The Crypto World's Fair Hackathon - Day 2

Previously, I had made the case that we need more people bridging the gap between the 40 Million or so ATProto users and the over 700 Million cryptocurrency users.

I had closed the post with a mention of Mallbucks, and I'm happy to say our rough draft is here: https://mallbucks.malldao.xyz/

Our first iteration is really a lightweight Venmo clone. It's not meant to be wildly impressive at first glance, in fact it's meant to look about as boring and straightforward as it can be. Crypto doesn't have to be complicated, and ATProto solves a serious problem when it comes to finding the person you intend to pay and be reasonably assured it's the right person.

There is a little bit of fancy jazz for the crypto folks when it comes to associating a wallet they own with an ATProto handle, but other than that, this is meant to be as simple as it possibly can be and we intend to add an option to skip the wallet connection in a future revision.

I made a quick little test token on the Monad testnet. Why Monad? I've met the team repeatedly especially Jing and Tina, had a great chat with Eunice, and even met Keone. Their events are, for lack of a better term, wholesome. Even in what would be the middle of some of the biggest crypto party scenes, they put on events that I would feel very safe bringing my kid to and know that we'd all have a good time. Simply put, they're not assholes and they really want to encourage all kinds of growth on their chain. For developers, their faucet is simple to use without all the weird growth hacky crap of other chains and deployment has been a breeze.

For the sake of the hackathon, I'll probably need to pivot or include other EVM chains, but for now they are very low friction and any little bit of promo / attention I can throw their way makes me happy. You should give them a visit if you haven't heard of them yet https://monad.xyz/

Of course, the point of the project is to be as design-forward as possible. A huge mistake I see over and over again from Engineering-led orgs is being as annoyingly tech-forward and jargon-y as possible as a way to create shibboleths and flex nuts. It's happened at major browser companies, it's happened all through crypto, and unfortunately I see a lot of it in the Atmosphere as well. I can tell you over a decade of user research and product experience has cemented in me that normal-ass people DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR TECH STACK they just want their problem solved with the least amount of hassle.

So, Venmo clone first. Why? It's the smallest possible thing we can build in a 24 hour period that gets the fundamentals of the stack poked and solves a very straightforward and testable problem. Can we get people to send value (even if it's super fake mall bucks) back and forth?

Why 'Mallbucks'? If you've checked out any of my prior art, you'd know that I like to ship ATProto experiments via my MallDAO site. I'm slowly building a digital mall, that third space of hanging out with friends, watching a movie, going to the arcade, shopping around, people watching, and grabbing a bite to eat. I don't like how the form factor of feeds has become the default of how we meet others online. The Internet used to be a wild fucking jungle of experimentation and we've sacrificed entirely too much for the sake of being 'on brand'. Mallbucks might just end up being something of a rewards card / loyalty program for our frequent mall visitors, or it could be a weird kind of monopoly money to use in games, or it could be we learn that literally everyone hates this and we trash it. For now though, the MallDAO has Mallbucks.

So you can see this currently splits the difference between something of a more crypto native experience and something like you'd see in any money transfer app. (Shout out to @qianliwykoff.bsky.social for the excellent design work!) We'll be tucking the wallet address and network away in the next revision.

While you can technically navigate to the site now, I'd hold off until there's an announcement post because otherwise you're going to be stuck without any Mallbucks throw around.

It's been a fun first 24 on this project and it's great to be working with Qian. She's a killer designer and knows exactly when to cut the jargon and when to dig in deeper. Already I can see this Venmo clone being the stepping stone for something more ambitious over the course of this hackathon.

Stay tuned and if you're interested in what we're doing or would like to help out, the nicest thing you could do for us is to like and repost. 🙏

Thanks for coming along on this journey with us!