The problem Bagel solves

The high barrier to entry for owning valuable physical assets (like fine art or collectibles) has excluded most retail investors from participating in their upside. Simultaneously, NFTs have opened the door to digital ownership, but real-world asset (RWA) integration remains underdeveloped. Inspired by platforms like NFTfi, Unic.ly, and Mosaic, Bagel was created to bridge the gap between physical asset ownership and decentralized finance (DeFi)

Bagel can be used for:

1. Fractional Investment in High-Value Assets

Use Case: Own a share of a rare painting, luxury watch, or historical collectible without needing millions.
Why It’s Better: Reduces capital barrier; investors can diversify across assets that were once inaccessible.

2. Asset-Backed Loans (DeFi Lending)

Use Case: Borrow stablecoins using your NFT (tokenized asset) or fractional tokens as collateral.

Why It’s Better: Unlocks liquidity from traditionally illiquid assets. Borrowers don’t need to sell their assets to access funds.

3. Trustless Auctions & Liquidations

Use Case: Transparent, on-chain auctions for NFTs or fractional tokens—whether by default or user listing.

Why It’s Better: Prevents insider deals or opaque sales. Smart contracts handle everything fairly and automatically.

4. Real-World Asset Index Investing

Use Case: Invest in vault tokens that represent a basket of asset fractions (e.g., “Top 10 Digital Art Pieces”).

Why It’s Better: Allows passive exposure to curated asset sets. Similar to ETFs but fully on-chain and self-custodied.

5. Automated Royalty & Income Sharing

Use Case: Earn a share of royalties from artwork sales or real-world rentals (e.g., gallery fees).

Why It’s Better: Real-time, trustless payments. No need to chase down rent or negotiate payouts.

6. DAO Governance of Real Asset Protocols

Use Case: Vote on platform rules, auction settings, or which assets to accept via token-based governance.

Why It’s Better: Empowers communities to guide how physical asset DeFi evolves—transparency over central authority.

7. Cross-Chain Asset Portability

Use Case: Transfer NFTs or fractional tokens from Ethereum to a faster, cheaper L2 or another chain.

Why It’s Better: Reduces gas fees, enables multi-chain DeFi use cases, and maintains asset authenticity with Chainlink CCIP.

How Bagel Makes Tasks Safer and Smarter

Proof of Reserve: Verifies that the real-world asset is actually held in a secure location (museum, vault, etc.), reducing fraud risk.

Chainlink Automation: Automates tasks like royalty payments, loan liquidations, and metadata updates—no missed deadlines or manual errors.

Tamper-Proof Metadata: Authenticity, appraisal, and ownership data is locked into NFTs via IPFS and Chainlink Functions.

Royalty Compliance: Enforces creator royalties using ERC-2981, even across fractional sales.

Liquidation Protections: Monitors price drops and auto-triggers fair liquidations, protecting lenders and borrowers alike.

Challenges we ran into

One challenge we ran into was to figure out how to handle Proof of Reserve. We used Chainlink Functions to create our POR interface.