT and $NIF pairs on Uniswap or to purchase NFTs as investments or for reward programs to $NIF and $UNT token holders, among many other purposes - all of which would need to be approved via community proposals and pass by democratic vote.

Lastly, with regards to earning, all Exhibition owners will be required to pay a 15% commission on all sales made through the Exhibition. These funds will be sent to another treasury multi-signature wallet controlled by the community via the Community Governance Program. 

Finally...

The conclusion is that as mentioned in our “The Only Constant is Change” document found here, our ethos is to utilize concepts originating from both the NFT and DeFi industries to reshape the creator economy. We are laser focused on this mission and have assembled a stellar team to help us build the next generation of products that will empower creators and their communities to fairly earn for their work and attention. The Gallery is our first foray into this world and will be our flagship product, but it definitely won’t be the last. We understand that this has been a long read, but we hope that it has been as enjoyable for you reading it, as it was for us creating it. We thank you for reading and look forward to seeing you join us on this journey!