Lately, Iβve been drawn to clean, minimalist UI design. Taking this as a sign to finally pick up Figma and start learning the ropes π.
What are your favorite beginner resources?
Yesterday at @Hack4Futo was a blast.
The stakes were high for my friends @Fortexfreddie, @therealgunroar and @Joshking2105, who participated in their first irl hackathon. I respect their courage and effort. It is not easy to be a builder.
It was also exciting to see one of my own (@davidnzubee) win not only once but twice π₯ Skipp cooked as always. Lovely to see how he has grown since we met when he was a fresher till now. Bro is a 100x dev with workings.
It was lovely seeing @alexfavour, @HeIsJoel0x, @ubadinekethedev and @SuperteamNG giving our students in FUTO the opportunity to build and learn about Solana. You all are too much.
Hack4FUTO has truly been wonderful π
No words, absolutely no words
What a journey it has been.
A week ago I had never won any hackathon but today, I have won two.
I and @Romeo_Onchain took the stage by storm.
Thank you Jesus Christ.
Thank you @Hack4Futo
Thank you @SuperteamNG
You don't have to build to win at Hack4FUTO 5.0!
- Predict the finalist teams. 2 winners get β¦20,000 each.
- Top X social media engagements gets β¦10,000.
In partnership with @Anomaly_HQ .
π July 25 | 9AM | FUTO
Details: https://t.co/Dbk7fEZiyK
Build update: had a session with Kamsi (@Fortexfreddie) yesterday on the idea validation frontend for Inverge.
A quick recap for anyone new here: before Inverge touches any escrow or crowdfunding logic, we're shipping a free, standalone validation product first. Creators document a problem statement, mission, roadmap and ask. The community responds. No money moves at this stage; it's pure signal.
The core mechanic is pre-pledge: backers state an intent amount to show real interest, without transferring funds. To keep that signal honest, we're weighting pledges by verification status; unverified users carry less weight than verified ones, so the validation number reflects genuine intent rather than noise. We're still tuning the exact split.
For an idea to graduate into a fundable campaign, it needs to clear a minimum pre-pledge total, sustained over a set validation window, alongside supporting engagement (upvotes, comments, survey responses). This is the gate that stops weak ideas from reaching a raise before they've proven demand.
One honest sequencing call from the session: we're deprioritising on-ramp and off-ramp integration for now to focus fully on the validation flow and KYC. KYC matters more at this stage because it's what lets a validated idea move cleanly into a campaign later. On-ramp research continues in parallel, but it isn't blocking this phase.
Also worth saying: Inverge isn't a tech-only platform. The validation and reward model is built to work for agriculture, film, arts and crafts projects too, not just software. A farming project offering backers something like kilishi or any farm produce in return is exactly the kind of use case we're designing for, alongside the startup pitches.
Next up: web scaffolding integration, KYC method research, and continued on-ramp partner scoping. More updates as the frontend takes shape.
Building Inverge in public, one honest step at a time.
Hack4FUTO has been riding on the wings of the legacy that the previous hosts had set.
It's basically running on it's own at this point, not saying there are no hurdles... but this one, this one is a big feat.
I asked a room of 500+ builders to poke holes in Inverge before writing a single line of the funding flow. One of the SuperteamNG Product Guild admins (@thelilinuel) took me up on it, and the hour that followed reshaped how I'm thinking about the whole product.
Quick context: Inverge is crowdfunding where funds sit in escrow on Solana and get released to the creator per milestone, only when backers approve. No delivery, backers get back whatever's left.
She broke three things. Here's each one, with the fix.
1. "Why is yours different, and why on-chain?" Every existing platform pays out 100% at the end of the raise and hopes the creator delivers. Kickstarter and Indiegogo can't even pay out Nigerian creators, so the incumbents aren't in this market at all. And the refund guarantee only means something if I can't touch the money, which is the whole reason for the chain. Backers still see a normal card checkout. The chain is plumbing, not the pitch.
2. The escrow paradox. Most creators need a lump sum to even start, and locking everything means they may never reach milestone one. The fix is a working-capital tranche: around 20% releases the moment aampaign funds are received, and the rest stays escrowed against milestones. Enough to start, never enough to make ghosting worth it.
3. Milestone padding. Say I need 2k but claim 5k, set milestone one at 2k, collect what I actually needed, then ghost. So creator-set amounts don't go unchecked. Creators publish a budget breakdown per milestone, every campaign passes review before it goes live, and an AI layer flags suspicious structures for the team to look at properly.
Her most honest line was this: "Inverge doesn't make fraud impossible. It moves the risk from everything to a fraction." She's right, and I'd rather build around that truth than promise a fraud-proof system that doesn't exist. The job is shrinking the fraction, layer by layer.
Layer one is identity. KYC and social verification are mandatory for every creator. You're receiving other people's money, so you prove who you are and link the socials you actually built in public with. Backers get to see a real person with a real footprint before committing anything.
Layer two is reputation. Every delivered milestone, every backer vote, every completed or failed campaign feeds a public creator score. Pad a budget or ghost once and it follows you to your next raise. Deliver consistently and raising gets easier each time. Trust compounds, and long-term, that reputation graph is the product's moat.
And underneath all of it, the actual point: money in, money out, for creators the current platforms have locked out. Backers pay with card or naira, and it converts to USDC behind the scenes. Creators off-ramp released tranches straight to naira through licensed partners. Nobody needs to know what a seed phrase is.
Refunds follow the same logic. If a campaign misses its target or a milestone fails, whatever remains lands directly in the backer's wallet, a Privy wallet created with their email at signup. From there t,hey can cash out, transfer it elsewhere, or put it behind another project. No support ticket, no waiting on the platform, because the platform never held the money in the first place.
Still open: dispute resolution speed, whether the voting thresholds survive contact with bad actors, and a proper look at MetaDAO, which someone in the group recommended.
Next: 30+ survey responses before any funding-flow code. Five minutes if you've ever raised or backed a project: https://t.co/cWrwY9x0Mq.
The answers that poke holes help the most.