Why are you participating for Based Africa?

To bring Africa onchain

What challenges are you focusing on?

The inspiration for SavvyCircle stems from personal experiences within my own community, where I witnessed my mother, a small business owner, face difficulties participating in a traditional savings and lending group (ROSCAs). Despite the group's intent to provide financial security, it was plagued by centralization, mismanagement, and lack of transparency. One incident stood out when my mother urgently needed a loan but couldn’t access it due to these flaws. The group’s communication was fragmented, leading to inconsistencies in contributions and a lack of accountability in loan disbursements.

This story is not unique—many small business owners, like my mother, face similar challenges within these informal financial networks. The inefficiencies, risk of theft, and the absence of transparency prevent these groups from fully serving the needs of their members. SavvyCircle seeks to address these issues using decentralized technology on Base, ensuring transparency, security, and fair access to loans. Through blockchain, we create a trusted, automated system where small business owners can save, borrow, and lend with confidence, transforming the way informal savings groups operate and empowering communities to thrive financially.

How does your submission address this challenge?

SavvyCircle directly tackles the inefficiencies in traditional savings and lending groups like ROSCAs (Rotating Savings and Credit Associations) by creating a transparent, decentralized platform that merges financial operations with social engagement. Leveraging Telegram, a widely used social platform, members of these informal groups can create a group, add the SavvyCircle bot, and seamlessly interact with the mini-app within the group chat. This setup provides users with a familiar environment to chat, save, lend, borrow, and thrive, eliminating the need for separate or centralized systems.

The integration of Chainlink automation ensures that loan disbursements and savings operations are executed with precision and without bias, enhancing transparency. Meanwhile, the Telegram bot maintains clear and open communication by providing real-time updates and automating processes that would otherwise be managed manually, significantly reducing the risk of human error or misconduct. This combination strengthens group trust and efficiency.

SavvyCircle’s user interface is designed with simplicity in mind, allowing for smooth onboarding from Web2 to Web3, making blockchain technology accessible to a wider audience. By implementing a Naira-pegged stablecoin, we create a practical solution for Nigerians, addressing issues with currency volatility and enabling seamless borderless payments. What begins as a solution for ROSCAs evolves into a platform for cooperative lending, borrowing, and stable, localized digital currency transactions.

With over 200 million people, Nigeria plays a crucial role in Ethereum’s mission to onboard one billion users globally. SavvyCircle, by offering a practical and familiar on-chain solution for Nigerians, can act as a vital bridge, bringing significant portions of the population into the Web3 ecosystem. It simplifies the complexities of decentralized finance (DeFi) while solving local problems, aligning with Ethereum’s vision of global adoption

Challenges we ran into

We encountered several challenges while building SavvyCircle. One of the primary hurdles was integrating Base Smart Wallet into our dApp. This wallet requires passkey functionality, which is not supported by Telegram. To overcome this, we explored the documentation extensively, looking for potential workarounds like using social logins with the Base Smart Wallet. Unfortunately, this wasn't a feasible option. After consulting with the support team, we were advised to use any compatible smart wallet, leading us to implement Thirdweb's smart wallet. While this solved the immediate problem, Thirdweb presented its own set of challenges. We aimed for seamless user experience by integrating Telegram login directly into the system, so users wouldn’t need to manually input their Telegram usernames. However, this feature was locked behind a paid tier, which we couldn’t access at the time. Moving forward, integrating this feature remains a priority for future iterations.

Another significant challenge was in building the Telegram bot. Initially, after creating the bot, we realized users had to leave the group chat and interact with the bot in a private chat to launch the mini-app. This was an unintended user friction point that only became apparent during live testing. It was particularly difficult because we were still in the learning phase of building Telegram mini-apps. After conducting in-depth research, we found a way to allow users to access the mini-app directly within the group chat, streamlining the process and improving overall user experience.

These challenges helped us refine the platform and identify key areas for improvement, setting a solid foundation for future growth.