A Retrospective

From back-of-the-napkin drawings in 2016, to production mobile apps in 2017, to seed investments in 2018, to pivoting our way through 2019… building and growing this wonderful community has been one hell of a ride.

The Beginning

In 2017, Cheddur was launched in response to countless cries for help from cryptocurrency novices all around the world who simply needed a better way to get started.

Crypto had broken into the mainstream consciousness for the very first time, and as an industry, it felt like we were finally on the map. And in hindsight, we were… but for all of the wrong reasons.

People were taking out loans to buy bitcoin, dozens of new coins were launching every single day, scammers were everywhere, and pretty much nobody knew what they were doing. It was madness.

And I am proud to say that for tens of thousands of people, Cheddur filled the void in their lives as their very own personal guide to crypto — the expert they could rely on to not only get started with crypto, but to guide them every step of the way on their crypto journey.

The Middle

Our rapid growth in 2017 and early 2018 landed us a spot in the Desai Startup Accelerator’s S2018 cohort, where we worked tirelessly with fellow tech entrepreneurs and business professionals to turn our simple app into a sustainable business (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).

The End

Through a series of pivots, what had started as your personal guide to digital currency eventually became the social network of money. But like many other crypto companies over the past 2 years, we were ultimately defeated by our inability to find product/market fit — our inability to grow.

Cheddur will be shutting down on January 31, 2020.

Some of The Bets We Lost

• We bet that cryptocurrency ecosystem would expand throughout 2018 and 2019, both in terms of the number of coins, apps, and users. It contracted. 📉
• We bet that Steemit would release the Smart Media Tokens (SMT) protocol, and that SMTs on Steem would rival ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum. Neither happened. 🚫
• We bet (hoped) that retail interest in cryptocurrency would pick back up in 2019. Whoops! 🤣

Lessons Learned

We’ve learned so much over the past 4 years while building Cheddur, so this section is by no means exhaustive. These are just some of the battle scars we have acquired, learned from, and will be carrying forward with us to our future endeavor(s):

1. Vet your idea thoroughly.

Don’t assume that just because you like your idea, that other people will too. Talk to potential customers before writing a single line of code. Set up landing pages to gauge interest. Do market research.

Validate your idea before you decide to fully commit to it and hunker down for the long haul.

2. And then vet your idea some more.

I can’t stress this enough. You may have come up with a novel solution, but is it solving a true “hair on fire” problem that has a big enough addressable market for you to grow?

Think twice about this, before you potentially spend your time and talent on the wrong idea.

3. Don’t go alone.

Startups are incredibly hard. You’ll only make it 5 times harder (and more stressful, less likely to succeed) if you try to do it alone. Find a co-founder. I wish I had brought Jozsef on sooner.

4. Choose your platform wisely.

Is your solution best delivered through a mobile app? A website? A podcast? A blog? Modifying human behavior is really hard. It’s much easier to identify where your customers are already living online, and to meet them there.

5. Don’t underestimate your competitors.

The way your competitors look today is not the way they will look tomorrow. Just as you will grow, so will they. Anticipate radical changes.

When we started working Cheddur in 2016, Coinbase was just another exchange where you could buy and sell crypto. But today, it’s now a full-blown social/financial network with much of the same features and functionality that had originally separated Cheddur from the pack.

6. Seek to be good, not perfect.

Perfection is a myth, especially when it comes to software. Don’t be afraid to release your product or feature because you’re afraid that it sucks. Because you’re right… it probably does suck… but so does the version that’s going to take 4 more weeks to be “ready”.

Just ship it and get feedback, because chances are, you’re building the wrong thing anyway.

7. Agile, not waterfall.

Don’t take a year (or more) to get your idea into the market. Compress timeframes. Focus on days and weeks, not months. Build → ship → test → and repeat.

The faster you get feedback, the more likely you are to find product/market fit. The slower you are to get feedback, the more likely you are to build a bunch of useless stuff that over-complicates your product and wastes your #1 most precious asset — time.

8. The best people don’t work for free.

So get profitable or seek funding early on. Bootstrapping can only take you so far. A small team can only carry so much weight.

From the start, you should have an actionable plan in place to acquire the cash needed to scale your team and grow.

9. Trust your gut, especially when hiring.

After you’ve interviewed a new candidate for the first time, deep down in your gut you know whether or not it’s going to work out. Ignore short-term needs and fancy resumes. In fact, ignore resumes entirely.

Think long-term and trust your gut, because a bad hire is cancerous to any company.

10. Fire fast.

Once it’s clear that a new hire is not working out, it’s time to cut bait and run. Delaying the inevitable will only hurt you (emotionally), the company, the culture, and the new hire.

