Whitepaper
Introduction
Block Ark Studios is a dedicated music minting platform and marketplace tailored specifically for the reggae community. Our studio simplifies the process of uploading songs to web3, while our marketplace offers a streamlined way to collect and share songs. Importantly, we ensure that royalties are always returned to the musicians. Block Ark will be the central hub for collecting web3 reggae NFTs and set an example for directly supporting musicians through tokenomics.
Reggae has long been celebrated for its unique and collaborative sound, intended primarily for the enjoyment of listeners who often assume that musicians and producers are fairly compensated. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. We are committed to addressing this issue by ensuring fair compensation while still nurturing a thriving and collaborative environment.
Ecosystem
Block Ark Studios offers a unique smart contract enabling minters to select their desired supply without impacting their cost. Each song incorporates the ERC-2981 NFT Royalty Standard for on-chain recording and immediate royalty payments. Additional options include on-chain ISRC and copyright.
There are 2 distinct studios on the Block Ark:
The Public Studio is available for everyone to use. Minting has flat fee of 0.001 eth, plus gas.
The Curated Studio is available for approved applicants. Minting has a flat fee of 0.0001 eth and all Records are listed with the 
BAS check.
This setup is designed to discourage spam minting by implementing a small minting fee and to allow easy sorting for what will most likely be reggae Records from known musicians.
The Market encourages buying, selling, and trading Records (NFTs) by rewarding both buyers and sellers with $ROOTs and directing ETH royalties back to the musicians. Also built utilizing the ERC-2981 Royalty Standard, it ensures that all standardized listings are processed correctly. Any Records listed on the Market that are not from the Public Studio or the Curated Studio are catagorized as "Outer Studio" Records.
The Magazine provides a platform for musicians and fans to promote new releases, upcoming shows, or reviews. To write articles, authors must burn $ROOTS, with the required amount increasing with each article submitted by the same author.
The Library contains all your collected and minted Records (NFTs) and of course a playlist for easily organizing and setting up the vibe.
Records
Block Ark Studios music NFT's, called Records, come from one of our Studios: the Public Studio and the Curated Studio. The Public Studio is accessible to everyone and charges a minting fee of 0.001 ETH. In contrast, the Curated Studio is exclusive to musicians who have successfully applied and has a lower minting fee of 0.0001 ETH. Records produced under the Curated Studio will feature a checkmark when listed on the Market, making them easily distinguishable.
Minting Records through Block Ark Studios is like producing hundreds of LPs for a single. We have a custom ERC-1155 smart contract that assigns the same Token ID to each minted Record, functioning much like a Pressing Number. This system allows minters to control the total supply of their Records and the cost of minting remains the same, regardless of whether you produce one or one million copies. To mint new Records, you will need the audio file, an image for cover art, artist name, song title, and the total number of Records you wish to create. Additionally, you have the option to include royalties, copyright, and an ISRC to be permanently embedded on the blockchain.
Collecting Records through the Market includes the benefit of receiving $ROOTS equivalent in denomination to the total ETH royalties sent back to the musician. This model encourages participation and collaboration among all parties and maximizes benefits for musicians.
Safeguarding the Market from spam mints, disputed songs, and unrelated content is a priority for our team. We utilize a mix of on-chain and off-chain features to ensure the Market moderators maintain a secure platform for all musicians.
Tokenomics
$ROOTS the ERC-20 token of the Block Ark ecosystem, will have an initial supply of 420,000,069 tokens. All tokens are minted to a dispensary contract responsible for managing the distribution to all other contracts below:
The LP Distributor encompasses an initial 30-day contribution period. Following this, all ether contributions are pooled together with the allocated 23.6% supply of $ROOTS held in the contract to establish a liquidity pool on UniSwap. This is not the most elegant solution, but the easiest way for our community to participate in decentralized finance. We designed the LP Distributor to solve the steep learning curve required to participate in DeFi. Users can simply send native ether to the contract address and claim their liquidity tokens upon instantiation of the pool on Uniswap.
The Grow $ROOTS program is designed to retain liquidity in the Block Ark Ecosystem by distributing $ROOTS to users who stake their liquidity tokens. A steady drop of ~1.69 $ROOTS is split between all stakers. This program is expected to stop dripping tokens in the year 2069.
Roadmap
Charting a course into the future of music distribution will be an epic journey...
Step I
Soneium Minato Testnet:
Step II
Optimism Mainnet Launch: