Traditional crowdfunding (a la Kickstarter or GoFundMe, etc.) is broken. It relies on centralized middlemen - banks, payment processors, and credit card companies - that charge high fees, delay payouts, and control access to funds. Worse, they can seize users' money, censor their transactions, and deplatform them at will.

Even beyond these financial gatekeepers, crowdfunding faces a second, deeper challenge: collective action problems.

❌ Contributors take on unnecessary risk due to uncertainty: backers of unsuccessful campaigns lose time, liquidity, and often money in the process. If the campaign doesn't reach its goal, at best contributors receive a refund; at worst, their money is spent on furthering the campaign's (ultimately unsuccessful) aims, and thus wasted.

❌ Herd mentality stalls funding: many people won’t contribute unless they’re sure others will as well (in part due to the risks described above; in part due to not wanting to be merely a "drop in the bucket" for larger projects), making it difficult to reach the critical mass needed for many ideas to succeed.

❌ Splitting costs is often a guessing game. Fixed-cost campaigns (like group trips or venue rentals, where a single amount is split equally amongst attendees) make it hard to set a single price until you know how many people are committed - but most people won't commit to something until they know the price! This chicken-and-egg pricing dynamic prevents a huge number of potential ideas (that would otherwise have eager support) from coming to life.

Tipping Point solves both problems by removing middlemen and streamlining coordination with your crowd, thus eliminating the risk and uncertainty in raising money. By replacing centralized legacy providers with smart contracts, our platform delivers:

✅ Automated Coordination – Dynamic pricing and if-this-then-that mechanics ensure that no money moves unless an idea is guaranteed to be fully funded. Users pledge funds, but only when a campaign reaches its tipping point (by hitting the campaign creator's funding and attendance goals) do contributions settle — instantly and transparently — directly to the organizer. If the goals aren't met, no one is charged, and no one loses anything. No risk, all reward!

✅ Censorship & Seizure Resistance – Funds are always self-custodied in users' wallets; Tipping Point never has access to user funds and cannot stop transactions once broadcast to the blockchain.

✅ Instant Settlement – No more waiting days to access funds; campaign creators receive their money instantly when their campaign tips.

✅ No KYC/AML - Traditional platforms require sensitive personal and financial information, exposing users to data breaches, identity theft, and corporate abuse. Tipping Point eliminates this risk - just connect your wallet and fund with confidence, knowing your information stays yours.

✅ Global Reach: Collect funds from anywhere in the world without being limited by payment processors, banking restrictions or geographic barriers.

✅ Ultra-Low Fees – Just 1.5% (the lowest fee of any crowdfunding platform in existence!), paid by contributors, and only on successful campaigns.

Tipping Point turns crowdfunding from a gamble into a guarantee. Unlock the power of your crowd today - with Tipping Point!

While I've been an Ethereum investor since 2016, this was my first foray into software development, so every step from conception to implementation was a learning experience!

If I had to pick one, though, it would be the design of our smart contract, and how we could enable trustless assurance contracts without an escrow (because while simpler to design, an escrow would increase gas fees - especially in the case of a refund/failed campaign - and provide a larger attack surface/honeypot).

We accomplished this by consolidating all the data needed from a contributing user (e.g. the recipient's address, how much $USDC will be contributed, the campaign deadline, the nonce, paymaster info, Tipping Point fees, etc.) into 1 EIP-712 structured typed data message, to be signed by the user and then executed in the BankTeller smart contract should the campaign hit its goals.

Doing this safely and efficiently (while also maintaining a simple and intuitive UX, as we want to onboard as many non-crypto-natives as possible) was incredibly difficult, but I was so proud when we finally got the green light from Trail of Bits after our audit - and of course I'm very happy with our final product/v1!

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