Gigi pay

Inspiration

i was supposed to pay for a giveaway during a event and i have to take everyone names and wallet of the 15 winners this 15 winners have different prize attached to it so i was thinking why cant i have a payment system that i can just send with just name thats where i started thinking of gigi pay

What it does

Gigi Pay is a gasless crypto payment platform that eliminates the complexity of sending and receiving digital assets. Senders sign in with Gmail to automatically create a Starknet wallet, then choose from 5 tokens (STRK, USDC, USDT, ETH, WBTC) to create bulk payments by generating unique claim codes for each recipient. They can set custom amounts per code or distribute equally, share codes via WhatsApp, Twitter, Telegram, or any platform, set expiry times or create never-expire gift cards, and track claims in real-time on their dashboard. Recipients simply receive a claim code (e.g., "STRK-ABC123"), sign in with Gmail to automatically create their wallet, enter the code, and claim instantly with zero gas fees and zero crypto knowledge required. Built on Starknet with ChipiPay's gasless infrastructure, Gigi Pay makes crypto payments as simple as sending an email.

How we built it

Gigi Pay is built on a modern tech stack combining Starknet blockchain with seamless Web2 user experience. The frontend uses Next.js 14 with TypeScript for type safety and React 18 for the UI, styled with Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui components for a beautiful, responsive interface. We integrated Clerk for Gmail OAuth authentication, which triggers automatic wallet creation using ChipiPay's SDK that generates deterministic wallets encrypted with user-specific PINs. The smart contract is written in Cairo and deployed on Starknet Mainnet, implementing multi-token support for STRK, USDC, USDT, ETH, and WBTC with Poseidon hash-based claim code verification for security. We used Starknet.js for blockchain interactions, implemented the Web Share API for universal social sharing across platforms, and leveraged ChipiPay's gasless transaction infrastructure to sponsor all user transactions. The architecture follows a clean separation of concerns with React Context for state management, custom hooks for reusable logic, and utility functions for blockchain operations like token conversions and address normalization.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was handling the complexity of blockchain interactions while maintaining a simple user experience. We encountered issues with token approval flows where ChipiPay's internal balance checks were failing due to address format mismatches between how Starknet returns addresses (as objects) versus how our code expected them (as strings). We had to implement robust address normalization to handle leading zeros and different formats. Another significant challenge was fetching and parsing user-created giveaways from the smart contract, as the data structure returned required careful handling of u256 amounts, felt252 strings, and nested arrays. We also faced timing issues with wallet creation and authentication, ensuring the wallet was fully initialized before allowing transactions. Debugging gasless transactions was tricky since traditional gas estimation didn't apply, and we had to implement retry logic with exponential backoff for transaction reliability.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're incredibly proud of creating a truly gasless crypto payment experience that feels as simple as using Venmo or Cash App. The automatic wallet creation on Gmail sign-in is seamless - users don't even realize they're getting a Starknet wallet until they need it. We successfully implemented multi-token support across 5 major tokens with proper decimal handling and accurate balance displays. The bulk payment feature with CSV export makes it practical for real-world use cases like paying remote teams or running large giveaways. We're proud of the universal social sharing system that works on any platform, making crypto payments shareable via WhatsApp, Twitter, Telegram, or even SMS. The dashboard provides real-time tracking of all payments with proper status management (active, expired, completed) and the ability to reclaim unclaimed funds. Most importantly, we achieved our core goal: someone with zero crypto knowledge can receive their first crypto payment in under 60 seconds just by signing in with Gmail and entering a code. The entire application is production-ready with comprehensive error handling, loading states, and user feedback throughout the flow.

What we learned

Building Gigi Pay taught us invaluable lessons about bridging Web2 and Web3 experiences. We learned that the key to crypto adoption isn't just making things gasless it's making them invisible. Users shouldn't have to think about wallets, gas, or blockchain at all. We gained deep expertise in Cairo smart contract development, particularly around efficient data structures for storing and retrieving user-specific data on Starknet. We learned the importance of address normalization when working with Starknet, as addresses can be represented in multiple formats and proper handling is critical for token lookups and comparisons. ChipiPay's gasless infrastructure taught us how account abstraction can truly transform user experience, but also requires careful handling of approval flows and transaction states. We discovered that social sharing is more powerful than we initially thought - the ability to share payment codes on any platform dramatically increases accessibility. We also learned about the challenges of working with multiple token standards and decimal places, and how critical proper u256 handling is for financial applications. Perhaps most importantly, we learned that the best Web3 applications feel like Web2 applications - the blockchain should be a powerful backend, not a visible complexity for users.

What's next for Gigi pay

The future of Gigi Pay is exciting and full of possibilities. First, we plan to expand token support to include popular memecoins and project tokens, allowing communities to distribute their own tokens easily. We'll implement NFT giveaways, enabling creators to distribute digital collectibles using the same simple code-based system. We're working on scheduled payments for recurring salaries and subscriptions, with automatic monthly distributions to team members. A major feature in development is a merchant API that allows e-commerce platforms to integrate Gigi Pay for crypto checkout, making it easy for online stores to accept crypto payments. We plan to add analytics dashboards showing payment trends, claim rates, and recipient demographics to help businesses optimize their distribution strategies. Social authentication will expand beyond Gmail to include Twitter, Discord, and Telegram, making it even easier for community-focused projects. we also want to ensure users can be able to buy and sell giftcards from our dapp using crypto, A mobile app is in the roadmap to provide native experiences on iOS and Android with push notifications for payment claims.

Built With

• apis
• cairo
• chipipay
• cloud-services
• databases
• frameworks
• next.js
• platforms
• typescript