$heVault

Inspiration

According to CoinCover, as of 2024, only 29% of women owned crypto. Many people avoid investment because they are not confident about their investing skills, or simply do not know what it would be like to invest in crypto. We believe a hands-on approach that lets women practice crypto investment while also learning related terms will help them feel more comfortable growing their wealth. We want to empower women to not only learn about finance, but to be a game-changer in the industry.

What it does

SheVault is a crypto investment simulator, aimed towards educating women. By connecting to real-time pricing on the blockchain, the app allows the user to simulate investing. The user starts by entering the amount of money they have to invest. Then, they can buy and sell crypto (BTC, ETH, SOL, DOGE) depending on live prices that are pulled via the CoinGecko API. When a user buys or sells, the gas/transaction fees associated with the transaction are accounted for to teach women the nuance involved when making investing decisions. Our app also features a chart to display a user’s transactions and growth over time. There is a chatbot that allows the user to ask questions about investment decisions or finance. Additionally, as you hover over various financial terms on the app and use the flashcards in the safety section, the definition of the terms show, highlighting how SheVault aims to both educate women and give them an opportunity to work hands-on with investing.

How we built it

We built SheVault as a React-based web app that pulls live crypto prices from the CoinGecko API and stores all user data locally in the browser using localStorage. The focus was on creating a realistic trading flow (buying, selling, tracking portfolio value) while keeping the experience approachable and centered on helping women build confidence through hands-on practice. We mainly used React and Javascript, and emphasized an intuitive interface that integrates learning with real-world scenarios.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges was managing real-time price updates without causing UI flicker or inaccurate portfolio calculations. We were able to combat this by storing the previous state of the price retrieved from the API. Some of the frontend was also challenging to code, especially making sure that the display is appealing to the eye and is functional. The biggest issue was tackling whether or not to further simulate blockchain exchanges with ‘smart contracts’, creating functions in Solidity to manage transactions. After some trial and error, we found that smart contracts were only practical when handling real payments, which did not align with our goals for making a simulation, so we had to scrap our Solidity work.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Although we faced challenges earlier on in deciding what project would solve a unique need and pressing issue for women and financial literacy, we’re proud of settling on a simulator for cryptocurrency that’s intuitive and beginner-friendly. We’re also proud of learning how to implement blockchain technologies with new frameworks. We’re especially proud of our graph visualizing the user’s coin valuations changing in real time, as well as our realistic implementation of “gas fees”. We’re also proud of our add-ons, like our helper chatbot and flashcards for financial safety education.

What we learned

Before the project, none of our developers knew much about blockchain, smart contracts, or cryptocurrency. But throughout the project, we understood blockchain on a higher level, utilizing Ethereum’s ecosystem and programming language Solidity for our initial implementation. We also learned more about cryptocurrency and the biggest coins, how transactions are conducted transparently, and how to make our simulation more realistic with “gas fees” and updating coin values in real time.

What's next for $heVault

To further users' learning, the future steps for $heVault will be connecting them with female consultants who can coach them on investments. If they would want to invest their money in the future, this would be a great next step into the cryptocurrency market while also highlighting women working within it.