A token economy built on giving
GiftBox turned SocialApp's Smart Coins into a real token people could earn, gift, spend and withdraw, with no gas fees inside the app. We created the brand, designed the experience, built the blockchain layer and launched the website.
- Client
- GiftBox, for SocialApp
- Years
- 2022–2023
- Duration
- 18 months
- Services
- Branding, Web3 product design, Blockchain development
Overview
GiftBox is a gift-giving social experience powered by its own token, GIFTBOX, and built into SocialApp. People earn tokens by connecting, inviting, promoting and giving, send them as gifts with no fees, and spend them with partner merchants. Our team designed the brand, the token experience and the website, then built the blockchain layer and integrated it into the SocialApp apps.
- Platform
- SocialApp for iOS and Android · Website · Polygon
- Our role
- Brand identity, Token experience design, UX and UI design, Smart contract development, Off-chain token ledger, iOS and Android integration, Website design and build
- We delivered
- GiftBox brand, GIFTBOX token, In-app wallet, Website
- verified users on the host platform
- 0.0M
- of daily engagement per user
- 00 min
- gas fees for in-app gifting
- 0
- things we built: brand, token and website
- 0
The challenge
More than seven million people already held Smart Coins, a closed reward that only lived inside SocialApp. Turning those balances into a real crypto token meant honoring every coin, rewriting how people earn as they socialise, give and promote, and making blockchain invisible to people who had never owned crypto, without charging a gas fee every time they sent a gift.
Branding
We designed GiftBox to look warm and human, far from the charts and neon of trading apps.
The G mark wraps around itself like a ribbon on a box, drawn as one bold stroke in a gradient from aqua to azure: bright and friendly, nothing like a candlestick chart. It works as an app icon, a token symbol and a favicon.
We paired it with a clean geometric wordmark and the line "Tokens for everyone", then turned the same sweeping arcs into a system that runs across the app, the website and the investor deck.
Our approach
Web3 for people who have never owned a token, and shouldn't need to learn how.
- 01
Brand it before we built it
We created the GiftBox identity first, so every screen, contract name and page of the website spoke the same warm, human language instead of the language of trading apps.
- 02
Design the token like a product
We treated the economy as the core user experience: how people earn, where tokens flow, what a gift costs and what happens to the balances people already had.
- 03
Go on-chain only where it adds trust
We built a hybrid system. Everyday gifting and spending runs off-chain, instantly and for free, while reward distribution and withdrawals run through smart contracts anyone can verify.
- 04
Integrate, don't bolt on
We wove GiftBox into the SocialApp apps people already used every day, then built the website that explained it all in plain words.
Token economy
This was the hardest part of the project. Millions of people held a closed, in-app reward, and we had to turn it into a real token without losing a single coin, charging a single fee or confusing a single user.
Principle 01
We honoured every balance
Existing Smart Coins weren't reset or left behind. We converted them into GIFTBOX tokens, so years of engagement carried straight into the new economy.
Principle 02
We kept gifting free
Gifts, purchases and transfers between users settle on our off-chain ledger, instantly and with no gas fees, so giving never costs the giver extra.
Principle 03
We put rewards on-chain
Reward distribution runs through smart contracts on Polygon, so anyone can check that tokens were earned and paid fairly.
How we designed it
- 01
We audited every coin
We reconciled the Smart Coin ledger for every verified user before a single token existed, so the starting balances were exact.
- 02
We designed the conversion
We defined how fiat-pegged Smart Coins map to GIFTBOX, when balances convert and what users see before and after, so the switch felt like an upgrade, not a reset.
- 03
We rewrote the earning rules
We mapped every rewarded activity to tokens: socialising, inviting friends, promoting featured products, giving often, winning at scratch cards and staking.
- 04
We split the ledger in two
We built an off-chain ledger for instant, free transfers inside the app, and kept on-chain settlement for reward distribution and withdrawals.
- 05
We wrote the contracts
We built the GIFTBOX ERC-20 token on Polygon with a fixed supply of one billion, and smart contracts for staking, minting, vesting and rewards.
- 06
We hid the chain
No seed phrases to send a gift and no gas to spend a token. People only meet the blockchain if they choose to withdraw to their own wallet.
- 07
We reconciled both sides
We checked off-chain balances against on-chain supply at every stage, so the two ledgers always told the same story.
The product
Four simple moves, designed so that someone who has never touched crypto can still send a token as easily as a message.
- 01
Acquire
Earn tokens through in-app activity and staking rewards, or buy them in the app. Existing Smart Coin balances convert automatically.
