CrowdWork
Invest in projects that resonate with you.
Created on 9th January 2023
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CrowdWork
Invest in projects that resonate with you.
The problem CrowdWork solves
Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the crowdfunding industry by addressing several key issues that have long plagued traditional crowdfunding platforms. One major problem with traditional crowdfunding is a lack of trust, as people often don't know where their funds are going and how they are being used. With the implementation of blockchain, crowdfunding becomes much more transparent and secure, as all transactions are recorded on a decentralized ledger that is publicly accessible. This level of transparency helps to build trust between campaigners and donors.
Another advantage of blockchain-based crowdfunding is speed. Traditional crowdfunding platforms can often be slow, with wire transfers taking hours or even days to complete. In contrast, blockchain technology allows for almost instantaneous fund transfers, making it much easier and more convenient to support campaigns.
Geographical limitations have also been a major issue for traditional crowdfunding platforms, as it can be difficult for people living abroad to support campaigns in other countries. With the use of cryptocurrencies and blockchain, however, these limitations are eliminated, as anyone with an internet connection can participate in crowdfunding campaigns regardless of their location.
Finally, data security is always a concern with traditional crowdfunding platforms, as personal and financial information is often stored on centralized servers that are vulnerable to hacking and data breaches. By implementing the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), blockchain-based crowdfunding platforms can offer a much higher level of data security, as the data is distributed across multiple nodes and is virtually immutable. This makes it fast to query and virtually tamper-proof.
Challenges we ran into
One of the major challenges we faced while building our crowdfunding platform, Crowdwork, was figuring out the best way to store data. On the one hand, we wanted to store certain information on the blockchain for maximum security and transparency. On the other hand, we knew that storing data directly on the blockchain can be expensive in terms of gas fees and network fees. Ultimately, we decided to store most of the details of our campaigns on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) in the form of JSON objects. These objects can be queried in real-time for rendering, and because they are relatively small in size, they don't congest the network traffic.
Another challenge we encountered was how to reward users for supporting campaigns on our platform. Our initial plan was to use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a way to show appreciation to our supporters. However, implementing this reward system proved to be more complicated than we anticipated. To overcome this challenge, we ended up using a lesser-known feature of the Solidity programming language called delegate calling. Essentially, this allowed us to call another already-deployed contract on the blockchain from our main contract and pass in the state variables of the Crowdwork contract. This enabled us to mint NFTs for our users without incurring additional gas fees, as the process was carried out in a single transaction rather than requiring two separate ones.
Lastly challenge we faced while building Crowdwork was implementing a reactive frontend that would provide a smooth, seamless user experience. We turned to Tailwind CSS, a utility-first CSS framework and did a deep research on modern web3 trends and industry grade standards to ensure that our platform was up to date with the latest best practices. This research helped us to identify key features and functionalities that we needed to include in order to provide a high-quality user experience.