When I knew I needed to do my first fire, I agonized over it for weeks. Just rip the bandaid off — it’s better for everyone involved, and it’s not nearly as bad as you think it’s going to be.

11. You don’t need a mentor.

Just Google It.™

12. Don’t build a project. Build a business.

When you’re working on your passion, it’s easy to blur the line between “this is a project” and “this is a business”. Always be building a business. A project turns into a labor of love and is generally un-investable. A businesses can actually scale.

13. Don’t forget to have fun.

As a wise man once said, “A good life is just a series of good days.” If you stop having fun, you start losing good days. And when you start losing good days, you start losing the goodness in your life.

Don’t give up your hobbies. Don’t stop going to the gym. Don’t be ashamed to step away from time to time.

Travel. Experience. Live.

Your family and your older (and wiser) self will thank you for it.

Thank You

• Thank you to our wonderful community for sharing our deep passion for cryptocurrency and for inspiring us each and every day to build a better industry. We wouldn’t have made it nearly this far without all of you. 💙
• Thank you to the amazing folks at Desai for their unwavering support and for believing in us. Angela Kujava, Katy Lind, Satish Malnaik… there are too many names to name here. I am indebted to each and every of you, and I hope to one day pay it back tenfold. 🙏🏻
• Thank you Jozsef Csepe for all of your trust, hard work, and dedication over the years. Cheddur simply wouldn’t have made it through 2018 without your heroic efforts, and I am forever grateful to have you as a colleague and as a friend. 🤝
• And finally, thank you to my beautiful wife, Michelle, for all of the love and support you’ve given to me over the years. Building Cheddur has been a wild rollercoaster, and you rode it with me the full length of the way, from Day 1. You checked my ego through the highest of highs. You picked me up off of the floor through the lowest of lows. You even rolled up your sleeves when we needed a part-time designer/developer on our team. I simply can’t express just how lucky I am to have you in my life. I love you. 😽

What’s Next?

For me? I don’t know for certain… but I bet it involves crypto. 😎✌

W️here you can find me:

• joncursi.com
• Follow me on Twitter
• Subscribe to YouTube channel

We’re Shutting Cheddur Down was originally published in Cheddur Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We’ve integrated with 0x Protocol so that you can buy your favorite ERC20 tokens directly on Cheddur! Simply connect your Ethereum wallet of choice (e.g. MetaMask, TREZOR, or Ledger), click Buy Now, and snag yourself some coins!

Instant Buy will scan the decentralized exchanges on the 0x network to find and deliver the best possible deal. There’s no account needed, it’s BYOW (Bring Your Own Wallet™), and the best part of all — your private key stays safe with you. It is never transmitted to our servers.

Instant Buy is currently available on cheddur.com for most of the top ERC20 tokens, including:

• 0x (ZRX)
• Aeternity (AE)
• AirSwap (AST)
• Aragon (ANT)
• Augur (REP)
• Basic Attention Token (BAT)
• ChainLink (LINK)
• Civic (CVC)
• Dai (DAI)
• Decentraland (MANA)
• Digital Gold Token (DGX)
• DigixDAO (DGD)
• district0x (DNT)
• FunFair (FUN)
• Gnosis (GNO)
• Livepeer (LPT)
• MakerDAO (MKR)
• Melon (MLN)
• OmiseGo (OMG)
• Power Ledger (POWR)
• Republic Protocol (REN)
• Request Network (REQ)
• SingularityNET (AGI)
• SpankChain (SPANK)
• Status Network (SNT)
• Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX)
• Zilliqa (ZIL)
• … and more!

Instant Buy currently supports ETH → ERC20 transfers, and ERC20 → ERC20 transfers will be available in the near future.

The Social Network of Money

Cheddur is the social network of money and your personal guide to crypto. Get live updates on your favorite coins and apps, read and write reviews, accept payments in crypto, and more.

• Download for FREE on iOS!
• Download for FREE on Android!
• Send us your feedback!

Cross-posted on Steemit.

Introducing Instant Buy was originally published in Cheddur Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Adding “crypto news” to the Cheddur platform has been one of the most requested features we’ve gotten from our users over the past few months. Previous versions of the Cheddur platform helped you easily track the price of any coin or token, but fell short on helping you understand why prices are moving and what’s going on. That changes now.

As of today, you can now follow your favorite coins and crypto apps on Cheddur in order to receive curated news and live updates (directly from project teams) in your Cheddur news feed. Be the first to hear about new updates / announcements / breaking news, and easily keep a pulse on the crypto market!

Getting Started

To help you get going, you are now “following” any coins that you were previously “watching” in older versions of the Cheddur platform. Sign in to check out the latest news!