- 02
Give
Send GIFTBOX as a gift, free with no gas fees, or send coupons, gift cards, and goods and services from partner merchants.
- 03
Spend
Use gifted tokens, coupons and gift cards on goods and services from SocialApp's merchant partners, again with no gas fees.
- 04
Withdraw
Move tokens to a private on-chain wallet for safekeeping whenever you like. Until then, the blockchain stays out of the way.
Inside the app
GiftBox lives inside SocialApp, so tokens appear wherever people already connect, celebrate and share.
- 01
Family Circle
Bring up to seven family members into one place, the people you're most likely to celebrate and gift.
- 02
Occasions
Gift giving for the moments that matter: birthdays, graduations and holidays.
- 03
Deals
Daily discounts and offers from e-commerce partners, payable with tokens.
- 04
Scratch and win
A daily scratch card that turns earning into a small moment of play.
- 05
Promotion rewards
Tokens for people who share featured products and content with their circle.
- 06
Staking rewards
Hold GIFTBOX in the app and earn staking rewards and bonuses over time.
- 07
My Story
An encrypted, peer-to-peer feed of stories that disappear after 24 hours.
- 08
Moodtalk
A mood icon that lets the people closest to you know how you feel.
- 09
News Flash
Post and share news as 220-character text or short audio clips.
- 10
Discover
A public story feed for taking part in the wider community.
- 11
MyDay
A simple organizer for daily routines at home and at work.
- 12
Wallet
Every GIFTBOX token, gift and reward, managed in one central place.
The website
We designed and built the GiftBox website to introduce the token, show how it works and answer the questions newcomers actually ask.
NFT gift boxes
We designed a marketplace where every gift is an NFT: a glass box with a basket of cryptocurrencies inside.
Each box has a name, a price in ETH and a clear view of what's inside, from Bitcoin and Litecoin to Monero, Cardano and Dogecoin, each with its quantity and value.
Connect a wallet such as MetaMask, pick a box from the marketplace, mint it, then send it as a gift. The person who receives it owns the box and everything in it.
- Connect
- Give
- Earn
- Spend
- Withdraw
- Tokens for everyone
Delivery
We delivered GiftBox in stages, so every layer was tested before the next one was built on top of it.
Q3 2022
Brand and foundations
The GiftBox identity, the token experience and the product architecture.
Q1 2023
Token development
The GIFTBOX ERC-20 token and the off-chain ledger took shape.
Q2 2023
Integrated into SocialApp
The blockchain layer and the in-app wallet went into the SocialApp apps.
Q3 2023
Contracts and conversion
Smart contracts for staking, minting and vesting were finalised, and Smart Coins began converting into GIFTBOX tokens.
Architecture
Every token movement follows one of two paths. Gifts and purchases settle instantly on our ledger. Rewards and withdrawals settle on Polygon, where anyone can verify them.
01 · Activity
- Socialise, invite
- Promote, give
02 · Rules
- Earning logic
- Limits and caps
03 · Ledger
- Off-chain balances
- Instant, no gas
04 · Contracts
- Reward distribution
- Staking and vesting
05 · Wallet
- Give and spend
- Withdraw on-chain
- Blockchain
- Polygon
- ERC-20 (GIFTBOX)
- Fixed 1B supply
- Smart contracts
- Solidity
- Hardhat
- Staking
- Minting
- Vesting
- Rewards
- Off-chain ledger
- Node.js
- PostgreSQL double-entry ledger
- Redis
- Web3
- ethers.js
- WalletConnect
- Withdraw to private wallet
- App integration
- SocialApp iOS (Swift)
- SocialApp Android (Kotlin)
- In-app wallet
- Website
- Next.js
- React
- TypeScript
Engineering decisions
Most people who used GiftBox had never held a token before. These four decisions kept it that way: simple, free and safe.
- 01
Off-chain by default
Internal transfers run on our backend, so gifts land instantly and cost nothing. Most users never pay a gas fee at all.
- 02
On-chain where trust matters
Rewards are distributed by smart contracts, in the open, so fairness can be checked rather than taken on faith.
- 03
Polygon, not mainnet
Polygon gave us low fees and fast finality, and the ERC-20 standard kept GIFTBOX compatible with the wider Ethereum ecosystem.
- 04
Convert, never reset
People had earned their Smart Coins. Carrying every balance into the token economy kept their trust and their history intact.
The results
0.0M
verified SocialApp users whose Smart Coins became convertible to GIFTBOX tokens
- gas fees on gifts, spending and in-app transfers
- 0
- GIFTBOX tokens: a fixed supply, set in the contract, with no more ever created
- 0B
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