Simplifying Crypto: Driving Adoption Through Peer Interactions

Simplifying Crypto: Driving Adoption Through Intuitive P2P Interactions & Gift Card Flows

CASE STUDY / FINANCIAL WELLBEING / 2026

# context

~/research

How do you get people to trust crypto enough to bring their friends in — and enough to give it as a gift? Web3's growth depends on network effects, but two things kept getting in the way: the fear of losing money, and the sheer complexity of the experience.

We were running two parallel bets to fix this. Could existing users be turned into onboarding guides for newcomers? And could a gift card make receiving crypto feel as simple and delightful as receiving a gift card for anything else?

How do you get people to trust crypto enough to bring their friends in — and enough to give it as a gift? Web3’s growth depends on network effects, but two things kept getting in the way: the fear of losing money, and the sheer complexity of the experience.

role → lead ux researcher · timeline → Q1–Q2 2024 · team → Product Design, Engineering, Product Management

# approach

~/notes

ASDF

week 01

# what i learned

Trust and friction turned out to be the same problem wearing two faces. People didn't abandon these flows because crypto was confusing in the abstract — they abandoned them at the exact moment a fee, a security prompt, or an unfamiliar format introduced doubt. Fixing that moment mattered more than any amount of visual polish.

I also learned how much power there was in translating an emotional signal — a participant's fear of causing a friend's financial loss — into something concrete and testable. That translation, from feeling to requirement, is where I felt most useful in the room.

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# reflection

This work was about de-risking two speculative bets before more engineering time went in. By staying close to design through rapid Figma iterations, I made sure decisions were built on observed behavior, not assumptions about what users would want.

The findings reshaped the roadmap directly: mitigating gas fee friction and reinforcing security messaging became non-negotiable priorities for both the P2P onboarding flows and the Gift Card feature — and meaningfully improved the odds of a successful launch.

contact me → hey@weeyum.io