If we’re missing a news story for one of your favorite coins or crypto apps, you can also submit new updates (in the form of a link) to any community on Cheddur, similar to the way that Reddit works. 🔗😃

Special Perks for Verified Coins & Apps

If you are a coin or crypto app developer, claim your free profile on Cheddur in order to post live updates to your followers, respond to reviews, link your team members, update profile info, and grow your community.

As a verified team member, your updates will be published immediately to your followers and you are not restricted to just posting links — feel free to post about anything you’d like!

The Social Network of Money

Cheddur is the social network of money and your personal guide to crypto. Get live updates on your favorite coins and apps, read and write reviews, accept payments in crypto, and more.

Download for FREE on iOS!

Download for FREE on Android!

Send us your feedback!

Cross-posted on Steemit.

Introducing Live Updates! was originally published in Cheddur Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The cryptocurrency ecosystem is evolving rapidly. New coins and crypto apps are launching every day. Dozens of ICOs are about to begin and an equal amount are about to end. Existing blockchains are undergoing major upgrades. And the herd is coming.

Keeping tabs on this space can be hard — but we’re here to make it easier. Sign up for a free account on Cheddur and we’ll send you a curated, weekly roundup of the top stories in crypto!

We’re calling it the Cheddur Crypto Update, and it arrives in your inbox every Tuesday! Create a free account on Cheddur to get started!

Cross-posted on Steemit.

Introducing the Cheddur Crypto Update was originally published in Cheddur Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Two and a half years ago, I embarked on a mission to onboard as many people onto cryptocurrency as possible by helping them safely enter the market and navigate the ecosystem. In the spirit of this mission, the Cheddur platform was born.

Progress

Over the last ten months, our team has established 200 partnerships with cryptocurrency companies who have claimed and actively manage their Cheddur profiles. We’ve amassed over 2,500 cryptocurrency reviews on the platform. And most importantly — we’ve guided over 50,000 users along their crypto journey.

Challenges

Behind the scenes, it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. Tribalism is prevalent among cryptocurrency communities and can cause users to be overly positive in their reviews of coins that they hold (5 stars), or overly negative in their reviews of “rival” projects (1 star). In addition, we suspect that several crypto companies on the platform have used astroturfing and vote brigading in order to drown out critical reviews and/or artificially inflate their popularity.

In a market where 80% of the ICOs are deemed to be scams, maintaining the integrity of the Cheddur review system is critical towards holding crypto companies accountable and enabling beginners to easily distinguish between high-quality and low-quality projects.

Philosophy

As a company, we believe that it is best to be neither the judge nor jury over deciding which projects are scams. When it comes to listing new coins and crypto apps on Cheddur, our goal is to instead be factually complete and to list new and interesting projects based on user demand and the facts that are available on the Internet. We believe that it is the responsibility of the cryptocurrency community as a whole — rather than a central authority — to collectively determine the quality of each crypto company.

Announcing Cheddur 2.0

I’m excited to announce that in 2019, we are tokenizing the Cheddur platform with our very own cryptocurrency, CHDR (Ʉ). The purpose of the CHDR currency is simple — to help bring safety, order, and accountability to the crypto ecosystem by aligning the interests of cryptocurrency beginners (who need help), cryptocurrency experts (who can provide it), and crypto companies (who want to grow their communities, but also need to be held to a higher standard).

How?

In order to fulfill its purpose, the CHDR currency will:

1. Establish a reputation system to designate each user’s influence within the platform.
2. Incentivize users to create and curate high-quality, unbiased reviews through rewards and platform influence.
3. Determine the individual quality of each user-generated review using the Wisdom of the Crowd.
4. Help us more accurately calculate the overall star rating and popularity of each crypto company by favoring reviews that are deemed to be high quality.
5. Minimize the effects of tribalism, astroturfing, vote brigading, and other forms of malicious activity.
6. Empower the Cheddur community to be self-policing and self-sustaining.
7. Enable beginners to earn their way into the crypto market with little or no downside risk.

Benefits

Crypto experts can use the platform to share their wisdom, knowledge, experiences, successes, and failures — so that we can collectively learn from each other — and they are incentivized to do so in an honest way through our rewards system.

For beginners, it’s like having a trusted expert right in your pocket, available 24/7 and ready to guide you every step of the way of your crypto journey. Beginners are also rewarded for up-voting high-quality content when they see it, and down-voting any malicious activity.

And for crypto companies, it’s a platform they can use to not only list themselves, but to claim and manage their free Cheddur profiles, respond to user reviews, and use our premium tools and targeted advertising to grow their communities of users and investors.

Token Economy

We published a full, technical white paper on token.cheddur.com that explains the nuts and bolts of our token economy. It works like this:

Rather than individual users having to pay rewards and fees directly amongst each other (as is the case with most Ethereum-based ÐApps), Ʉ tokens will be awarded via the programmatic inflation of the CHDR supply. Inflation aligns the interests of each stakeholder as the Cheddur community as a whole — beginners, experts, companies, and the Cheddur team — collectively pay for the creation and curation of high-quality content.

