Overview

Cardtopia offers a framework designed to enable the trading of physical assets through blockchain technology. While it bears resemblance to typical Web3 initiatives, it also distinguishes itself in several aspects.

Architecture

Cardtopia's architecture is composed of three main components: smart contracts that manage the ERC-721 NFTs, a web frontend that allows users to mint NFTs, and a centralized backend responsible for inventory management and the authorization of NFT minting that represents this inventory. Although the minting process appears conventional, in reality, Courtyard's backend generates a distinct tokenization request that is sent to the smart contract to authorize each mint. This provides a guarantee that [every NFT is backed 1:1 by a physical asset.](link to “Courtyard NFTs” section).

Smart Contract Registry

Central to Cardtopia's smart contracts is a registry concept—a singular contract applicable to various assets and purposes. The architecture's flexibility allows brands such as Sneaks to employ a new registry for all subsequent releases, delegating the contract's administration and its marketplace representation on platforms like OpenSea to Cardtopia at their discretion.

Minting Contracts

A single registry may employ one or more minting contracts to enable users to mint tokens. These contracts might be standard ones that manage presale, public sale, wallet limits, or other permissioning logic on-chain, or they might use Cardtopia's oracle to necessitate an approval signature for minting. While the single registry offers a definitive location to discover all of a brand's NFTs, the use of various minting contracts permits each drop to provide a distinct user experience.