Diving Into Web3
In early 2020, we were approached to build SpacTV — a decentralised streaming platform that would give content creators direct ownership of their content and earnings via blockchain.
We were excited. We were also completely unprepared for how different Web3 development is from traditional web development.
The Architecture
SpacTV combined:
- React frontend for the viewing experience
- Solidity smart contracts for creator payments and content ownership
- IPFS for decentralised content storage
- MetaMask integration for wallet-based authentication
On paper, elegant. In practice, a learning curve that took us weeks to navigate.
What We Got Wrong First
Gas fees
We didn't account for Ethereum gas fees in the UX. Users were confused when a simple "like" action cost them money. We had to redesign the interaction model entirely.
Wallet onboarding
Most of our first users didn't have crypto wallets. We underestimated how much friction this created. We ended up building a hybrid authentication model.
Smart contract upgradability
Our first contract deployment had a bug. In Web2 you push a fix. In Web3, immutability means you sometimes have to redeploy and migrate state. Expensive lesson.
What We Got Right
The token-gated content model worked beautifully. Creators loved having verifiable ownership of their work on-chain. The payment splits via smart contract were transparent and automatic.
The Lasting Impact
SpacTV taught us to treat Web3 projects with the same rigour as financial systems. Since then, we've built the ERC20 Token Launchpad, Drippa DEX, and multiple DeFi tools — all informed by what we learned here.
