[DAO:7fdd35b] Should LinkedWearables be shut down?

[dao]

by 0x5e5d9d1dfd87e9b8b069b8e5d708db92be5ade99 (paralax)

What are linked wearables?

Linked Wearables are a solution for integrating third-party NFTs as wearables in Decentraland. The implementation involved third-party creators applying to the DAO for registration, with approved entities added to a Third Party Registry on the Polygon network. These registered parties can then upload 3D assets for their NFTs. To enable wearables, third parties must build a resolver API mapping their NFTs to items with a standardized API endpoint for Decentraland clients.
These third-party wearables differ from current Decentraland wearables in that publication fees vary based on collection size, and they cannot be independently traded in any marketplace. They serve as 3D representations of the source NFTs without having their own tradable tokens.

More details here: Representing third-party NFTs as wearables in Decentraland

What is the problem with them?

The concept of Linked Wearables is promising in expanding the scope of NFT functionality and utility. However, the current implementation raises significant concerns regarding the performance of the Decentraland client.
The in-world experience with linked wearables mirrors that of any regular wearable usable in Decentraland. Users can view and equip them from their backpacks. The main difference lies in the validation process that happens behind, where a Catalyst node, instead of consulting the blockchain, verifies ownership of the asset by using the third-party resolver API.

When retrieving a profile from a Catalyst node, various validations are conducted to ensure that any equipped items in the profile genuinely belong to the associated wallet. In this architecture, the third-party API has a direct impact on the response time for resolving a Profile from a Catalyst node. As an example, Catalyst nodes offer an endpoint to request profile batches. If even one Profile in the batch has a linked wearable equipped, a slow third-party resolver API can significantly delay the entire batch response, leading to delays in rendering user profiles in the client.

What is the situation with the existing LinkedWearables providers?

Currently, there are 19 API resolvers, but 5 of them have been inactive for several months. In July 2023, this performance issue was communicated to the third-party providers, requesting them to adhere to a Service Level Agreement with a target response time of 500 milliseconds. Additionally, providers were requested to implement a new endpoint capable of processing validations in batches while maintaining compliance with the specified SLA.

Regrettably, the majority of providers failed to meet the SLA, and only a few implemented the newly requested endpoint with some of them responding with wrong validations.

To illustrate this concern, refer to the chart below, showing the average response time recorded by Catalyst nodes for third-party resolver responses. Unfortunately, the majority fall outside the desirable green area, surpassing the 500-millisecond threshold. Notably, some responses even take between 4 to 6 seconds, highlighting the severity of the issue.

External Image

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This poll aims to seek consensus on shutting down all resolver APIs to improve client performance. While the product holds significant potential for extending the utility of NFTs, the existing implementation has the potential to negatively impact all users, including those who don’t possess any 3P items. The previous DAO poll didn’t progress to the draft or governance stages. Hence, it can be revisited to re-formulate a more effective implementation strategy that ensures optimal client performance.

• yes
• no
• Invalid question/options

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO

View this proposal on Snapshot

[maryana]

Before LinkedWearables are shut down, Decentraland DAO/DCL Foundation Partnerships needs to find a better solution to integrate & onboard other web3 communities and their NFTs/VRMs/IP seamlessly.

LinkedWearables seems to be one of the only solutions to accomplish this outside of brand activation opening parties.

Just something to think about before closing these APIs down.

[paralax]

@Maryana, appreciate your comment. The objective is not a permanent shutdown but a temporary measure to mitigate performance issues until a more robust solution can be designed. The earlier poll was approved and enacted with 17 votes in the initial stage, bypassing the DRAFT and governance stages, which could have provided a more thorough assessment of the design implementation. This initiative can be paused as is, allowing for the resumption and redesigning of processes to arrive at a better solution. It’s crucial to address the significant negative performance implications of the current design.

[maryana]

Gotcha - thank you for the clarification @paralax!

[maryana]

Hey @paralax - Should all 3 rounds pass, how long would this API be turned off before its properly working again?

Additionally, how will this impact existing Linked Wearable registries and their APIs, and recently passed Linked wearables (such as A Kid Called Beast) in all this?

