Jul 17, 2022

18 min read

CellarVerse Manifesto

CellarVerse was created to revolutionize the wine and spirits distribution chain worldwide through a new methodology based on the use of new technologies to bring wine and spirits in Web 3.0.

Our aspiration is to spread the culture of wine, vineyards, spirits distilleries and of the work in the cellar that leads to a product of excellence into the NFT world and at the same time to help wineries, distilleries and wine lover to keep up with times bringing their culture to a new audience.

We want to give to more people the understanding that wine and spirits are history, innovation, conviviality and that the technology could preserve this history and make it accessible to new generations.

Wine is a limited quantity good, and each year is different from the previous one and from the next one, every time a bottle is ready to be tasted as a unique product that will never come back but now the related unique NFT can represent an emotion that will last forever.

Also the world of Spirits has always aroused a particular fascination in the collective imagination, and is now commonly considered a luxury item, an object of collectibles.

Lately this sector has shown a strong market dynamism and a growing interest on the part of collectors and enthusiasts in general.

We desire to create a new sales channel accessible also to old school wineries and distilleries and a community that helps the new generation to understand the love, passion and study represented in each bottle of wine or spirits.

Vision

CellarVerse wants to bridge digital & physical world of wine and spirits and make it accessible to everybody.

We want to spread wine and spirits culture in the metaverse bringing the world of wine and spirits in a new era.

Mission

Our mission is to build Winery and Distillery brand awareness in the digital world, linking a physical wine and spirits bottle to a non-fungible token (NFT).

We want also to bring wine and spirits collectors closer to new technologies helping them to refresh their collections selling fine part of their wines and collectible spirits and buying new ones.

We make sure that each exclusive wine and spirits of the selected Partners, we represent, brings something distinctive into the NFT Customers Portfolio sharing the uniqueness of their products and knowledge in each product sold.

Together with our Partners, we work to capture a broader audience, targeting younger demographic, without neglecting existing customers.

Values

Integrity: We build trust through responsible actions and honest relationships

Accountability: Each of us is responsible for our words, our actions, and our results

Community: Focus on the user and all others will follow

Innovation: We invest on cutting-edge solution to help our customers

Agility: We challenge the status quo with open minds, focus, and speed

Uniqueness: All our products are one of a kind.

Problems and Opportunities

Problems

Limited knowledge about wine and spirits in the NFT community.

Limited knowledge about blockchain technology and web 3.0 in the wine and spirits industry.

Very fragmented wine production, only a few large producers able to invest in innovation effectively.

Wine fraud (i.e. changing or faking labels and refilling bottles with cheaper wine).

Only big players are able to plan their sales for future years (“En primeur”).

The consumer is considered only as a client and is not made part of a community.

Opportunities

Through a centralized online sale, it is possible to overcome the information asymmetry between small and large producers.

The partnership with wineries allows to enhance the knowledge of new technology in the wine industry.

New technologies allow to create an information flow between the producers and the consumer. The consumer can become a participant and educate himself in the culture of wine and spirits, becoming aware of the quality of the wine he drinks or spirits to collect .

Blockchain technology allows to de-centralize the ownership of wine and spirits bottles and to create unique masterpieces that represent the excellence of each wine and spirits.

The link between the NFT recorder on a blockchain and the real bottle certify the production and sales chain from grapes to customers’ cellar.

New marketing channels allow to create involvement into different targets with respect to the traditional market of wine and spirits industry.

Solution

CellarVerse incentivize the wineries, distilleries and private collectors who share the desire to bring excellence in production in Web 3.0 or want to have an alternative sales channel with a different audience, to enter in the CellarVerse community.

CellarVerse creates a marketplace through which we sell the wines and spirits of our partners through the decentralized ownership embedded in the NFTs giving to customers, wine lovers, wine collectors, and NFT collectors the possibility to have their own exclusive wine cellar and to redeem the underlying real bottle to be tasted in a special occasion.

The NFTs represent also the ticket to join the community with dedicated food, wine and spirits real and virtual events that helps to spread the love, culture and experience related to wine world.

Business Model

CellarVerse will get its revenues from sales margin between the price of the bottle from the winery , distilleries or private collectors, based on the agreement between CellarVerse and each partner, and the retail price at which the bottle is offered in the marketplace depending on the level of the underlying bottle and the rarity of the NFT.

