BlockChange

Inspiration

After not being able to buy donuts because I (Moaz) did not have change to pay to the cashier, I said to myself, surely there is a solution that will let me pay with cash and not worry about change if I do not have my card handy. And to my surprise, I could not find anything. Then it occurred to me to develop a framework using an API (such as the Rapyd API) to solve this. This is applicable to not only change, but the main reason for long queues and at our college (LUMS) is that the staff takes a lot of time to complete transactions. So a 'BlockChange' implementation in areas like this is really useful for the aforementioned and other reasons.

What it does

The app enables the vendor to pay the change using a digital wallet. This takes out the frustration for the vendor as well because they do not like giving out change for bigger banknotes for a micro purchase/transaction at their store. The customer opens up their app and shows the vendor their QR code, the vendor scans it, inputs the amount, and pays the change. The customer verifies and accepts the amount. This takes only a few seconds and takes out the frustration of carrying a bigger volume of banknotes and coins for the consumer as the change is digitally transferred. Similarly, if enough change is accumulated. the customer can use the 'BlockChange' infrastructure to pay for items as well in a few seconds.

How we built it

React JS and materialzecss were mainly used for the Front End of the app. Pre-existing templates helped make the process of front-end creation smoother and saved us a lot of time. Google Firebase was used for the backend. Firestore is used for storing user data. Moreover, Firebase was used for hosting and google sign-up authentication. Furthermore, Rapyd API was used to create a wallet and multiple API calls were used to complete transactions.

Challenges we ran into

We were new to the Rapyd infrastructure so it took us some time to get used to the different parameters. But after watching the provided videos, we were able to familiarize ourselves with the Rapyd Infrastructure.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

What we learned

What's next for BlockChange

We are aiming to get our local government to make policies for such a system so that it can be migrated to everyday society and become the norm of completing micro-transactions and assist with providing change.

Built With

• firebase
• firestore
• javascript
• materialzecss
• rapyd
• react