PayGate | Digital Goods Marketplace

I built a digital marketplace where creators can sell templates, graphics, and courses — all powered by seamless sBTC payments. It’s fast, secure, and decentralized.

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Inspiration

While browsing Devpost, I discovered the sBTC Hackathon and thought, What can I build? and Which category should I enter? I decided to join the sBTC category and checked out the provided Notion documentation. One idea stood out — a digital marketplace. It immediately clicked. I’ve always found digital creator platforms interesting, so I decided to build PayGate, a decentralized and anonymous digital goods marketplace powered by sBTC.

What it does

PayGate is a privacy-focused marketplace for digital creators, where users can buy and sell digital goods — such as templates, graphics, and courses — using sBTC. There are no usernames, passwords, or emails — users authenticate solely by connecting their sBTC wallet, making the platform completely anonymous and decentralized. It’s designed for creators who want a secure and censorship-resistant way to monetize their work.

How we built it

I started with designing and prototyping, followed by writing basic user stories to map out the user flow. Then I jumped straight into coding — a loop of building, testing, fixing, and refining.

During development I also had problems with my laptop that lead to loosing some time.

Challenges we ran into

This was my first serious project using Next.js and React, so I had to learn the framework from scratch. One major hurdle was the attempt to create and deploy a Clarity smart contract to handle marketplace logic, including taking a 5% platform fee. Unfortunately, due to deployment issues, I had to leave that feature out — but the learning experience was invaluable.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Everything, I really proud that I have finished this project within the timeframe.

What we learned

Honestly — everything. I'm really proud that I was able to take this project from idea to a working product within the hackathon timeframe. From learning new technologies to shipping a real application, this project pushed my boundaries.

What's next for PayGate | Digital Goods Marketplace

  1. How to work with React, Next.js, and Supabase
  2. Hands-on experience with crypto wallet integration and decentralized design principles
  3. Deployment workflows using Vercel
  4. The structure and limitations of Clarity smart contracts
  5. General best practices in building MVPs for blockchain apps

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