CellarVerse will be in charge of the creation of NFT pegged to each bottle and its sale to final customers. The revenues of CellarVerse are:

Revenues from the sale of wine and spirits
Revenue from the sale of wine “en primeur” to consumers by the winery partners
Revenue from the sale of NFT Collectibles
Commission income from the sale of virtual events organized with our partners
Commission income from the sale of exclusive live events organized with our partners.

CellarVerse will recognize to the partners the agreed price at the time of the sale.

Products Description

NFT Bottle

Each NFT is pegged to one single real bottle secured in the wineries’ warehouse.

The customer’s collection is displayed in his personal area of our website and through our website it is possible to redeem the physical bottle and receive it, paying the shipping fee, to the desired address.

In order to complete the redemption of the bottle, the customer must sign the transaction with his wallet and the information concerning the redemption is recorded in the smart contract and the NFT is no more pegged to the physical asset.

We decided not to burn the redeemed NFTS because they represent the ticket to access the CellarVerse community.

The redemption is possible within one year from the mint.

NFT En Primeur

Each NFT is pegged to one specific future release of a defined wine from a specific winery or to a specific cask or a portion of the vineyard.

The customer’s collection is displayed in the personal area of our website and through our website it is possible to redeem the physical bottle, once ready, and receive it, paying the shipping fee, to the desired address.

There will be a specific section of our website that shows the estimated production date of each wine sold and we will send a notification to the registered customers.

We decided to not burn the redeemed NFTS because they represent the ticket to access the CellarVerse community.

The redeem is possible within two months from the bottle’s availability.

Collectibles

CellarVerse will periodically release some NFTs that represents iconic images of our partners (wineries, distilleries and artists).

These collectibles are available in the dedicated section of the customer’s cellar.

They represent the ticket to access the CellarVerse community.

Events

CellarVerse will periodically organize real and virtual events for the community, the NFTs represents the ticket to join them.

The tickets will be always offered first within the CellarVerse community.

Rarity

All NFTs have a dedicated tier level based on the level of the pegged bottle and based on the NFT Tier, each NFT will give different community points to the owner.

The NFT levels are:

Bronze: up to 5000 NFTs minted per year

Silver: up to 1000 NFTs minted per year

Gold: up to 500 NFTs minted per year

Platinum: up to 100 NFTs minted per year

Diamond: up to 10 NFTs minted per year

Based on the points, each Member will have access to exclusive benefits.

Technology

What are NFTs

NFTs (“non-fungible tokens”) are one-of-a-kind tokens that signify a specific good or asset, such as ownership of a wine and spirits bottle.

They can be sold on NFT marketplaces, minted, auctioned, or used as assets in play-to-earn games that are yet to be released. Their main properties are:

Unique: Non-fungible tokens contain within their code information that describe the properties of each token making them different to others. A piece of digital collectibles might have coded information about individual pixels, while tokenized sports assets might contain ownership, size and feature details.

Traceable: Each NFT has a record of transactions on-chain, from when it was created, including every time it changed hands. This means each token can be verifiably authentic and not a counterfeit — obviously a very important thing for owners and prospective buyers.

Rare: In order for non-fungible tokens to be attractive to buyers, they should be provably scarce. This will ensure that assets remain desirable in the long run and that supply does not outstrip demand.

Indivisible: NFTs mostly cannot be transacted as some fractions from the whole. Just like how one cannot purchase half of a bottle. Non-fungible tokens cannot be split into smaller denominations.

Programmability: Like all traditional digital assets and tokens built on smart contract blockchains, NFTs are fully programmable.

Minting

All NFTs are created and uploaded to the IPFS storage and secured by blockchain. The metadata of all NFT on our marketplace are stored and we mint the NFT only when it is sold (“Lazy Mint”).

Once a User places an order on our marketplace we call the smart contract through a web service and mint the NFT. The gas fee is already included in the original price.

In order to allow less-experienced customers to join our community, the login with a wallet is not mandatory. If the user doesn’t connect the wallet, the NFT is secured in a transitory wallet. The NFT can be transferred in a second time through the personal area of our website without any additional fee.

Smart Contract

Our platform and applications support Ethereum and Polygon and ERC-20, ERC-721, ERC-1155 token standards.

Smart contracts are self-executing contracts with the terms of the contract between buyer and seller directly written into lines of code. They run on the blockchain, so they are stored on a public database and cannot be changed. The transactions that happen in a smart contract are processed by the blockchain, which means they can be sent automatically without a third party

A creation of NFT is developed according to ERC-1155 standard.

