MINIFI
Feed. Grow. Save.
The problem MINIFI solves
Most people find DeFi intimidating, even though it promises open access to financial tools that could help them save and earn yield. The complexity of wallets, jargon, and trading interfaces makes it hard for newcomers, creators, and everyday users to get started. Many DeFi platforms are still designed for professionals, not beginners, turning what should be a simple, empowering experience into something confusing or anxiety-inducing.
MINIFI is designed as a simple and playful gateway to DeFi. Users can mint and “feed” their own digital creatures—called Turriteccos—without needing to understand yield protocols or complex finance terms. When users feed their creatures, the tokens are automatically staked into Aave Protocol, where they begin to generate yield in the background, just like a growing savings account.
Challenges we ran into
Stella - Front-end Designer
My background is in design, and I have been using Figma for creating front-end prototypes for a while. But for this project, I started using Figma Make, which allows rapid prototyping from a design POV and generates the basic code packages needed. While using it, I ran into several challenges guiding the AI to finalize details, and I often ended up adding them manually (padding, sizing, etc.).
Kirsty - Creature Designer
For Kirsty, it was hard to move visually and aesthetically a bit away from The ALANA Project's general branding to start creating these cute creatures we call Turriteccos. They are part of ALANA lore, but we never really visualized them before, other than in written text. Another obstacle was the correct shading of the creatures. While they are flat designs, they are drawn to feel 3D, together with the grain, which is not an easy challenge.
Manuel - Blockchain Developer
One of the main challenges I faced was designing the pet creation system. Our goal is to build a factory contract that deploys a unique smart contract for each NFT, ensuring each creature has its own dedicated Aave position rather than pooling all user funds into a single shared account. This architecture increases security and transparency, but adds complexity in contract deployment and management.
Link to the GitHub Repo of your project
Live URL of your project
What is your product’s unique value proposition?
MINIFI turns DeFi onboarding into a playful, story-driven experience where users grow their savings by interacting with cute creatures rather than dashboards or charts. Each creature represents an individual yield-generating NFT connected to Aave Protocol, making saving simple, visual, and rewarding, and letting new users feel less anxious.
Unlike speculative NFT or DeFi apps, MINIFI uniquely blends education, entertainment, and real financial utility. The alpha build validates this by letting users mint and feed their creatures, track yield transparently on-chain, and manage micro-investments directly through Farcaster and Base, all anchoring into The ALANA Project’s shared lore.
Who is your target customer?
MINIFI is created for people like those in The ALANA Project community—creators, creative builders, and curious learners who have grown in their Web3 knowledge but still feel anxious to engage with DeFi. While most of them are comfortable using wallets and utilizing other decentralized tooling, DeFi remains a struggle for them.
Through community polls, feedback from ALANAmagazine readers, and creator interviews, we confirmed that members want safe, beginner-friendly ways to earn from small savings without the stress of “trading.”
Who are your closest competitors and how are you different?
Aavegotchi
https://www.aavegotchi.com/
Aavegotchi targets crypto-native gamers and investors through "complex" DeFi staking and strategy gameplay. In short, Aavegotchi turns DeFi into a game of power and rarity; MINIFI turns DeFi into a habit of growth and care—bridging creativity, financial literacy, and community learning through The ALANA Project.
Clankermon
https://clankermon.com
While Clankermon gamifies the trading side of DeFi, rewarding speculation and competition, MINIFI focuses on DeFi onboarding and saving through calmer, habit‑forming interactions. In MINIFI, feeding a Turritecco represents a safe micro‑investment—funds are deposited into Aave to earn a steady yield, not exposed to market volatility.
DeFi Land
https://defiland.app
DeFi Land gamifies farming and staking with a heavy focus on gameplay. MINIFI focuses on DeFi onboarding and financial confidence rather than simulation. DeFi Land also tends to use a lot of jargon, and its roadmap stopped at 2024.
MINIFI approaches DeFi through narrative and emotional connection rather than financial gamification. It encourages beginning to form a new habit and engaging with a tool that can turn into an economic resource. It is more about building personal confidence than making larger financial investments. Giving DeFi a cute, friendly, and visual embodiment through Turriteccos might help onboard more people to make use of the tool without extracting value from the space.
What is your distribution strategy and why?
MINIFI’s distribution relies on a community‑driven, platform‑integrated approach that matches both its story‑based design and its creator‑focused audience.
**Farcaster Mini App Ecosystem **
MINIFI launches as a native Farcaster Mini App, where discovery and virality are built in through the social feed interface—users can mint and share their creatures in just a single click. This gives instant exposure inside the Base ecosystem, with zero‑friction onboarding and social amplification.
Community Channels through The ALANA Project
MINIFI will be promoted through The ALANA Project community, ALANAmagazine readers, and creator partners, who already trust its educational content. This direct channel ensures authentic adoption among early Web3 learners and collaborators who value creative storytelling and accessible tools.
Partnerships and Collaborations
Future collaborations with existing partner communities, we have already formed due to the ALANAmagazine (e.g. Artizen) and our community‑led learning hubs (e.g. Growthepie.xyz), will expand reach to adjacent audiences hesitant to engage with DeFi.
This strategy aligns with the product because MINIFI’s audience grows organically through trust, storytelling, and social interactions. By embedding within Farcaster’s built‑in social graph and The ALANA Project’s education ecosystem, user adoption spreads naturally, sustained by shared learning and community value rather than speculation or ad campaigns.
Technologies used