Radicle Grant Application
- Project Name: QSTN
- Team Name: QSTN
- Payment Address: 0x7056A5Da7D269B31Eb2E54E5579e41ef283d7D2C
- Level:
(Seed)
Project Overview 
If this application is in response to an RFP, please indicate this on the first line of this section.
If this is an application for retroactive funding (i.e. work that is completed and committed into a codebase), please drop any related PRs in this section.
Overview
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QSTN is an emerging Web3 data platform looking to disrupt the advertising industry by giving individuals power and control over their data.
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QSTN is a web application where users participate in surveys, quizzes and short questionnaires to earn virtual credit.
When we agree to terms and conditions, most of the time, our data gets sold and commodified without permission or compensation. QSTN acts as an “interface” for consumers to pay gate their information towards businesses.
By compensating users for their data, we provide incentive for rich and meaningful insights. This information is then sold and accessed by our partners for market research purposes.
- The key to our platform is allowing users to monetize their personal information in a low gas, scalable environment and NEAR Protocol meets both of these requirements.
By supporting this initiative, Radicle is investing in data infrastructure for the entire Web3 ecosystem as well as creating a new “Play-to-Earn” model for data aggregation.
TLDR:
- QSTN is a blockchain enabled market research portal where users answer questions, earn credit and spend these rewards in our digital marketplace for tokenized goods (e.g. NFTs, wearables).
Scope
QSTN can be broken down into three different user experiences:
1. User experience - general users create an account, complete on-boarding process and then have the ability to answer 5 daily questions in return for credit which can be spent within our NFT marketplace
2. Business experience - businesses and corporate entities (e.g. DAOs and protocols) can establish an account to create their own questionnaire portal, reward users for their participation and track response rate
3. Commission experience - businesses and corporate entities can pay a fee to have their questions slipped into the "User experience” rotation and glean insights from our daily, active audience for their own market research purposes
Background
Founded by NYU graduate Orrin Campbell, QSTN was birthed by a recorded conversation with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. During the interview, Neil argued that even if software is ‘free’, companies still profit from the sale, transfer, and storage of our information.
For example, did you know Google makes almost $120 million dollars a day in advertising revenue (e.g. targeted ads, placements)? Orrin thought about how to creatively address this problem and deliver his “promise to save the world.”
Orrin has released NFTs with Mintbase, spoken on Cryptovoxels and Somnium panels as well as created a large social following behind his afrofuturistic aesthetic.
Completing the QSTN team triad are the Suriel brothers, who Orrin met at NYU. Jose Suriel is an NYU graduate who handles project management at Forge AI — bringing this expertise to assisting the development and timeline of the QSTN marketplace.
Anibal Suriel is Jose’s twin brother and our head of legal, he is registered in New York and Miami; leveraging his time at KARM to create the legal framework and guidelines around data, compliance, and overall best practices.
With a desire to build meaningful products and experiences, Orrin founded QSTN with the aim to empower internet users and provide alternative means of passive income, aided by the invaluable expertise of the notorious Suriel duo.
