VELO

VELO is the unified payments wallet that makes crypto instantly usable for daily life, featuring seamless QR payments, bill splitting, and mobile/data top-ups.

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VELO: Project Story

Inspiration: The inspiration for VELO came from a simple but frustrating problem we noticed around us. So many people love the idea of crypto being fast, borderless, global money. But most are too scared or confused to use it.

In Nigeria, we have seen friends lose access to funds because of poor exchanges, wrong wallet addresses, or just fear of the unknown. For many, crypto still feels like a world built only for tech experts. We wanted to change that. We wanted to build something so simple that even your mom could send and receive crypto without needing to understand blockchain jargon, seed phrases or gas fees.

That’s how VELO was born. A multichain, trust first payment platform that lets users send, receive and split crypto as easily as they send mobile money.

What We Learnt: Throughout the hackathon, our biggest lesson was this: User experience is everything. It doesn’t matter how advanced the technology is, if people can’t understand or trust it, they won’t use it. We also learned how powerful blockchain abstraction can be. By integrating Starknet tech, we discovered we could hide the technical complexity (like wallet addresses and gas fees) behind a clean, human interface.

And most importantly, we learned how trust and simplicity go hand in hand — especially in regions like Africa, where many people have been burned by financial scams and unstable systems.

How We Built VELO

We started with this core question “How can someone use crypto without ever needing to learn crypto?”

We built VELO using Starknet for scalable smart contract interactions and Stellar for easy cross-border transactions. Our frontend was designed to mimic the simplicity of modern fintech apps with clear buttons for:

Send, Receive, QR Pay, Split Payment

We built an intuitive QR payment system where users can just scan a code to send or receive crypto instantly. No addresses or complex confirmations. The Split feature was another major innovation: it lets multiple people automatically divide payments from a single transaction (for instance, roommates paying rent or a team sharing earnings).

Our prototype demonstrates how multi chain crypto payments can work in one clean, unified interface — without requiring users to think about which blockchain they’re on.

Challenges We Faced

Like every good project, VELO wasn’t smooth sailing.

  1. Blockchain integration complexity: Balancing between multiple chains (Starknet and Stellar) required deep research on APIs, wallet standards and interoperability issues.

UX vs. decentralization trade-offs: We had to carefully design an experience that feels centralized and user friendly but still preserves self custody and security principles.

Trust gap problem: We realized that for people to trust VELO, it’s not enough to just build a good product. We have to build credibility. That inspired our “trust layer” idea.

Time pressure:

Building a functional prototype in hackathon time forced us to prioritize. We focused on the core features (send, receive, split, and QR) rather than everything we envisioned.

Despite these, every challenge made VELO stronger. It forced us to simplify, test faster and think from the user’s perspective.

What VELO Represents

VELO is more than a payment tool. It’s a movement toward accessible crypto adoption, especially in Africa, where millions are still left behind by both banks and blockchain.

We believe VELO can help ordinary people experience the power of crypto without the pain of learning it. And this hackathon gave us the platform, the energy, and the courage to turn that belief into reality. Current Customers & User Base

At the moment, VELO is in its pre-launch phase, and we do not yet have live customers using the product. However, through our user validation surveys and waitlist campaign, we have already gathered over [insert number, e.g., 200–500] people who have expressed strong interest in using VELO once it goes live.

These early respondents include:

  1. Freelancers who receive payments from foreign clients and want faster, cheaper crypto options.

  2. Small business owners who want to accept crypto payments without learning blockchain complexities.

  3. Young professionals and students who are curious about crypto but intimidated by wallets, addresses, and fees.

Our goal during this phase has been to deeply understand their pain points, trust barriers, and preferred payment habits so we can design VELO as a bridge between traditional fintech familiarity and decentralized innovation.

Most Challenging Aspect in Satisfying Them

The main challenge so far has been trust and user education. While people are excited about the promise of VELO, many are still hesitant to trust crypto-based solutions due to Nigeria’s history with failed banks, Ponzi schemes, and unstable fintechs.

We’ve learned that our earliest users don’t just want speed — they want assurance, simplicity, and transparency. This means we have to over-communicate security, design for zero confusion, and build credibility gradually through our early adopters network (starting with family, friends, and professional contacts).

In essence, the challenge isn’t technical — it’s psychological: helping users trust crypto without realizing they’re using crypto.

Letters of Interest

Yes, while we don’t have formal “letters of intent” in a contractual sense, we do have:

Survey data and DMs from waitlist members explicitly stating they’d love to use VELO for payments once it’s launched.

Screenshots and testimonials expressing excitement for features like “Split Payment” and “QR Pay.” We are currently compiling these expressions of interest into a Waitlist Engagement Report, which we plan to share with our first partners and test users as proof of early demand.

These responses have validated that there’s a clear product-market fit gap VELO can fill — especially among non-technical crypto-curious individuals.

First Pilot (6–12 Months Plan)

Our first pilot will focus on a controlled community-based rollout within our existing network.

We plan to:

  1. Onboard the first 100 trusted users — mostly family, friends, and early survey respondents.

These users will test sending, receiving, and splitting payments using small crypto transactions (USDT/USDC).

We’ll track trust, usability, and transaction success rates.

  1. Expand to small business merchants — particularly in Lagos and Abuja — who want to accept crypto but struggle with volatility and wallet complexity.

This pilot will test our QR payment flow and multi-chain support in real-world merchant settings.

  1. Gather data and iterate — using feedback loops to improve user experience, transaction transparency, and cross-chain performance.

Success Criteria

Success for this pilot will mean:

At least 1,000 verified transactions completed with no user confusion or major technical issues.

Minimum 85% satisfaction rate among early testers.

Conversion of 70% of waitlist users into active app users.

Verified merchant acceptance of VELO QR Pay in at least 10 real businesses.

Strong user retention and referral metrics (i.e., early users invite 2 new users each).

This will serve as our proof of trust, usability, and traction, setting the foundation for a public launch and regulatory partnerships.

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