ClearFund
Transparent crowdfunding built on Ethereum
Created on 4th January 2026
•
ClearFund
Transparent crowdfunding built on Ethereum
The problem ClearFund solves
The Problem
Most crowdfunding platforms rely on centralized trust and provide little control once funds are transferred. After donating, contributors have no reliable way to verify how or when their money is used. This results in three core problems:
Uncontrolled Fund Usage
- Creators can access the full amount immediately, regardless of project progress, exposing donors to risks such as fund misuse, abandoned projects, or rug pulls.
No Enforced Accountability
- Funding is typically released as a single lump sum instead of being tied to measurable progress. There is no technical enforcement linking capital release to actual delivery.
Poor Web3 Usability
- Existing decentralized solutions often suffer from slow data access, frequent wallet prompts, and high latency caused by direct blockchain reads, making them difficult for non-technical users to adopt.
The Solution: ClearFund
ClearFund is a hybrid Web3 crowdfunding platform that enforces transparency and accountability using smart contracts, while maintaining the speed and usability of modern web applications.
Blockchain is required to enable trustless fund custody and milestone-based capital release without relying on a centralized intermediary.
1. On-Chain Escrow with Milestone Enforcement
- Funds are locked inside a smart contract escrow.
- Creators can withdraw funds only after predefined milestones are approved.
- If a campaign fails to reach its funding goal by the deadline, donors can automatically claim refunds on-chain.
2. Hybrid Architecture for High Performance
- All financial logic (donations, escrow, withdrawals, refunds) is executed on-chain.
- Campaign metadata and discovery data are indexed in real time using a SQL database, enabling fast load times and efficient filtering without relying on slow blockchain queries.
3. Immutable Asset Storage
- Campaign images and verification documents are stored on IPFS via Pinata.
- This ensures permanent, tamper-resistant storage of campaign commitments and supporting data.
Revenue Model
ClearFund operates on a protocol fee charged on successfully released funds.
Additional revenue streams include creator verification services and premium analytics for campaign performance.
Challenges I ran into
Challenges I Ran Into
-
Hybrid State Synchronization (Web2 + Web3)
Keeping Supabase (SQL) data synchronized with on-chain state introduced race conditions, where off-chain data updated faster than blockchain confirmations.
I resolved this by implementing a hybrid fetching strategy: static metadata (titles, images, categories) is fetched from Supabase for instant load times, while dynamic financial data (total raised, donor count) is read directly from the smart contract using Wagmi hooks, ensuring on-chain accuracy. -
Breaking Changes in Wagmi v2
A mid-development upgrade removed the watch: true property, breaking real-time updates and blocking deployment due to TypeScript errors.
I refactored all contract reads to use Wagmi’s polling-based architecture with query: { refetchInterval }, restoring live updates while maintaining compatibility and type safety with the latest version. -
Type Safety vs Real-World Data Flow
Strict TypeScript schemas conflicted with partially available blockchain data during the donation flow, causing compilation failures.
I redesigned the donation modal to accept a minimal, flexible interface and added just-in-time Supabase lookups before persisting transactions, bridging rigid database types with dynamic on-chain data.
Tracks Applied (1)