The problem Coingift solves

Coingift seeks to increase crypto adoption.

The big idea behind Coingift is to make it as easy as possible to gift crypto in a fun and familiar way.

The products on offer are eGift Cards for memecoins on Base.

Memecoins are relevant, exciting, fun and have the opportunity to encourage the gift recipient to explore crypto further.
The ideal customer for Coingift is someone who is already a crypto enthusiast, who needs to gift something and who wants to onboard family, friends, co-workers and anyone else in a fun and familiar way to crypto.

The benefits of onboarding people via an existing crypto enthusiast is:

1. the recipient of the gift is introduced to crypto through a trusted source (their friend, family member or co-worker etc)

2. the gift value acts as a natural incentive mechanism for the recipient to download the Coinbase wallet, create a wallet address and participate in the redemption process

3. onchain complexity is completely abstracted away as redemption is via a familiar ecommerce/online mechanism

4. reduced risk to the recipient as no money is being exchanged (we forget how daunting crypto can be for newbies)

Coingift also drives business outcomes for the project sponsors, Shopify and Coinbase via:

1. The solution demonstrates the power of Shopify by being entirely built via native and existing app-store solutions
2. Leverages crypto payments via Coinbase Commerce
3. Increases downloads of the Coinbase Wallet
4. Increases Coinbase customers
5. Introduces and increases customers to the Base L2

Challenges I ran into

Problems faced:

1. Varying regulatory guidelines that apply to gift card products globally
2. Most payment providers have some restrictions to products associated with crypto
3. Most advertising platforms (x and Facebook) restrict paid ads related to crypto products
4. Financial risk management associated with the volatile nature of memecoin values. In terms of holding inventory (float of coins) to service redemptions.
5. concerns around tax implications of gifting crypto

How they were overcome:

1. I've removed the reference to the word ‘giftcard’ with just Coingift
2. I’ve used Coinbase Commerce as a payment solution (SEE UPDATE 1.01)
3. Co-marketing, email, influencer and affiliate marketing will be the go-to channels.I've also found some web3 native ad platforms that could support paid acquisition. There is also an exception on X where advertising 'educational crypto content' is ok - this is likely an avenue that could be explored.
4. Rather than hold a float of coins on the books to service redemptions, the purchaser agrees that the price paid for the memecoin is the market price at the time of redemption.
5. No crypto is exchanged at purchase, so there are no tax implications.

UPDATE 1.01
Coinbase Commerce - Unable to get approved for this product with Australian-based address. Require a buinsess account with LLC and USA-based mailing address. Not a difficult hurdle to overcome but not feasible to undertake this activity at this time so unfortunately cannot take crypto as payment option.