Frontend

Wallet’s integration to the platform is implemented via Metamask. Web3.js library is used for connecting to Metamask and smart contracts Pinata cloud is used for uploading and managing NFTs on IPFS.

Backend

Our backend for the platform is necessary only for storing users’ data and their parameters. Back-end also processes data of NFT coming from IPFS like events, tech info, history, etc.

Decentralized Storage

IPFS is a file-sharing system that can be leveraged to more efficiently store and share large files. It relies on cryptographic hashes that can easily be stored on a blockchain. Nonetheless, IPFS does not permit users to share files with selected parties. For connection with metadata, we are using IPFS URI.

A Uniform Resource Identifier, or URI, is used to specify a particular piece of content in a given context. The context is determined by the URI scheme (appended to the URI as a prefix, followed by ://). The URI scheme for IPFS is simply IPFS.

IPFS URIs are the canonical representation for an IPFS link since the IPFS scheme makes it clear and unambiguous that the CID (uniquely identify a piece of content) refers to content on IPFS and not to some other system.

We are using an IPFS URI to link from smart contracts to any external data stored using IPFS, including any metadata that describes and contextualizes the token.

PFS URIs are also the way to link from within a token’s metadata to images and other assets stored on IPFS.

Wallet

We support the web wallets and main mobile Ethereum and Ethereum like platforms.

Main wallets list: Metamask, Trust Wallet, Wallet Connect.

The wallet is the main asset storage tool and also a communicational gateway to the blockchain API.

Payment

The supported payment method are Ethereum through the connected wallet or using credit card.

Security

For a user’s on-chain transaction, the smart contract design guarantees the atomicity of transaction settlement, that is, either the transaction conditions are met to complete the settlement or the transaction fails, and the user’s assets are always kept in the wallet, under the user’s control.

Royalty

There won’t be any royalty on the sale in secondary market for standard NFTs. The ownership of any NFT bought on our website is fully transferred to Customers.

In September we will deploy a second smart contract dedicated to special NFTs that will be created with artists. This new smart contract will include a royalty of 5% for the artists that collaborating with CellarVerse.

Primary Market

The primary markets for our NFTs are:

CellarVerse website: the main parts of our collection will be available only on the proprietary marketplace on our website. The NFTs on our website will have a fixed price that includes gas fee.

OpenSea: some release will be sold through Opensea with dedicated auction on our istutional page.

SuperRare: some special release will be inserted on SuperRare.

Secondary Market.

The user can sell their NFTs on OpenSea. A secondary market will not be available on our proprietary marketplace.

Value Proposition

For Customers

Customers that join the CellarVerse will get the following benefits:

Exclusive Wine Selection: CellarVerse will select only investment grade wines, spirits, wineries and distilleries with special philosophy.

En Primeur Allocations: Through CellarVerse, customers have access to allocations of wine not yet produced.

Access to CellarVerse Community: after the first deal, any customer will have access to the CellarVerse community with dedicated contents and access to new release in advance.

Dedicated Events: CellarVerse will organize dedicated events for the community.

For Partners

Wineries that join the CellarVerse will get the following benefits:

New Sale Channel: trough the partnership with CellarVerse, any winery and distilleries can access to an alternative sale channel dedicated to a different target.

Increase Community: our partners can access to our community to spread their knowledge and enhance the brand awareness.

Building Brand Value in the Digital World: the presence in the Web 3.0 allows wineries and distilleries to increase the brand value for the future.

Fight Counterfeited Products: the bottles recorded on blockchain can not be counterfeited and the traceability of each bottle is guaranteed.

Dedicated Events: CellarVerse will organize dedicated events for our partners in the metaverse.

RoadMap

July 2022

Announces of first winery partners

August 2022

First version of the website published
Announces of the benefits reserved to the Community
Announces of partnership with Artists

Septemer 2022

MarketPlace Published
First Drop of NFT Bottles
First live and virtual events
First special collection announced
New wave of announces of winery partners
Definition of the agenda of future NFT Bottles Drop

Fourth Quarter 2022

Second Drop of NFT Bottles
First En Primeur Drop
First Collectible Drop
First Private Collection drop
Partnership with Metaverse
Announcements of meeting place in Metaverse
Announcements of the events agenda
Enhancement of benefits for NFT owners

First Quarter 2023

New products and experiences available
Partnership Industry players
More Benefits announcement for the community

Second Quarter 2023

CellarVerseDAO creation
MarketPlace 2.0 published
Enhances of Metaverse space
Possibility to Mint directly exclusive NFTs for Customer on our Marketplace
First Metaverse wine sommelier award
Creation of virtual cellar for Top Members

Target markets

Wine Market

In Italy, agri-food is not just an industry, but a real brand recognized and appreciated all over the world. A sector that, according to forecasts for 2022, will produce a total turnover of 11 billion euros (+ 9% compared to 2021, but still far from the 13 billion recorded in 2019) and continues to expand rapidly, attracting the attention of young people, new producers and the international market.

