Alice — Once Upon A Time…
What I’m going to introduce you to is a solution with the power to rapidly increase mass adoption in the cryptosphere, Alice.
Project Alice’s journey began after Daniel Bar and myself started an accelerator in Sydney, Australia. The accelerator (10x Founders program) is run out of The University of New South Wales. We started off with a few theories and went off into the crypto wilderness, interviewing people building crypto applications and also crypto users. The feedback we got was phenomenal. Thank you to all who took the time out to answer questions and surveys as we were able to solidify our first proof of concept for Alice.
An idea was born for a crypto super app, the idea of a super app became apparent to me on the launch of wechat mini programs. This idea has been iterated and emphasized upon by Connie Chan from a16z in this article. This is the solution that ticked off the most problem/solution criteria.
So Super Apps, what are they? They are mobile applications which have a feature rich platform, then, in the form of mini applications within the super app, offer up different services built atop this platform. Examples of these platforms are WeChat’s payment channel and social app, GoJek’s transport/ride sharing services, or AliPay’s payment gateways.
Some platforms are closed so that only the creators of the platform choose the apps they want inside their super app. However, in some cases the app is completely open for any entity to build in, like WeChat.
There are concerns with apps like AliPay and WeChat because of their entanglements with the Chinese government and infringements on user’s privacy. However, what we’ve seen through our time in the blockchain/cryptocurrency realm is the ability to build out applications that are privacy focused and entirely concerned around a user’s privacy.
This is why we created Alice, a crypto mobile, super app. So that user’s can feel free to roam and explore their digital spaces and express themselves digitally without feeling like they’re being limited or restricted or even surveilled on the platform. The ultimate freedom in a connected world.
Imagine having all of your favourite crypto apps on mobile all within your wallet. The things you could accomplish in just a few clicks rather than navigating through clunky mobile web interfaces. Also having all your crypto in one mobile app, giving you access to all your funds in the palm of your hand while browsing the decentralised web.
A fundamental product concept we’re keeping at the heart of Alice is a foundational principle of design and product evolution. People use solutions that make their lives easier and more efficient, and this is at the helm of our design thinking. We want to make crypto a solution that is easier to build solutions for any business on and easier for any user to exchange value, worldwide.
Where are we up to now? Luckily the 0x + Coinlist hackathon was taking place at the time we were doing research. We entered the hackathon and received the community choice award for Alice entry. I then flew to ETHDenver to explore more mobile first solutions and finished runners up with Franky Aguilar with the BattleBombers mobile app.
We’ve built out a proof of concept using a fork of the Balance/Rainbow wallet and are now building native iOS and Android apps with the ability to build React Native mini dapps into. We’ve had the amazing opportunity to present Alice on the main stage at EDCON Sydney and at the Web3 UX Unconference. We’ve received great reviews from the Ethereum community so far and are moving full steam ahead with the build!
For the technical spec: Alice technical proposal
To follow our journey, keep an eye on Alice at:
Twitter: @heyaliceapp
Website: alicedapp.com
My Socials:
@markpereir
LinkedIn
