Why are you participating for Based India?

As active members of HYDDAO, where we organize Web3 events in Hyderabad, India, our motivation for participating in Based India is to improve post-event networking at community events. We are building the Proof of Connection Protocol (POCP), a project that brings everyone on-chain, whether they are students or experienced developers. By leveraging Base, the Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS), Onchain-Kit, Coinbase Smart Wallet, Paymaster, and Luma, we create lasting digital proofs of connections made at events, allowing participants to build on these interactions in the future.

Our goal is to strengthen networking and collaboration across communities, helping attendees form long-lasting relationships after events. We believe this will contribute to the growth of India's Web3 ecosystem through Based India, empowering community members with innovative tools to enhance their networking experience.

Ultimately, we aim to develop POCP into a comprehensive event platform, similar to Luma, with full on-chain functionality in the Base ecosystem.

I encourage you to check out our GitBook link: https://mujahid.gitbook.io/pocp/images/pocp-hangout-1

What challenges are you focusing on?

We're focusing on solving the challenge of post-event networking in our community. While we host many Web3 events through HYDDAO, we’ve noticed that connections made during these events often don’t last. To fix this, we're bringing these connections on-chain to create lasting memories and stronger relationships.

At HYDDAO, we believe networking is essential for a successful event and for building stronger community bonds. POCP (Proof of Connection Protocol) helps close the gap between attendees, allowing them to connect, share socials, and turn these interactions into lasting on-chain connections using Base.

Another issue we’re tackling is the lack of proof for event participation. Often, people attend events, but there’s no lasting record of their involvement. POCP solves this by introducing an Event Reputation Score to encourage attendance. Attendees can boost their reputation by going to events and making meaningful connections.

POCP brings everything on-chain with Smart Wallets and Paymaster, making transactions smooth and easy for users. Onchain-Kit has been crucial in helping us build this solution, allowing us to focus on solving these challenges effectively.

How does your submission address this challenge?

POCP (Proof of Connection Protocol) tackles the challenge of post-event networking and encourages active participation by building attendee reputations. By bringing event interactions on-chain, POCP helps attendees make meaningful connections and fosters ongoing engagement with community events.

POCP integrates with Luma, an event ticketing platform that bridges Web2 and Web3, allowing event organizers to easily upload event check-in data through Excel. This data ensures that connections are made within the event’s time frame. With Coinbase’s Smart Wallet and Paymaster, attendees can interact smoothly without worrying about the complexity of on-chain transactions. To make the experience even more accessible, our teammate designed a mobile-friendly UI.

Once the event data is uploaded, POCP generates a leaderboard that encourages attendees to boost their connection count by engaging with others. This competitive feature not only drives participation but also offers rewards like limited-edition swag. We introduced a QR system for easy connections, where attendees can share socials and mutually accept to form a valid connection. Attendees must make at least one connection to improve their Reputation Score, which they can display on their social profiles to showcase their event participation and community standing.

After the event, organizers use the Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS) on Base to create multi-attestations based on attendee interactions. This generates on-chain Proof of Connections and Participation, giving attendees verifiable records of their networking efforts. By leveraging Base, Smart Wallets, Paymaster, and Onchain-Kit, POCP ensures smooth post-event networking and promotes long-term community engagement.

I encourage you to check out our GitBook link: https://mujahid.gitbook.io/pocp/images/pocp-hangout-1

Challenges we ran into

Non-Technical Challenges:

We faced a challenge in testing POCP since our team is spread across different locations. To solve this, we decided to create an event using Luma to gather data for POCP. During Base office hours, we connected with wbnns (Senior Developer Advocate at Base), who gave us valuable insights. Through this conversation, we realized POCP could also be applied to virtual meetups, which led us to pivot our strategy and explore networking opportunities in digital spaces. As a result, we organized our first virtual meetup: https://mujahid.gitbook.io/pocp/images/pocp-hangout-1

Technical Challenges:

While developing POCP, we encountered technical issues integrating Smart Wallet, Paymaster, and Onchain-Kit to enable seamless on-chain interactions. We use the Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS) to create digital attestations, and we wanted to integrate Paymaster for gasless transactions. However, EAS and Paymaster have limitations when used with the Wagmi library.

To address this, we consulted with the EAS team, who suggested handling attestations from the admin side by delegating attestations or using multi attestations after collecting data. This approach helps streamline the attestation process, ensuring connections are verified post-event while minimizing gas fees through multi attestations.