Dcrowd

Dcrowd: Decentralized funding with proof of identity

An open-source project. Built for Superhack 2024.

Live demo URL, try it out! https://dcrowd.vercel.app

Deployed multichain on OP stacks Base testnet, mainnet, and Mode testnet.

Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQO5p2boaEM

Inspiration

Dcrowd was built to address the challenges of transparency, accessibility, and efficiency in crowdfunding, particularly for projects in underfunded regions. Traditional platforms like Kiva and Kickstarter have limitations in terms of transaction transparency, funding flexibility, and global accessibility. These platforms often rely on centralized systems that can delay fund distribution, impose significant fees, and restrict access based on geographic and financial constraints. Inspired by these challenges, we aimed to create a decentralized alternative that doesn't require bank accounts and middlemen, and can be used to mediate funds directly between entrepreneurs and their supporters.

What It Does

Dcrowd offers a decentralized platform that enables projects to connect with supporters globally, ensuring transparent, secure, and immediate transactions. Unlike Kickstarter, which primarily serves projects in well-established markets, or Kiva, which focuses on microloans with a more complex application process, Dcrowd simplifies the process by using smart contracts to facilitate donations and support requests. The platform is designed to be inclusive, supporting builders from third-world countries without traditional bank accounts, and ensuring secure identity verification via Worldcoin. Additionally, Dcrowd integrates price feeds from Pyth to provide accurate financial data and uses EAS for reliable attestations, making it a robust and trustworthy solution.

If you are using simulator/sandbox mode, you can authenticate your identity by visiting simulator.worldcoin.org from your mobile device when creating a new project.

Example project page on Base: https://dcrowd.vercel.app/project/0x7A5c9166F049f8e0C8beb44E4dd8cc5B372Bf9dA

Technologies used

Our team used a combination of blockchain technologies to build Dcrowd.

Each page is deployed as its own unique smart contract, and the smart contract's history represents all the engagement with the particular initiative without being mixed with data from other campaigns or users. Additionally, integrated ID verification and endorsement, as well as low cost contract transactions, are some of the major advantages of this platform over traditional web2 products in this space.

• Optimism for multichain transactions. Optimism enables Dcrowd to operate across multiple Layer 2 chains at low cost, facilitating efficient and scalable transactions in contrast to fees often taken on traditional web2 applications. With both Base and Mode networks integrated, Optimism-deployed contracts are key to enable low cost, and potentially cross-border, payments on Dcrowd without requiring traditionally centralized web infrastructure and databases.
• Base the foundation of the Dcrowd smart contract - used for seamless payments and social interactions, ensuring compatibility with the broader Ethereum ecosystem. For the purposes of the hackathon, Dcrowd is an app built for enabling more creators to be able to monetize their networks and build their ideas regardless of where they are located. The ease of setting up wallets on Base also opens up additional opportunities for entrepreneurs who may not have or be able to use centralized banking infrastructure to raise funds.
• Worldcoin for in-app identity proofs, ensuring secure and verified user identities. Users cannot create new fundraiser pages without validating their identity on chain via WorldCoin andthis is checked at time of each new fundraiser creation. This process ensures that only verified individuals can launch projects, reducing the risk of fraudulent activities. In the future, Worldcoin could also be added on the endorsement side, ensuring that only one endorsement is being received per human similar to how fake reviews could be combatted on the web.
• EAS (Ethereum Attestation Service) for secure and verifiable attestations, ensuring the legitimacy of projects and builders through existing networks. Visitors to each project page can endorse an entrepreneur as being valid and credible. The attestation proofs also get sent to the smart contract and are emitted as events that can be listened to from external systems or triggers. Supported attestations for a given project are linked directly on the project detail page as well and provide an additional layer of confidence as more attestations are provided that the project is supported by a strong or reputable creator.
• Pyth for real-time price feeds. Used to show an on-chain provided value for a donation supporter gold tier level in the Dcrowd app/UI. For example, the gold tier level for supporters can be adjusted based on the latest Ethereum price feed, ensuring fair and up-to-date valuations. A websocket is opened on each project page to channel these price feeds, and the system is designed to expand in the future to support other assets and conversions for potential in-app promotions using the most up to date currency estimate.
• Mode Mode is integrated into Dcrowd to provide a cost-effective alternative for transactions. This integration ensures that users can participate in fundraising activities with minimal transaction fees, making it accessible to a broader audience. Mode's connection to blockscout was also quite helpful in this project, enabling visibility of transactions tied to project pages without needing to refresh.
• Blockscout: Provides an improved UI for getting insight into on-chain transactions for each contract. Blockscout enables each project (potentially on different L2 networks) is able to have linked a live and detailed view of per-campaign events arriving on chain. Blockscout explorer URLs are integrated throughout the app experience whenever a contract or transaction is generated.

This project is deployed on Vercel and a preview/beta is live at https://dcrowd.vercel.app

Challenges We Ran Into

One of the main challenges we faced was integrating multiple Optimism/L2 technologies, each with its own set of APIs and protocols. For instance, ensuring seamless communication between Optimism and Base while maintaining transaction speed and security was a complex task. Additionally, this was our first time using EAS for attestations, which required a good understanding of its API and integration process across multiple chains.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

We are particularly proud of successfully integrating multiple blockchain technologies to create a seamless and user-friendly experience. The deployment on OP Stack networks such as Base/Mode to support projects in third-world countries stands out as a significant achievement, as it aligns with our mission to democratize access to funding. The use of Worldcoin for secure identity proof was another highlight, ensuring that humans, regardless of location, are the designated users who can create fundraisers (reducing or eliminating automated fraudulent listings).

Potential Future Work

1. Milestone-Based Payouts: Introduce smart contract features that allow funds to be released in stages based on project progress.

2. Decentralized Governance: Implement a system where supporters can vote on project milestones and key decisions, enhancing community involvement.

3. Yield Generation: A lot of times campaigns require a certain minimum to become active, and early donators might have their funds locked without any benefit. Adding yield generation could incentivize usage and allow funds to earn yield in a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol until the project is ready to execute, maximizing the value of contributions before disbursement to the creator and/or original donator.

See full information and screenshots on the github here: https://github.com/cbonoz/super24