Case Study: PowerWagers

As we gear up for ETHGlobal Singapore this weekend, it's the perfect time to spotlight a project from a previous hackathon. One standout from ETHGlobal Brussels was PowerWagers, a unique app that leveraged the Circles SDK to create a decentralized platform for goal-setting and friendly competition. This project is an example of the type of great work that can emerge from hackathon environments, and we're excited to see what ETHGlobal Singapore will bring. We sat down with the team to explore how this project came together!

So… how did it all come together?

PowerWagers was born during the ETHGlobal Brussels hackathon when three developers—Vennila Seshadri, Sankhya Siddesh, and Thuy Tien Nguyen Thi—came together for the first time. Despite being perfect strangers with different backgrounds, they quickly found common ground in addressing a universal problem: people often set personal goals but fail to follow through due to a lack of sustained motivation.

Their solution? A platform that incentivizes goal completion through social competition, powered by Circles’ decentralized identity and social money system.

What problem did you identify?

Many people start with the best intentions—whether it’s committing to a fitness regime or reducing social media usage—but struggle to maintain momentum. PowerWagers introduced a way to turn these personal goals into community-driven wagers. By leveraging the Circles social graph, the team ensured that only real, trusted individuals can participate, creating a safe and motivating environment for people to achieve their goals.

How did you use Circles in your project?

PowerWagers was built with Circles at its core, heavily relying on the Circles SDK. Here’s how it was integrated:

• PowerWagers used Circles’ decentralized identity features to ensure that participants were verified individuals within the Circles ecosystem. This prevented fake accounts from joining wagers, maintaining the integrity of the competition.

• The Circles trust graph was essential in verifying relationships between users. This allowed PowerWagers to build a network where users could trust that their competitors and supporters were real, adding a layer of social accountability.

• The app allowed users to create group tokens for wagers. This meant that participants could pool resources (such as USDC or community tokens) and reward the winner of the wager. The use of Circles’ group tokens made it easy to manage these pooled resources within a trusted network.

• The dApp also features a swipe-based interface, similar to dating apps, allowing users to quickly browse and join wagers. When users swiped right on a wager, their tokens were automatically invested in that challenge, creating a seamless user experience.

What’s in store for the future?

The team expressed interest in continuing the development of PowerWagers, with some support from the Circles team.

Potential future developments include:

• Collaborating with brands or NGOs to sponsor community wagers, such as fitness challenges supported by sports brands.

• Exploring more sophisticated uses for Circles’ group tokens to incentivize broader participation and engagement.

• Developing more advanced tokenomics to align incentives and rewards more effectively.

Why do you think hackathons are significant?

Hackathons can catalyze innovation by bringing together diverse talent to create unique solutions. This project also demonstrates the power of the Circles SDK, particularly its decentralized identity and social money features, in building trust-based, community-driven applications.

As Circles continues to evolve, PowerWagers serves as a strong example of the potential to build meaningful, decentralized tools that empower both people and communities!

Explore the PowerWagers submission👇

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