In 2022, a friend connected to the IOTA foundation asked if I wanted to work on a side project in the Web3 space. We spent a few months with the goal to build the first NFT engine and marketplace on IOTA.
Engilada: An NFT engine to build Web3 apps without being a Web3 expert
Think of it as Stripe for NFTs. Creators embed a mint button on their site. When buyers click it, Engilada’s checkout handles wallet selection, payment, and confirmation. Once done, they’re sent back with their NFT minted.
Creators get a seamless way to launch drops. Buyers get a checkout they actually trust.
No-code drop management
But there’s more to launching an NFT drop than just the checkout and implementing a mint button. Creators also need to manage collections, set prices, or define royalties. We built an interface so they could do all of that without writing a single line of code.
Dev-friendly infrastructure
Creators shouldn’t need to be Web3 experts to launch NFTs. Engilada provides SDKs and pre-built smart contracts so they can focus on their work instead of wrestling with blockchain complexity.
Pylon: the first NFT marketplace on IOTA
When I joined, the team had an early version of an IOTA NFT marketplace running on the devnet. Our goal was to rebrand and redesign the experience while preparing for the mainnet migration.
Pushing pixels for the soul
While my day-to-day focuses on strategy, flows and people, I love staying close to the craft. This project was a chance to get my hands dirty again. Late nights spent refining logos and palettes were a reminder that a product’s soul lives in the pixels.
Takeaways
We bet on IOTA as our backbone while the tech was still in development. We had a fully working MVP on Ethereum, but bigger players were already dominating that space. When IOTA took longer to mature than expected, we decided to move on.
Timing is a feature you can’t control. Still, building something with good people who love the craft, exploring Web3, and validating the product with investors and potential customers made it worthwhile.