The problem UpWord solves

Content creators gain more control over their audience accessibility through selectable bonding curves customized to their preferences at account creation. Users gain access to their content creators, and have direct incentives to make the content creators more valuable by being exposed to the upside of the creator's growth. Platform ownership will be managed via DAO, ensuring content creators have a platform dedicated to serving them with a robust toolset and hosting optionality, rather than rent seeking and optimizing for ad revenue models. Leveraging emergent social graph sources across the industry will provide a form of semi-verifiable identity to the content creator layer, and allow for datasets generated by users and creators to be monetized (or not) with the value generated going directly to the originating party. Social media can do more for its users, and we aim to be the toolbox that opens those doors.

Challenges we ran into

The code from Friend Tech, which has been forked to produce many SoFi competitors in the space, was subject to an arithmetic progression error in the calculation of buying and selling shares. Our Dev team has fixed this algorithm to ensure that users do not incur a loss between buys and sells that results in the last holder being unable to sell.

Developing Upword presented unique challenges, particularly when integrating the bonding curve concept with options for Static, Linear, and Exponential bonding styles. Explaining these complex financial mechanisms in a user-friendly UI was no small feat, requiring us to bridge the gap between sophisticated DeFi concepts and intuitive user experience. Implementing these bonding styles as a Factory model within the DAO added another layer of complexity. To navigate these hurdles, we embarked on extensive research, engaging with mentors, alpha users, and other teams. This collaborative effort was crucial in crafting a solution that not only met our technical requirements but was also accessible and understandable to our users, ensuring Upword's foundation is as innovative as it is user-centric.

Our project team has come together from ground zero at the beginning of the hackathon, with a first time hacker project lead. The dev team has gone above and beyond to deliver an MVP within a week despite two members attending the solidity bootcamps. Our goal is to deliver a functioning beta within the next 14 days, and our roadmap extends far beyond the scope achievable during a hackathon. Our focus has been on developing a working DeFi protocol more than capturing any bounty in particular, and choosing this focus presents a potential challenge in finding funding to expand development while the revenue flywheel spins up.