Inspiration
We were inspired by the financial challenges faced by our peers, especially college students. Getting a small, short-term loan from a traditional bank can be nearly impossible without a credit history. We saw an opportunity to create a more accessible and community-driven financial system, blending the trust of a social network with the crowdfunding model of platforms like Kickstarter. We wanted to empower individuals to help each other financially, whether they're friends across campus or strangers across the globe.
What it does
Sprinkler is a social peer-to-peer lending app designed to crowdfund micro-loans through a simple and intuitive interface. The app experience is centered on three core screens:
A central Discover screen, where you can browse video-based loan listings from the entire Sprinkler community. You can find and fund causes you believe in, with requests from your friends highlighted to leverage social trust.
A comprehensive Dashboard screen that acts as your financial command center. Here, you can view your own active loan listings, track the money you've lent out, and see your payment and payback history all in one place.
A personal Profile page where you can manage your account and view your unique Social Credit Score.
At the heart of Sprinkler is our innovative "Social Credit Score," which calculates a fair interest rate by analyzing a user's on-platform behavior and real-world spending habits. The lending process is secure and transparent; like Kickstarter, if a loan request doesn't reach its funding goal by the deadline, all money is automatically returned to the lenders.
How we built it
We built Sprinkler using a modern, full-stack approach perfect for rapid prototyping.
Frontend: We used Expo (React Native) to build a beautiful, cross-platform mobile application for both iOS and Android from a single codebase.
Backend: Firebase served as our backend-as-a-service, handling our database (Firestore), user authentication, and cloud functions.
Financial Data: We integrated the Nessie API by Capital One to securely access users' transactional data. This data is the core input for our proprietary social credit score algorithm, allowing us to assess financial behavior in a way traditional credit scores can't.
Challenges we ran into
Our biggest challenge was designing the algorithm for the social credit score. Quantifying financial responsibility based on purchase history is complex and nuanced, and we worked hard to create a model that was both fair and predictive. Integrating the Nessie API and ensuring the secure handling of sensitive financial data within the tight timeframe of a hackathon was also a significant hurdle.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are incredibly proud of the UI/UX design. For an app that handles money, building trust is paramount, and we believe our clean, intuitive, and polished interface achieves that. We successfully implemented a full-stack application, integrating a frontend, backend, and a third-party financial API into a single, cohesive product. Most importantly, we created a working proof-of-concept for our innovative social credit score, demonstrating that alternative data can be used to create a more inclusive financial model.
What we learned
This project was a deep dive into the world of FinTech. We learned how to work with sensitive financial APIs and the immense importance of data security. We gained valuable experience in rapid, full-stack development using Expo and Firebase, learning how to quickly take an idea from concept to a functional prototype. Above all, we learned how crucial a user-centric and trustworthy design is when building any financial product.
What's next for Sprinkler
The next step is to refine our social credit score algorithm with more data and testing to ensure it's robust and unbiased. Before any public launch, we would conduct a thorough legal and regulatory review to navigate the complex world of P2P lending and financial data laws. We also plan to implement a secure payment gateway to handle real transactions and launch a closed beta test to gather user feedback and perfect the user experience. The ultimate goal is to sell our validated social credit score data to traditional financial institutions, creating a new standard for assessing creditworthiness.
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