TEAM CHA CHING

⭐ Inspiration

The inspiration for this project was to bridge a large financial divide that came with social media. With the creation of social media, we were all connected through social media apps. Hence why can't we use the power of social media to be connected financially as well? Hence we came up with CHA-CHING!, an all encompassing wallet that will extend payments to all over the world. Inclusively, safely and easily. 👛 What it does CHA-CHING! serves as a digital wallet that you can use to purchase items on the tiktok shop or even transfer funds between TikTok accounts. CHA-CHING! accepts various payment channels such as GrabPay, Google Pay, PayNow, AliPay, Wechat pay and also traditional card services like Mastercard and Visa. We wanted to incorporate the aspect of social media into our wallet and hence our wallet allows you to transfer funds to other TikTokers just using their TikTok username, no other personal information required! With the idea of incorporating new technologies, CHA-CHING! incorporates blockchain and cryptocurrency by allowing users to transfer and spend our very own TikTokToken cryptocurrency without even having an existing cryptocurrency wallet. This TikTokToken can be bought with ETH and used on the TikTok ecosystem (to buy items on the TikTok shop or transfer to other accounts) while also providing various loyalty features and rewards to users who own the coin..

🔨 How we built it

We built the Frontend using Vue.js, backend using the Flask framework and we also introduced a Biometric Authentication system using Passage which also allows for One-Time passwords as a means of authentication if they do not have the necessary technology for biometric authentication. Our blockchain features were built using ethers.js and Solidity We structured our project closely to real life applications such as GrabPay and PayLah! while adding a few unique and interesting features of our own (social media aspect and cryptocurrency). We have many future plans to improve on the app by implementing more features such as QR code scanning, Buy Now Pay Later, etc. (see below for elaboration) 😢 Challenges we ran into Building this project was no easy feat as well as implementations of new technologies alongside traditional payment gateways can be daunting. Furthermore, our team are all studying in different universities, hence finding the time to properly communicate the features can be challenging.

🏆 Accomplishments that we're proud of

Incorporating cryptocurrency into our app is something that we are definitely proud of as having both web2 and web3 aspects to a wallet is indeed complex and practical given the rising popularity of cryptocurrency and the blockchain. We wanted to integrate web3 in such a way that was not invasive. Hence, we wanted to allow people to transact between one another without necessarily having a crypto wallet or prior knowledge of cryptocurrency Users can buy TikTokTokens with ETH and then use it to make purchases on the TikTok shop, transfer funds between other accounts and possibly earn rewards With our smart contract, TikTok will hold onto the actual tokens being transferred for users without a crypto wallet. Our smart contract will also manage their transactions and reflect these transactions on CHA-CHING!,giving the appearance of these users managing their own transactions without having a crypto wallet but only having a CHA-CHING! wallet. . Users can later exchange the TikTokTokens back for ETH if they choose to Our TikTokToken also allows for social features such as rewards for the wallet which further builds the brand of TikTok in an all encompassing social system. Our application also allows extended payments services in underserved areas as we allow for payments via TikTok username. This feature proves to be extremely convenient as it allows for transactions to occur with public information in the form of your TikTok username rather than sensitive information such as your bank account or phone number. This would prove very useful for charity initiatives, content creators seeking donations, businesses aiming to streamline their TikTok-based transactions or simply for an effortless way to send money among friends. Since we are dealing with monetary assets, security is of utmost importance. We are really proud of how securely we've created our application by using secured routes and also by allowing for biometric authentication when using the wallet. Lastly, we are extremely proud of the clean and easy to use user interface that we created. As before anyone uses an application, they must first look at it. Hence we strived for an excellent user interface as well as experience

📝 What we learned

We've learnt that building a secure, user friendly and inclusive wallet is no easy feat and requires more than weeks of development. However, from this hackathon, we have learnt how important extending services to the underserved community and more can be done and we are excited to explore more for times to come.

⏭️ What's next for TikTok Pay

Scalability and Availability Scalability and Availability is a must in such a large and population application. We attempted to but not managed to integrate it fully due to time constraints but we attempted to build an API Gateway that will map the services via a service registry.

Financial Inclusion When doing research about financial inclusion, we realized that it is no easy feat to extend services to some underserved areas as for some countries only half the population have bank accounts. Hence in the future, TikTok Pay can work with the governments of such areas where they can be paid in their TikTok Wallet where they can buy goods in their TikTok Shop

Additionally, we can allow creators and sellers to create their very own NFT’s which can be bought by using TiktokTokens and will be listed on an NFT Marketplace. This enables creators to monetise their digital footprint without needing access to a traditional supply chain. These NFT’s will allow both Tiktok and creators to profit off transaction fees, further redistributing wealth to deserving creators.

Buy Now Pay Later

We plan to implement a Buy Now Pay Later functionality that would allow users to buy items on TikTok without having any funds at the point of purchase. We possibly see this being implemented in 2 ways. One is with stripe or other platforms that offer this service. Another way would be to use a decentralised finance approach with a borrowing and lending system in the blockchain that allows anyone to deposit tokens into a liquidity pool for borrowers to use these funds to make purchases and pay it back later. This also allows for the lender to earn some interest. Of course, borrowers would have to provide collateral for the service, safeguarding against potential misuse or defaults. This system democratizes the traditional credit model. Rather than banks solely dictating credit card distribution based on stringent criteria, our solution offers a more inclusive 'Buy Now, Pay Later' opportunity.

Ryan Loh Yong Rui

Ryan Loh Yong Rui is a Year 2 Computer Engineering student studying in National University of Singapore. He has worked at a financial Edutech startup for a year while in university as a software developer. He is also currently a full stack software developer in google students developer club and the external liaisons director for National Entrepreneurship society.

Greg Tan Yong Ming

Greg Tan Yong Ming is a Year 2 computer science student studying in National University of Singapore. He has experience in software engineering and blockchain development from past internships at start ups and other hackathons in which he has won and made the finals for. His goal is to build meaningful and useful products that will change people’s lives for the better

Malcolm Sng

Malcolm Sng is a Final Year Business Analytics Student from National University of Singapore. He is well-versed with software development and data sience. He has several software engineering internships. His goal is to “Create the Future with Code”.

Cheryl Lim

Cheryl Lim is currently in her final year as an Information Systems student at Singapore Management University. Her strong interest in full stack development drives her to continuously explore and experiment with new technologies during her free time. Cheryl's academic journey has been complemented by her participation in multiple software engineering internships, which have provided her practical knowledge and skills. Her goal is to challenge the limits of innovation and leave an enduring, positive influence on those she collaborates with and serves.

Chia Yu-En Aloysius

Chia Yu-En Aloysius is a Final Year Information Systems Student from Singapore Management University. He is interested in cybersecurity and has embarked on a handful of cybersecurity consultancy internships. His goal is to retire to the country side asap.