The problem Perfect Pie solves

TL;DR

Perfect Pie is a social drawing game on Base that turns drawing circles into competition, rewards, and proof-of-humanity. It blends fun gameplay, onchain incentives, and Sybil resistance in a mobile-first app that’s easy to pick up, hard to master, and designed to grow virally through Farcaster.

The Problem It Solves

Perfect Pie is a social drawing game built on Base. At its core, it’s about turning the simple act of drawing a circle into a fun, competitive challenge with real rewards. But there’s more to it—Perfect Pie also helps solve one of Web3’s toughest problems: how to prove someone’s human without making them jump through boring CAPTCHAs.

Core Value Propositions

Skill-Based Social Gaming

Anyone can pick it up, but mastering it takes skill.

• Draw shapes as accurately as you can—starting with circles
• Get scored from 0–100 based on precision and consistency
• Easy to learn, but surprisingly tough to perfect

Sybil Resistance Through Human Verification

Bots can’t fake the way humans draw. Perfect Pie uses this fact to create a natural proof-of-human system.

• Looks at drawing speed, pressure, and smoothness
• Flags unusual, bot-like patterns
• Turns verification into a game instead of a hassle
• Protects token rewards from automated abuse

Hourly Competition System

Every hour, a new competition starts.

• Live leaderboards show who’s on top
• Winners earn $PIE tokens automatically
• Limited attempts per session keep it fair
• A practice mode lets players improve without risking rewards

Viral Social Mechanics

Built to spread naturally through Farcaster.

• Share scores and challenges with friends
• Earn rewards by inviting others
• Milestones trigger celebratory notifications
• Profiles and social leaderboards keep the competition alive

Onchain Rewards & Ownership

• $PIE tokens for winners
• Claim rewards securely with replay protection
• Smart contract on Base keeps distribution transparent
• Seamless onboarding with smart wallets
• Anti-cheat checks for fair play

Mobile-First Accessibility

• Built for mobile touch interactions
• Responsive design for any screen size
• Progressive Web App (PWA) ready
• One-tap wallet connections
• Works natively inside Farcaster Frames

Why It Matters

Perfect Pie solves two problems at once:

1. It’s a fun way to bring new users onchain.
2. It doubles as a proof-of-human system that’s actually enjoyable.

Instead of CAPTCHAs and friction, Perfect Pie shows how good design can make Web3 safer and more fun.

Challenges I ran into

TL;DR

Building Perfect Pie meant figuring out a brand-new ecosystem. I had to piece together scattered docs, fight through tricky manifest and auth setups, wrangle embedded wallets and smart accounts, and hack together notifications. Each hurdle slowed me down but ultimately gave me a repeatable playbook for future Mini Apps.

Challenges I Ran Into

I first got access to Mini Apps through the Base app beta. I saw an opportunity to build something simple yet addictive for the community, but taking the idea from concept to launch came with a set of technical hurdles. Some were just the growing pains of a new ecosystem, others were my first time working with this framework.

1. Navigating the Mini App Ecosystem Documentation

Challenge:
The Base docs don’t go very deep into the @coinbase/onchainkit/minikit library. To figure things out, I had to bounce between different sources—MiniKit docs, OnchainKit examples, and @farcaster/miniapp-sdk.

Pain Points:

• Understanding Mini App terms (QuickAuth, notifications, share frames)
• Learning the framework’s unique patterns and lifecycle
• No solid end-to-end examples to follow

Solution:
I dedicated a week to diving in—reading everything I could, testing other Mini Apps, and joining community discussions. Eventually, I was able to stitch the pieces together into a working mental model.

2. Local Development and Manifest Configuration

Challenge:
The manifest.json setup wasn’t very intuitive, and the local dev server had some unexpected authentication quirks.

Specific Issue:
I kept running into issues because I tried authenticating with my Base account. In reality, local development required Farcaster authentication.

Solution:
After some trial and error, I found a faster path: registering the manifest directly through the Farcaster web developer portal. That let me skip the dev server headaches and focus on shipping features.

3. Embedded Wallets + Smart Accounts Integration

Challenge:
This was by far the toughest piece. OnchainKit/MiniKit worked well for Farcaster and Base app users, but I wanted to support a wider audience—specifically with email-based authentication.

Implementation Journey:

1. Started with basic embedded wallets
2. Tried adding server wallets + smart accounts
3. Landed on: embedded wallets + smart accounts + paymaster

Technical Debt:
I weighed options like Alchemy AA and Privy, but ended up going with Coinbase’s CDP embedded wallet solution with Paymaster. To make it work, I had to build a custom shim that checks context and loads the right provider on the fly.

Time Investment:
~5 days of heads-down work to get the full flow running smoothly.

4. Notification System Implementation

Challenge:
Since the Base app doesn’t support notifications yet, I had to build one just for Farcaster users. Farcaster’s ecosystem leans heavily on Neynar, but I wanted to understand how things worked under the hood instead of relying on a black box.

Discovery:
Even though verifyAppKeyWithNeynar ships in @farcaster/miniapp-node, I dug into Farcaster’s open-source implementation to see what was really happening. That helped me wire up a more direct integration.

Time Investment:
About 1.5 days from research to working notifications.

Overall Impact

Despite the bumps, the process was worth it.

• Week 1: Built and launched the Perfect Pie MVP (8/8)
• Week 3: Hit 1,000 users (8/26)
• Learning Curve: Tough at first, but once the core concepts clicked, the modular Base ecosystem made iteration much faster

A lot of the challenges came from being an early adopter in a fast-moving environment. Solving them not only made Perfect Pie stronger, but also gave me a repeatable template I can use for future Mini Apps.

Smart Contract Address(es)

0xA0CfF887a64CBB93037319f57B896fD7812fA863

Other Onchain Proof

https://basescan.org/address/0xA0CfF887a64CBB93037319f57B896fD7812fA863?mtd=0x2ada8a32~Claim