Reflecting on Our Journey: From Tax Season Hustle to a Future Full of Innovations
In our last blog post, Keeping It Cool During Tax Season: A Glimpse into Our Tech Team’s Journey, we gave you a peek behind the scenes into the whirlwind of managing a crypto tax assistant with just four developers supporting tens of thousands of users during our busiest time of year. It was an intense period, but now, as we catch our breath, it’s time to share what’s next — and trust me, we have some seriously exciting things coming your way!
A New Era of User-Driven Development
We’ve got three major projects in the works, and the first one — drumroll please — has been requested by our users for years! Yes, years! We’re thrilled to finally deliver on this feature, and it’s rolling out mid-September. The entire team is buzzing with excitement because this project marks a major turning point for us in how we build new features.
In the past, we collected feedback but generally made the big decisions internally. After all, building features for a tax platform is complex, and we often felt we needed to steer the ship ourselves. But this time, our product team, led by the unstoppable Valentin Morterol, shifted gears completely. We partnered directly with our beta users throughout the development process, and WOW — the results speak for themselves! The collaboration has been absolutely fantastic, and we can’t wait for you to experience it firsthand. Make sure you’re following us on X at @Get_Waltio(formerly Twitter) so you don’t miss a thing when we go live!
And guess what? That’s only the beginning. We have two more huge projects cooking in the background, but I’m going to keep those under wraps just a little longer. With all these exciting projects lined up, our frontend developer, Anthony Galea, is going to be incredibly busy bringing them to life! What I can say is that by the end of 2024, Waltio is going to be in a league of its own, and I’m beyond excited to share more with you in the coming months. Stay tuned — big things are happening!
The Invisible Magic: Major Backend Overhaul
While all the excitement is brewing on the surface, we’ve also been hard at work behind the scenes, making some massive upgrades to our backend systems. This summer, we completed a major framework update, upgrading our core backend, Spring Boot, to version 3.3.1, and leveling up to Java 21. But we didn’t stop there! We went through every library we use with a fine-tooth comb—removing outdated or unnecessary components, upgrading the important ones, and trimming down external dependencies wherever possible. It’s like a digital spring cleaning, and the results are going to make our platform faster, smoother, and more resilient than ever before.
But wait, there’s more! Our crypto price aggregation system has also undergone a complete transformation. When we first launched Waltio five years ago, the quality of crypto price data was, let’s just say, hit or miss. To ensure reliability, we had to work with multiple aggregators. Fast forward to today, and we’ve decided to simplify things and partner exclusively with Coingecko, the gold standard in crypto data. This move has drastically improved data accuracy and system reliability. Plus, we’ve added a cool new touch — our app now shows way more token icons, making your experience even smoother!
And that’s not all this upgrade made possible. We used the opportunity to supercharge our Scam Classification Algorithm. We’re now running nine — yes, nine — data checks to determine whether a token might be a scam. The peace of mind this brings to our users is invaluable, and we’re proud to offer one of the most robust scam detection tools out there.
BEAG: Revolutionizing How We Handle File Imports
If all that isn’t exciting enough, let me introduce you to our next game-changer: Project BEAG. Led by our brilliant engineers, Daniel Adam and Thomas Peltre, BEAG is set to revolutionize how we handle file imports, and it’s on track for completion by the end of the year. You see, we support around 80 different platforms, many of which require file imports due to limited or unavailable APIs. This can get complex and time-consuming, but BEAG is going to change the game. Once it’s implemented, we’ll be able to support even more users with our existing team and infrastructure, and our efficiency will skyrocket. Daniel and Thomas will dive into the details in a future post, but trust me, BEAG is a project that will make a huge impact!
Every Season is a Game-Changer at Waltio
As you can tell, things are moving fast at Waltio, and there’s no slowing down. Every season brings its own set of challenges and opportunities, but the months ahead are truly going to be transformative. From user-driven features to backend upgrades and revolutionary projects, 2024 is shaping up to be a banner year for us — and we’re so excited to have you along for the ride!
Stay tuned for more updates, and as always, thanks for being part of the Waltio community!
And hey, why not make it a tradition to end every blog post with a song recommendation? (Yes, I’m a proud boomer!)
