aHand

In today's interconnected world, finding solutions to problems can be inefficient and limited by personal networks and resources. Despite advancements in AI, most problem-solving still does and will continue to rely on direct communication and personal connections, which can be slow and unreliable. Some existing platforms allow people to raise their problems, but solvers must find these problems themselves, which can be inefficient. Moreover, incentivizing people to contribute solutions or spread the word about the problems and ensuring fair reward distribution remain challenging.

aHand is a decentralized platform for problem-solving. It enables users to raise issues, share them across different communication channels, including any existing social networks, and receive solutions from individuals beyond their immediate circle. This approach ensures that solutions are sourced from a diverse pool of expertise and experience, maximizing the chances of finding effective resolutions.

With aHand, anyone can find a person with the perfect solution to their problem by utilizing the fact that everyone in the world knows each other via a few handshakes and making it worthwhile for others to participate in these handshake chains. The platform also employs an unfalsifiable trust score mechanics to ensure the quality of solutions and exclude bad actors. This approach not only accelerates the problem-solving process but also ensures fair reward distribution and fosters a collaborative community.

One significant hurdle was developing the trust score mechanism to be unfalsifiable and reliable. This required careful design and multiple iterations to ensure that the system could not be gamed or manipulated by bad actors. I overcame this by implementing a robust feedback loop using non-transferable SFTs, two of which are distributed at the moment of problem resolution or can be transferred by peers to each other by sacrificing their own balance of those. This mechanism accurately reflects users' contributions and interactions.

Another challenge was integrating Farcaster Frames. Ensuring seamless interoperability and data flow between these platforms required extensive testing and adjustments. I resolved this by creating a separate API in my Vercel edge function and employing thorough testing procedures to ensure consistent functionality. The deployment itself was quite a challenge too.

Incorporating Coinbase bundler and paymaster took another noticeable effort because it is yet to properly support ZeroDev Kernel wallets, especially undeployed ones.

Adding mandatory charity contributions into the reward system posed a technical and ethical challenge. Balancing user incentives with charitable giving required fine-tuning the reward distribution algorithm. I addressed this by allowing customizable charity rates within a defined range, ensuring both user satisfaction and meaningful contributions to charity.

Lastly, the biggest challenge was making the submission on time by the scheduled deadline. It was very hard to properly estimate task timing and deliver the best result possible while combining the development with my day job :)

These challenges taught me valuable lessons in problem-solving, iterative development, and maintaining a user-centered focus, ultimately strengthening aHand and motivating me to continue building further. I aim to eventually ship a production version, start growing a community around it, and solve people's problems on a mass scale.