My Role

As Co-founder & Head of Product, I wore many hats at Hedgy and owned all things design and product using a customer-driven approach. I also led our marketing, branding, content and recruiting, implementing each with great precision, consistency and focus on detail.

The Problem(s)

As a digital currency, Bitcoin is the most volatile asset class on the planet. While we initially set out to solve this problem, we soon discovered that Bitcoin's underlying technology, the blockchain, can be used to help solve counterparty risk, a cataclysmic problem that has been known to cause entire economic recessions.

Our Approach

We decided to use a feature within Bitcoin itself called multisig and modify it for use as a smart contract - a self-enforcing, programmable contract - that wound up being one of the first of its kind. By using smart contracts, Hedgy introduced a faster, cheaper, safer alternative to traditional methods of managing counterparty risk.

Onboarding

Since Hedgy is a provider of financial technology, the onboarding process needed to meet the needs of regulated commercial enterprises, without being a burden for end users. Normally, a "Customer Identification Program" (CIP) can be a royal pain - if you've ever signed up for a bank account, then you probably understand. We aimed to streamline the process using dynamic, reactive, front-end elements, modern two-factor authentication and military-grade encryption. It took many different iterations to finally get it right.

CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL

"Hedgy has engineered an excellent product that solves a key problem in trading: counterparty risk."

Timo Schlaefer, CEO of CryptoFacilities

Dashboard

Most financial trading software looks identical - designed off legacy systems such as the Bloomberg Terminal. At Hedgy we wanted to build something different, from the ground up, starting with first principles. The architecture was mostly client-side, which meant we could build a single-page app using full-stack JavaScript. Frameworks such as React and Blaze (Meteor) allowed us the ability to dynamically render sensitive contract information readily. I decided to use the Material Design Card component to serve as the framework for displaying these smart contracts. My vision was that every contract had a unique story that should be easily, but privately and securely, tracked and shared with external parties.

CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL

"Hedgy's smart contracts are the future of finance because they reduce downside risk for all parties in an extremely efficient, programmable way."

Dave Carlson, CEO of MegaBigPower

Mobile

The financial industry as a whole has not yet embraced mobile as a medium for trading. But that didn't keep us from designing our product to be truly responsive. Although native mobile apps were not in our immediate roadmap, we made sure that the infrastructure and design could be readily translated to a native environment. The full-stack JavaScript architecture enabled a single page app design. Electing to use Material Design Cards to display the contracts also made it easier to adjust for mobile.

 All works