Punchcard

Punchcard is a loyalty program for small local businesses. It attracts + retains clientele via a reward-system + crypto solutions for IRL purchases and onboards non-native crypto users onto web-3.

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Inspiration

The inspiration for this was a long time in the making. My sister and I grew up in a small-business household, and particularly in our family's shop. It is one of many small businesses in our neighborhood that over the decades have not adopted to the digital payments movement (including credit/debit cards.) If they do not adopt, they will face extinction. Not only should they survive, but they should THRIVE. The inspiration was to build something that would help these business participate in the ever growing world of crypto, but to be one of the early adopters into a new movement of digital payments. We also wanted to build something that would help them retain and create the clientele that they may have lost through this COVID pandemic.

What it does

It's a digital punchcard – a rewards system – plus an integration with crypto payments for digitally under-connected small business. It allows a curated network of businesses to accept payments in cryptocurrency stable coin (cUSD), and rewards customers who partake with rewards after a number of visits.

How we built it

The smart contracts are built in Solidity, used with the Celo network. There was initial plans to build out a desktop app, but I became inspired by Celo's mobile first ideology, so I pivoted to a native mobile application. Due to operational constraints over the weekend, I had to keep the UI as a mockup in Figma.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest hurdle I had to overcome was picking up Solidity and the Celo blockchain model in less than 12 hours before the hackathon completed. I ended up learning a lot in a 12 hour sprint of Solidity, though, that time crunch meant that I was not able to implement the UI or the UI <> Web3 integration on the client side.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • I wrote my first Solidity contracts
  • Built something that small business actually want (as noted by feedback by current managers of small businesses in SF, some of who also participated in this hackathon)
  • I am now excited about building something that will onboard the next wave of under-connected and non crypto-native entrepreneurs and consumers.

What we learned

  • I learned a valuable lesson about not needing to have a perfect picture of a project before starting; JUST START THE THING! Less brainstorming, more implementing!
  • It's probably a good idea to attend the Team Building workshop.

What's next for Punchcard

  • Punchcard will get launched and onboard at least 3 small businesses in the Bay Area who have already shown interest over the weekend as I've worked on this project.
  • Hook up more blockchains to support cross-blockchain participation and more adopters from other networks
  • Raise VC funding
  • Build the next crypto unicorn. 🦄

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