Team 
Team members
- Orrin Campbell – QSTN founder, CEO and blockchain architect who will be designing the workflow and user experience (team leader)
Twitter - https://twitter.com/realorrin
Instagram - https://instagram.com/realorrin
Linkedin - https://linkedin.com/in/realorrin
GitHub - https://github.com/@qstnus
- Anibal Suriel - QSTN Head of Legal (team member)
Linkedin - Aníbal Suriel, Esq. - Solidity Law | LinkedIn
Lafi Raed – QSTN Lead Developer (team member)
GitHub - shadow111 (LR) · GitHub
Phillip Coleman - Entreprenuer In Residence (team member)
Linkedin - Phillip Coleman - The Block Club | LinkedIn
Contact
- Contact Name: Orrin Campbell
- Contact Email: qstnus@gmail.com
- Website: https://qstn.us
Legal Structure
- Registered Address: 67 Edgehill Drive, Wappingers Falls, NY 12590 USA
- Registered Legal Entity: QSTN LLC
Team’s experience
We incorporated QSTN in December of 2020 and immediately began seeking Web3 guidance on how best to bring this product to market. Below is a chronological list of incubators we participated in:
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QSTN graduates from the 1871 x BLK Tech Verizon incubator (first cohort) [2021]
https://1871.com/accelerator-blk-tech/ -
QSTN places 2nd and 4th in the Encode Club x Filecoin NFT Hackathon
NFT Hack Finale Prizewinners and Summary | by Vanessa Losic | Encode Club -
QSTN graduates from the Filecoin 2022 accelerator program
Encode x Filecoin Accelerator Summary | by Iva Horvat | Encode Club -
QSTN graduates from the Octopus Network x Huobi incubator program
Spring 2022 Octopus Accelerator Star Prize Winners! | by Woori Chen | Octopus Network | Medium -
QSTN is 1 of 5 teams to receive the official Star Prize
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72QqZ6MIxeo
Orrin Campbell
Along with his entrepreneurial pursuits in Web3, Orrin has a large following in entertainment due to his national television appearance on Dr. Phil during an hour long episode about his experience as a “cyborg from the future.”
In an attempt to build on this platform, Orrin has amassed a large following on social media who follow his advice and input on topics ranging from music, fashion, entertainment and technology (Web3).
Dr. Phil episode -
Press links -
Team Code Repos
Please also provide the GitHub accounts of all team members. If they contain no activity, references to projects/repos hosted elsewhere are also fine.
Team LinkedIn Profiles (if available)
Project Description
We are applying for this grant because we aim to become the “Google Form” or “Survey Monkey” of Web3 by developing our business portal.
Our vision is to create an interface where QSTN can conduct market research but also allowing creators, businesses and brands their own dashboard to reward and track respondents.
Data is a human rights issue and we aim to help create a standard where users begin to always expect financial compensation when their data is being accessed or used.
Deliverables 
Please list the deliverables of the project in as much detail as possible. Please also estimate the amount of work required and try to divide the project into meaningful milestones.
- Total Estimated Duration: Duration of the whole project
- Full-time equivalent (FTE): Amount of time (in days) required for a single person to complete this project
- Total Costs: Amount of Payment in USD for the whole project.
The more you can organize your milestones into manageable chunks that are conducive to iteration, the better!
Milestone 1
Please add additional milestones in the same way:
- Estimated Duration: 2 months
- FTE: 6 FTE
- Costs: 10,000
| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | NFT logo inclusion | We will include the Radicle logo in our generative NFT series which will release on Paras HQ, the biggest NFT marketplace on NEAR. These NFTs are generative, 3D characters that users can wear in the metaverse as skins. There will be 1,000 items in the entire collection and Radicle will be 1-3% |
| 2. | Business portal | We will develop the business portal with NFT and token loading functionality, as well as user invite feature so Radicle can conduct market research and reward their community. Upon completion, we will provide Radicle a private link to test and package the data insights to their preferred format |
Future Plans
Please include the following:
- In the short term, we are competing in hackathons to better our understanding of Web3 products and services we can use to scale out the QSTN market research portal.
Particularly, we will be participating in the Filecoin Sustainable Blockchain Summit Hackathon, Encode x Chainlink Hackathon and submitting for a couple accelerator programs which include VC pitching.
In conjunction with our hacking and education, we will be testing our existing application privately with different companies ranging from Encode Club, Filecoin, Octopus Network, NEAR Protocol to Ocean Protocol.
- Looking towards the future, we are excited to host our first NFT launch event on NEAR Protocol (October) and work with more traditional Web2 businesses in music, entertainment and market research to onboard the next million users into Web3
Additional Information 
How did you hear about the Grants Program? Twitter
Here you can also add any additional information that you think is relevant to this application but isn’t part of it already, such as:
- Please request a private invite to our repo for existing prototype on NEAR Protocol
- If there are any other teams who have already contributed (financially) to the project.
- NEAR Foundation (grants program)