Inspiration
We were inspired by the "Winter Classic" theme and the philosophical concept of entropy. In the physical world, winter is temporary, and snowflakes are fleeting. In the digital world, everything is stored forever, which makes individual moments feel less special. We wanted to challenge the "Archive Everything" mindset of Web2 by building a platform where data has a lifespan, mimicking the fragile beauty of a winter storm.
What it does
FrostByte is a 3D visualization of community attention.
Creation: When a user posts a thought, the app uses the text hash to procedurally generate a unique 3D ice crystal—no two are alike.
The Thaw: Every post starts with 100% "integrity." A server-side decay function slowly reduces this over 24 hours. Visually, the crystal drips, loses sharp edges, and shrinks using WebGL shaders.
Preservation: Users can click a "Keep Warm" button on posts they value. This resets the decay timer.
Extinction: If a post hits 0% integrity, a cloud function triggers a hard delete. The crystal shatters on screen and the data is gone forever.
How we built it
Frontend: React.js for the UI interface.
3D Visuals: Three.js and custom GLSL Shaders to create the refraction and melting effects of the ice. We didn't use 3D models; the snowflakes are generated via code (math).
Backend: Firebase Realtime Database to sync the "health" of every snowflake instantly across all connected clients.
Logic: A Node.js background worker acts as "The Sun," constantly calculating the decay rate of every object in the database.
Challenges we ran into
The biggest technical hurdle was the "Melting" synchronization. We needed the visual state of the ice (how much it had melted) to look exactly the same for a user in Tokyo and a user in New York at the exact same second. We had to write a custom interpolation function that calculates the snowflake's geometry based on the server timestamp, rather than relying on local browser time.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of the Procedural Generation algorithm. We managed to turn simple text strings into complex, symmetrical 3D geometry that actually looks like ice. We are also proud that we stuck to the "Hard Delete" promise—it was scary to write code that intentionally destroys user data, but it was essential for the art of the project.
What we learned
We learned the intricacies of Fragment Shaders—how to manipulate light and transparency to make a digital object look "cold." We also learned a fascinating lesson in behavioral psychology: during testing, users felt a genuine sense of urgency to "save" the melting posts, proving that scarcity creates value.
What's next for FrostByte
We plan to implement "Perma-Frost" (a feature where highly valued posts can be frozen into a permanent 'Hall of Fame') and an AR (Augmented Reality) mode where you can see the floating, melting messages in your actual living room.
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