Italy is confirmed as the world leader ahead of Spain and France despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic. This primacy is consolidated by the 602 varieties registered in the vine register, compared to about half of the French cousins, with the “made in Italy” bottles destined for about 70% to DOC, DOCG and IGT: in fact, 332 wines are recognized in our country controlled denomination of origin, 76 wines with controlled and guaranteed denomination of origin and 118 wines with typical geographical indication.

Already in 2019, the Belpaese was the first in volume exports, which had reached 21.6 million hectoliters of wine (+ 10%) against Spain’s 21.4 million. Despite the crisis, in 2020 the damage was contained, and in 2021 the recovery period began: the wine sector is confirmed as an important component of the Italian economy and shows a positive health status. The current year will bring about an almost complete reabsorption of the turnover of the Italian wine sector, which in 2020 lost 4.1% but is up by 3.5% in the current year.

Italian exports of wines and alcoholic beverages increased + 16% in the first half of the year and are worth 30% of our cross-border sales of food and beverages (7.8 billion euros in 2020). According to the study, the United States (+ 2%) and Germany (+ 3.1%) are growing, consolidating the national presence in the two main reference markets. China also gave excellent answers, with + 6.3% in the two-year period 2021–2022, and a surprising market like Vietnam + 9.6%, but exports to the United Kingdom decreased (-1.9%) and Switzerland (0.8%).

Consumption trends see a decrease in purchases in physical stores and large organized distribution (from 58% of Italians to 52%) and an online boom. The data of the digital market are clear: + 74.9% sales on web portals owned by wineries and companies in the wine world, + 435% for specialized online platforms, + 747% the increase in generalist marketplaces.

Spirits Market

The global luxury wines and spirits market size was valued at $970 billion in 2019, and is anticipated to reach $1,411 billion by 2027, with a CAGR of 4.9% during the forecast period. These beverages are increasingly becoming popular among middle-aged consumers, who are between 35 and 55 years of age.

Luxury brands have started to develop accurate social media strategies to engage tech-savvy young consumers in social media activities that seek greater value for money, more personalization, and integrated digital access. A significant increase has been witnessed in the number of netizens along with rise in internet penetration. Most key players in the luxury wines and spirits market strategize on promoting their products on various social media platforms. Thus, through the social media marketing strategy, the luxury wines and spirits market is expected to sight critical growth opportunity during the forecast period.

Moreover, rise in social media trends in developed countries is also taking lifestyle of millennials and Gen Z toward spending more on premium products, which is expected to open new avenues for the market participants to enter emerging markets.

A recent study found a huge increase in the demand for younger casks in 2020 and the trends seems to be continuing this year. As more people are learning of the benefits of entering the market for private cask ownership the market is maturing. Younger casks are an easier entry point for collectors and collectors alike. Collecting casks at a lower entry point also plays a great role in diversifying ones portfolio.

For those with the patience to hold and wait, younger casks offer a greater percentage return, in addition to being a more affordable entry point. According to the study, on average, one can expect a recently filled cask to increase in value by 33% per year for the first three years of its lifetime. Cask choices at an older age are already in their prime and consequently will require a larger initial buy-in, however every year they’re projected to yield a significant return in pure monetary terms.

NFT Market

In essence, NFTs are cryptographic digital assets with unique codes and metadata. The tokens are virtual representations of digital or tangible items and can represent virtually anything.

The “non-fungible” term means that these tokens are unique and can’t be replaced with something else. For instance, a one-of-a-kind baseball card is non-tangible and cannot be replaced or traded for the same thing. Non-fungible tokens work similarly.

While Bitcoin and blockchain technology have been around since 2008, NFTs are relatively new. NFT trading really came on the scene in 2017 when the studio Lava Labs developed a series of collectible digital characters called CryptoPunks.

Since then, NFTs have grown increasingly popular and have been created for various things. However, most of the NFT market is currently focused on digital art and sports cards, although other highly-priced NFTs exist.While NFTs are not a cryptocurrency, they run on the same technology (Ethereum blockchain, to be exact), making them verifiable and unique.

