Vibecoding CheckPay: From Prompts to Production on Celo

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Hey Celo builders! :waving_hand:

I’m excited to share the completion of a major milestone in the CheckPay project, a mobile-first escrow protocol built entirely on Celo with significant AI assistance through Claude Code. This milestone marks the completion of the Celo Foundation Almond Round grant for the CheckPay project.

As my first major EVM project after shipping on Polkadot, Solana, and Bitcoin, I wanted to push the boundaries of AI-assisted blockchain development on Celo.

tldr: The vibecoding got me 80% there. The last 20%? That was all manual debugging, mobile testing, and ecosystem adaptation.

:backhand_index_pointing_right: Please find the full technical deep-dive here.

What We Built

CheckPay is a decentralized escrow platform designed for peer-to-peer transactions in emerging markets where trust infrastructure doesn’t exist, but mobile wallets do.

Key Features:

  • Smart contract escrow with 4-state machine (CREATED → DISPUTED →

COMPLETED/REFUNDED)

  • Mobile-optimized for MiniPay, Valora, MetaMask mobile

  • 1% platform fee, 4% refundable dispute bond (vs. $225-3,125 traditional arbitration)

  • Self Protocol integration for privacy-preserving identity verification

  • Gas costs <$0.01 per transaction

Thanks to the Celo Foundation Almond Round grant, we delivered:

Milestone 1: Smart Contract Foundation

  • Factory pattern (MasterFactory + EscrowContract)

  • Comprehensive test suite with 100% coverage

  • Deployed on Sepolia testnet + Celo mainnet

Milestone 2: Platform Development

  • Next.js 14 App Router with mobile-first design

  • Fast 4G: 1.43s load time | Slow 4G: 4.91s load time

  • Production deployment at checkpay.gigentic.ai

Milestone 3: Identity Integration

  • Self Protocol verification working in production

  • Multi-wallet support: Valora, MiniPay, MetaMask

  • 40+ test transactions on Sepolia

Milestone 4: Launch & Documentation

  • Open-source codebase (MIT license)

  • API documentation for ecosystem integration

  • Real-world user testing across freelance, P2P, and cross-border use cases

What’s Next

CheckPay is an ongoing commitment to financial inclusion on Celo, with the following features in development:

  • :locked_with_key: Social login integration (Thirdweb) for easier onboarding

  • :speech_balloon: Built-in messaging system for escrow parties

  • :robot: AI-powered dispute resolution pipeline

  • :test_tube: Beta tester program

  • :mobile_phone: Farcaster MiniApp

Huge thanks to:

  • Celo Foundation & Almond Round curators for supporting this vision

  • Celo DevRel team for incredible office hours and demo videos

  • Celo builder community for helping us navigate testnet migrations and ecosystem changes together

Building on Celo has been a fantastic experience. The mobile-first philosophy, stablecoin infrastructure (cUSD), and identity layer (Self Protocol) make it uniquely suited for emerging market financial inclusion.

Try It Out & Get Involved

If you’re exploring AI-assisted blockchain development or building mobile-first dApps on Celo, I’d love to hear from you!

Marci

Gigentic | CheckPay

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We are so pleased you’ve found building on Celo a fantastic experience! :clap:

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