[james]

Surely there is an elegant way to mitigate these performance issues. For example, running an out of process monitoring server which would flag badly performing wearables to ensure the client is not requesting assets that will cause a slow down. Those with X number of slow requests in a given time frame could be blocked.

These are not anonymous integrations so those running the endpoints that Decentraland is requesting could receive a warning before they are disabled semi permanently after the monitoring service decides that they are a repeat offender.

Sounds like an over reaction to shut something down when there are clearly ways to alleviate the foibles of a poor architectural solution. This would be punishing those who do it well and don’t cause any issues.
Even adding a caching layer of some sort would cause less upheaval than abandoning or ‘temporarily stopping’ something which is now part of the eco system.

Surely it’s just a few days work to create a robust monitoring and flagging service.

[MakeAnft]

Hey Paralax,

I am Make, the lead producer of the AKCB-linked wearable project. Our team has dedicated considerable effort to ensure the project’s success, navigating through various processes to bring “Beasts” to life in Decentraland.

This issue that has surfaced, severely impacts our project’s progress & jeopardizes it moving forward. Rafsby’s Art and Dev teams are dedicated to providing a quality product.

The importance of “Beasts” to the Decentraland community cannot be overstated, and as such, I believe it is imperative to address this challenge swiftly. I respectfully request the Decentraland Foundation’s support in resolving this issue to maintain our development momentum and adhere to our planned timelines.

Your assistance in the Decentraland DOA extending support to our team would be invaluable, ensuring that we can continue our work without compromising on the project’s quality or timeline. The prospect of abandoning such a highly anticipated project is not one we are willing to consider just yet.

I urge the Foundation to collaborate with us to overcome this obstacle, ensuring the project’s success for the benefit of the entire community. I look forward to a positive response and the opportunity to work together towards a successful resolution.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE

[BrandonManus]

This feature (that is barely used because you guys make it damn difficult) is the only thing you have for mass web3 communities to be adopted.

Nifty Island just blew DCL out of the water BECAUSE they involved web3 communities.

There are community members busting their balls day and night to make your site better. To onboard, to grow, to experience DCL.

You do this, you cut off any incentive any community (that doesnt know how things work around here) has to come in DCL and hang out with their people.

If anything this proposal should motivate DCL to get off their ass and maybe try to find solutions vs just shutting everything down.

how long has this issue been known?

how long have those servers been down and has there been any contact?

how long do we have to wait to find out whats happening in DCL before we see a whole proposal to cut off a major onboarding aspect?

Catch me on nifty island. over 70 communities implemented off rip.

common guys, take a look around fr.

we want yall to be great but yall are making it hard as hell

[Canessa]

Did anyone from Foundation reach out to those who just passed the A Kid Called Beast linked wearable proposal that is in the works to tell them this was going to be proposed before you submitted it?

[BioMETA]

Hello and good evening from new york city to my family in Decentraland. As a active member in dcl and also in the project #AKCB seeing this was a dream come true when having a linked wearable option was mentioned. It was a great concept to help dcl grow in population including popularity once word got around. Seeing the success from the use of this technology in other platforms and in some new places as nifty island it was a very big marketing traction for those looking to have a immersive gaming metaverse where having their nft as a avatar was a choice. Options and functions are what people look for over simple things such as high poly render viewing of the game or platform graphics crypto voxel metaverse is a perfect example on that. As a marketing tatic and viewing of this motion for linked wearables to be brought in I think it wouldnt be a great idea to pause it or stop it rather support it with the foundation support or DAO members with skills willing to support the movement to save the cause. A nft project AKCB (as i am a holder of as well and supporter of too) know the tremendous value behind the movement including the extensive support from their vass community would bring incredible change to dcl in many ways. They are one project of many that can see the option and opportunities for them too also get in on this once and when having a fully operation service avail in dcl. The marketing behind simple things such as in world chat using a mic is a small thing but let it not be avail and see the tremendous call for demand overall the point there was the demand of anticipation has been set and the expectations with so many eyes looking in to dcl in fact so many new foot traffic came in from the idea of this propsal in the last 30 plus day most traffic here was due to the #AKCB events in collab with existing long term active dao members. I would vote NO on this and strongly would like to see all dcl dao speak up to support this after we all came together to make this a reality in motion.