A recent Bloomberg report said that the NFT market in June is poised for under $1 billion in sales for the first time since June 2021. Citing DappRadar data, it added that OpenSea’s sales volume in June was $670 million, down by 75% from May’s numbers. Compared to $5 billion in January, OpenSea’s monthly volume in June is the lowest for the world’s largest NFT marketplace since July 2021.

However, citing Chainalysis data, The Guardian, in its report on July 2, noted that the NFT sales figure for June 2022 was slightly better at a little over $1 billion, from its peak of $12.6 billion in January 2022.

The NFT sales skyrocketed in 2022 and touched $40 billion. However, the numbers were even more robust at the start of this year, with the total sales pegged at $42 billion, with January and February sales accounting for more than half of it.

About Us

CellarVerse is a Swiss based Company, founded in 2022 by five Friends sharing the same passion for Wine, Art and Technology.

CellarVerse is a SAGL, limited liability company, recorded in Swiss commercial register with the number CH-501.4.026.923–3.

Our founding team is an excellent combination of technology and strategy. Our founders have professional experience in strategy consulting, Finance, Wine industry, Technology and Sales:

Paolo Angeleri — Co-Founder

Salvatore Bruno — Co-Founder

Rosangela Mastronardi — Co-Founder

Daphne Rechberger — Co-Founder

Risk and uncertainties

Prospective purchasers of Tokens should carefully consider and evaluate all risks and uncertainties associated with the Token Vendor and/or its affiliates and their respective business and operations, Tokens, the Token Sale, and the Blocksport NFT Platform.

All information set out in this Whitepaper and the Token Sale Terms prior to any purchase of Tokens. Further details of the risk factors relating to participating in the Token Sale and the Token Vendor will be set out in the Token Sale Terms. If any of such risks and uncertainties develop into actual events, the business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects of the Token Vendor and/or its affiliates could be materially and adversely affected. In such cases, you may loose all or part of the value of Tokens.

Disclaimer

This white paper shall not and cannot be considered as an invitation to enter into an investment. It does not constitute or relate in any way nor should be considered as an offering of securities in any jurisdiction. The white paper does not include nor contain any information or indication that might be considered as a recommendation or that might be used to base any investment decision.

This document does not constitute an offer or an invitation to sell shares, securities or rights 19 belonging to CellarVerse or any related or associated company.

CellarVerse is not to be considered as advisor in any legal, tax or financial matters. Any information in the white paper is given for general information purpose only and CellarVerse does not provide with any warranty as to the accuracy and completeness of this information.

Given the lack of crypto-token qualifications in most countries, each buyer is strongly advised to carry out a legal and tax analysis concerning the purchase and ownership of CellarVerse’s according to their nationality and place of residence.

CellarVerse today is not a financial intermediary according to Swiss Law and is not required to obtain any authorization for Anti-Money Laundering purpose. This qualification may change in case CellarVerse will offer services which are to be considered as qualifying a financial intermediation activity. In this case, the use of CellarVerse services may require the positive conclusion of an AML/KYC identification process.

CellarVerse confers no direct or indirect right to CellarVerse’s capital or income, nor does it confer any governance right within CellarVerse; a NFT minted by CellarVerse is not proof of ownership or a right of control over CellarVerse and does not grant the controlling individual any asset or share in CellarVerse, or in the CellarVerse network.

Regulatory authorities are carefully scrutinizing businesses and operations associated to cryptocurrencies in the world. In that respect, regulatory measures, investigations, or actions may impact CellarVerse’s business and even limit or prevent it from developing its operations in the future.

The white paper or terms and conditions may change or need to be modified because of new regulatory and compliance requirements from any applicable laws in any jurisdictions. In such a case, purchasers and anyone undertaking to acquire CellarVerse acknowledge and understand that neither CellarVerse nor any of its affiliates shall be held liable for any direct or indirect loss or damage caused by such changes. CellarVerse will do its utmost to launch its operations and develop the CellarVerse platform.

On concluding the Commercial Operation, these tokens will be issued by a technical process referred to as a «Blockchain». This is an open-source IT protocol over which the Company has no rights or liability in terms of its development and operation.

Any malfunction, unplanned function, or unexpected operation of the Ethereum protocol may cause the CellarVerse network or CellarVerses to malfunction or operate in a way that is not expected.