DiscoverSG
What is DiscoverSG?
A Pokemon GO styled NFT project to boost local tourism.
What motivated you to build this product?
As we all know, with the pandemic, most places - be it famous tourist attractions or some of Singapore’s hidden gems, require local tourism to survive. How do we then motivate people to explore Singapore? More importantly, how do we incentivise people to want to visit these places repeatedly?
What tech stack did you use?
AWS, MATIC/Polygon - for the smart contract
What were the key challenges you faced in building DiscoverSG?
On the engineering front, it was more on the smart contract side for the NFT. Finding a chain that would have low gas (transaction fees) so that the project can scale to the level we require. Apart from that, also making a decision on how NFTs would be ‘redeemed’ by users.
On the design side, given the uncertainty and volatile perception of NFTs, we needed to think how we could educate users about the technology and also make it simple enough for a user to understand how to go about collecting and accessing their collections.
What is the product vision for DiscoverSG?
DiscoverSG’s vision is to create a more tangible connection between local establishments and our citizens while giving government agencies a platform to build digital campaigns on in the future, to boost footfalls to any place in Singapore.
Fun facts!
One interesting finding:
On the research side, to see other countries trying to adopt a similar approach to boost tourism, along with the increased adoption of digital wallets in Singapore was pleasantly surprising and encouraging.
One thing you’d have done differently:
We would’ve looked into adding more advanced functions into the contract, to build towards the vision of making the NFTs a digital loyalty card of sorts - especially on our ‘reservation’ and ‘redeem’ mechanics.
Takeaway/learnings:
The technology is still relatively early in terms of mass user adoption, but as the push for digitalisation continues, platforms like DiscoverSG can be a great way to bridge the gap between brick and mortar services and our citizens.