[CheddarQueso]

I am ok with a revamp of the linked wearables process. I feel that it has been largely ineffective at attracting traffic. My only concern is how this decision will affect currently active collections.

[MakeAnft]

This most likley will end The AKCB involvement with decentraland. I am gutted.

[Existential14]

Let’s have a solution before you destroy something huge for the DCL community. Doing this, right now would be a terrible mistake and would definitely not benefit Decentraland in any way. There are tons of issues to be addressed that aren’t or taking too long or being ignored. This is an idiotic move in my opinion and my feeling right now, if this passes, GOOD BYE!. (that may or not happen but that’ my feeling right this minute)
Thank you.

[Canessa]

@paralax we just brought one of the most active NFT projects to Decentraland through linked wearables. There are 3,398 unique holders. They have an active Discord, they are constantly engaging on Twitter, and many Decentraland users have bought one and were excited to see this project come to Decentraland.

Halting at this point seems swift, and honestly has blindsided our entire team who met with Foundation and DAO members before they started building these assets. Why did no one who was assigned to this Linked Wearable warn us that this might happen?

Can we slow down? Could we have some dialogue about other options?

[SugarClub]

1 step forward , 3 steps back approach . Classic move

[DrGreenthumb]

Did all the wearables get turned off when it took minutes to load up your backpack. Am i reading this correct,you want linked wearables to be shut off because some take 4-6 seconds. Seems like zero thought was put into how this would effect dcl. Creators who went thru the process to get these done.Spent more time then it would for the dao or the foundation to just fix. Dcl dying a slow and brutal death with this one. .

[AaronLeupp]

1. Please more AIP’s that are solutions NOT more problems. Down to hear out and vote on any solutions on any things people subjectively think is an issue. Pointing at this data and concluding it should be immediately “shut down” is like saying the highest viewed youtube videos about Decentraland all say that DCL has “bad graphics” so conclusion we should “SHUT DOWN”. wild lol.

2. Agree with @maryana , HP, Brandon, Canessa, BioMeta, Existential14, SugarClub, and DrGreenthumb. This is like the one feature Decentrland has to offer to bring other communities. I know because as stated already in the last proposal I HAVE SPENT OVER TWO YEARS TRYING TO GET THEM ONBOARDED WITH THIS. Can read all about that here.

In conclusion. It’s a NO from me.

[OGContraBand]

Shut it down for good. Where was the voice of reason OGCB 2 years ago I would have never allowed this to happen. Who do they think they are they can’t come to DCL and make a wearable like the rest of us? Do they know who we are? We are Decentraland, creators of the world’s most technologically sophisticated art canvas BY FAR. We are the home of the top digital artists. They should be making an NFT to show that they made Decentraland wearables not the other way around. Tell me which link to a jpeg can fire a laser gun or shine with glory of the proteus sword as the holder twirls around in a special 3D world specially crafted just for the moment and complete with the world’s top DJs spinning? NOT ONE OF THEM. The road to create a masterpiece of every dimension is a long road that can take years to travel. We have so many talented people here to celebrate that have taken all or some portion of the journey, but we can only do so much for those who aren’t up for the challenge, who only want to make a few 2d doodles. I challenge the linked wearable creators to come and make their own lands in DCL and show the world that they are the top digital artist in every way not only generating AI pictures. A long journey begins with a single step. Who can rise to the challenge?

[OGContraBand]

I was checking out your characters they’re pretty cool. Can you please explain to me why you can’t just release and sell skins in Decentraland? Some of these projects I thought they don’t have the technical skills, but I can see you’re able to do this. Why they need to be linked instead of separately trading entities? Isn’t it better for you to sell in 2 places?

[OGContraBand]

I went to nft island, made an account and it didn’t even launch for me on the browser at least. I can be a critic of DCL but there’s quite a few projects in the works that may rock our socks. First my understanding unity projects will be able to deliver to DCL soon directly from unity. We could see a big surprise there with stream (no web3 allowed) teams porting to worlds and things of that nature. Combine it with the google log in thing I still know a lot of people who can’t figure out how to get in and visit me on the farm. These combined with worlds and the game engine updates - what’s on the roadmap could turn out really good actually.