This is a story about hunting frogs, a surprising adventure that unfolded at Devcon 2024 in bustling Bangkok. Picture a lively Ethereum conference, buzzing with innovative energy and filled with passionate people. Among this excitement, a simple frog-themed game became the gateway to understanding how movements begin and grow.
The Game
The game itself was both mysterious and captivating. As soon as you registered, you were greeted by a booth filled with frog memorabilia and elaborate charts. The flyers offered weren't exactly helpful—they were full of pictures that left many scratching their heads, trying to piece together the game’s purpose.
Here’s how you could dive into the froggy fun:
1. Swamp Searches: Within your conference app, there was a button labeled "search the swamp," which you could click every fifteen minutes to earn a digital frog. This small task became a steady rhythm throughout the day.
2. NFC Scavenger Hunt: Hidden around the venue were NFC chips containing digital frogs waiting to be scanned. These had a 15-minute cooldown, adding a layer of timing and strategy to the game.
3. Froggy Fellowship: The game encouraged making connections. People wore frog necklaces with QR codes. By scanning these codes, you could add friends and both earn frogs, turning every interaction into an opportunity.
However, many found the game's instructions vague, which highlighted a significant lesson in user experience. Without clear guidance, even a fun game can leave participants confused, and the staff often found themselves repeatedly explaining how it worked.
Prizes
So, what was at stake? The prizes transformed the game into a quest for collectable milestones:
1 Frog: Frog Necklace
10 Frogs: Bug Repellent Bracelet
25 Frogs: Frog Trinket
75 Frogs: Bucket Hat
100 Frogs: T-shirt
300 Frogs: Programmable Cryptography Textbook
600 Frogs: Frog Beret
1000 Frogs: Premium Frog Backpack
The Challenge
While collecting 25 frogs was relatively straightforward, reaching further became increasingly difficult. The game evolved from individual determination to needing a network of connections. It was more than just a game; it mirrored the challenges in starting and scaling a movement. How do you connect with strangers in such a dynamic conference without losing track of personal goals?
Devcon teemed with various attractions, like the Web of Root event - a closed door event gathering change-makers and tech enthusiasts. It was here that balancing engagement with talks and pursuing frogs turned into an interesting conundrum.
(Are some of the faces familiar? Who would want to miss being here to go hunt frogs?!?!)
My personal goal was clear—I wanted that coveted textbook or backpack AND also have amazing conversation with people. It inspired a creative solution to make frog hunting less cumbersome and more collaborative.
As I considered how to make the froggy quest more manageable, I realized that our efforts needed centralizing—a method to simplify this peculiar hunt while amplifying our chances of success. Enter a very simple solution: a list. But not just any list—a strategically ordered and deduplicated collection of frog URLs, which I built in a matter of hours from my corner at the hackerspace.
Here's how it worked: every time someone scanned a QR code from a frog necklace, they accessed a unique URL. By organizing these URLs into a curated list, I made it possible for participants to pick up where they left off without encountering duplicates.
Organization First: Newcomers to the list appeared at the top. This ensured they found new friends quickly and kept engagement fresh.
Format Challenges: There was a minor hurdle as the QR codes could appear in at least three different formats. Initially, I designed a basic version with significant manual intervention. Over several iterations, we integrated features like automatic code scanning directly from phone cameras.
Iterative Design: With at least five iterative improvements, the project grew from a functional MVP to a well-rounded product, refining usability to accommodate diverse user experiences.
With the list established, the question became: how do we get this tool into the hands of fellow frog hunters? I seeded the project with 50 URLs, gathered from scanning trees of frog necklaces and shared links in the Telegram chat dedicated to the frog game. But that was just the beginning. To build momentum, I needed to drum up awareness...
Launch it and they will come?
While the idea of a shared, growing list seemed like a no-brainer in theory, the reality proved far more complex—a rollercoaster of enthusiasm and resistance. It turned out, simply launching the list didn't automatically attract a crowd. Behind every successful action, there lay untold dynamics I had to navigate.
Tackling Awareness
At first, the list seemed to whisper into the void. Despite meticulously posting in the Telegram chat adorned with its sea of individual frog links, initial traction was sparse. Here, the human element proved pivotal. I took to the floor, engaging with people directly, emphasizing the suddenly larger scope of what they could achieve with a single QR scan. Gradually, the list began to gain some momentum, evolving from a mere list of URLs to a valuable community tool.
The Friction of Self-Interest
System growth uncovered conflicting motives, too, emphasizing the tension between personal gain and communal benefit. Spamming the Telegram chat with repetitive personal links threatened to overshadow the communal list, akin to shouting into an already cacophonous room. While the list's singular structure offered stability, individual ambitions occasionally competed with, if not outright clashed against, its broader goals.
I encountered spam enthusiasts unafraid of spamming or pinning their links repeatedly, trying to stay visible in a flood of contributions. Ironically, this hindered their own cause, burying our list further down and reducing its visibility. There were those determined to conserve their frogs for an imagined strategic advantage, rather than contribute to our shared resource.
Cultural and Knowledge Barriers
Misalignment in understanding also emerged as a significant barrier. Attempting to explain the utility of a QR-coded URL to someone without a tech background was challenging. My pitch often met with skepticism or disinterest, a stark reminder of the breadth of knowledge and engagement necessary to maximize benefits from digital tools.
Exiting to Community
Despite these hurdles, relations and dynamics continued to shift and grow. Newcomers frequently recognized the buzz around the list, hearing of it from friends or mere whispers within circles—evidence of its expanding reach and potential viral factor. Many found ways to adapt the list's functionality to their needs, transforming a simple concept into something vastly more powerful.
Ultimately, this experiment unfolded a deeper understanding of what sustains a movement—namely, the network itself. By fostering an environment where users felt part of a collaborative adventure, the sense of community grew organically. Scalability was no longer rooted in my efforts alone but interwoven through each participant’s willingness to engage and expand the ecosystem.
Beyond the mechanics of frog collection and the ambition for conference swag lay a revelation about shared purpose. In every QR code scanned, in every frog added to the list, a ripple of communal satisfaction spread outwards. It highlighted a fundamental truth: movements thrive when everyone sees their role as integral, no matter how small it may seem. These interactions made the conference experience richer and more interconnected—a testament to the journey rather than the destination.
In closing, what started as a whimsical game of hunting frogs at Devcon turned into a deep dive into the heart of community engagement and shared progress. Despite the challenges and unexpected detours, it was clear that the joy of contributing to something larger than oneself came with its own set of rewards—forever embedding lessons of cooperation, innovation, and resilience into my memory. Onward, we march with these insights, ready to tackle new adventures, both individually and collectively.