A Smart Media Token

The CHDR currency will utilize the industry-leading Proof of Brain properties that were pioneered by the Steem blockchain and made available through the Smart Media Token (SMT) protocol. By using the Steem blockchain, Cheddur users will be able to enjoy the benefits of the blockchain without having to realize they are using one.

Final Thoughts

We Want Your Feedback!

We believe that the CHDR currency should be launched in collaboration with the community, so we are seeking feedback on the design of Cheddur 2.0. We intended to spare no details from our white paper, so if anything is unclear, missing, or doesn’t make sense, let’s talk about it!

Starting points for an open discussion:

1. We are currently undecided on whether to do an airdrop or an ICO (using the built-in capabilities of the SMT protocol, as described in the white paper), so we’d appreciate feedback on that!
2. We’re considering burning some percentage of our quarterly profits in Ʉ tokens, but aren’t sure if a) this is necessary, and b) what the parameters would be around this.

Thank you!

Useful Links

• Cheddur Website
• Cheddur on Google Play
• Cheddur on the App Store
• Token Site & White Paper

Announcing Cheddur 2.0 — An Incentivized Review Platform for the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem was originally published in Cheddur Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Our name and vision are the same, but our strategy is changing.

We launched Cheddur last November near the height of the 2017 bull market. Mania was in full-effect, and Cheddur was there to guide thousands of crypto newcomers in their quest to…

• learn the basics,
• choose the best coins to invest in,
• find the safest wallets to store and secure those coins, and
• join the cryptocurrency community.

But several months later, most of the newcomers to crypto are back on the sidelines after being shell-shocked by the market volatility. So, now what?

A Renewed Focus

There is a special group of people that are still here in the trenches, unwavering in their convictions about cryptocurrency. They believe in the technology, and the implications this movement is having on society. They are the true believers. The crazy ones.

We’re re-branding to better align with these people. This is our tribe.

Layers of Meaning

The new logo highlights the “U” in “Cheddur”, and is stroked with a horizontal bar to foreshadow a major platform update we’ve been working on (but aren’t ready to announce just yet!). It can also be interpreted as an upside-down “A”, which is how the word “cheddar” is typically spelt.

We’re also using…

• blues to signal comfort, safety, security, and a social experience,
• purples to signal wisdom and royalty, and
• greens to signal finance and money.

What’s Next?

Cheddur will always strive to be beginner-friendly, but you can also expect to see more “power” features being rolled out over the coming months. Follow us on Twitter to stay up-to-date on all of our upcoming product announcements… we have some big news in the pipeline!

Please send us your feedback — we’d love to know what you think!

We’re Re-branding! was originally published in Cheddur Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We’re excited to announce that Cheddur is now available on the web! You can use cheddur.com to:

• Search for any cryptocurrency, ICO, or crypto app
• Read and write reviews
• Post your coin addresses
• …and more.

Try it out! We’d love to hear your feedback!

Calling All Developers

Thousands of cryptocurrency investors use the Cheddur iOS app, Android app, and (now) website to discover, learn about, and get started with new coins and apps.

Add your coin / add your app to Cheddur to start growing your community!

Introducing the Cheddur.com Website was originally published in Cheddur Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

With dozens of digital currencies and services launching every day, it’s getting harder and harder to stand out from the crowd. Today, we are excited to announce a new set of features on Cheddur that will help you, as a developer on our platform, do just that.

We’re calling it Managed Profiles — because now, every coin or service developer has the ability to manage their project’s identity on the Cheddur platform, educate and engage with new users, and grow their community.

What? How? Allow me to explain!

Verification System

We built an automated verification system to allow qualified individuals (core team members) to begin managing their projects on Cheddur. It only takes a minute and once you complete the process, you will become the first “Admin” for your project on Cheddur (more on this below).

Tap on the “Manage this profile” callout to get started!

Add and Manage Your Entire Team!

As an Admin for your project on Cheddur, you now have the ability to invite other team members to join your squad! Each team member’s permission level can be adjusted at any time, based on the following three options:

• Admin: Can respond to user reviews, update profile information, and change settings for the team.
• Moderator: Can respond to user reviews, but not update profile information or change settings.
• Member: Appears as a member of the team, but carries no special privileges.

To help potential users and investors learn about the people behind your project, the members of your team will also be listed within the “Team” panel on your project’s “About” page. Therefore, the more team members you add, the better sense we’ll have about the brain power behind your project!

Engage With Your Users!

As mentioned above, Admins and Moderators have the ability to respond to user reviews on behalf of your project. This will enable you to provide an amazing consumer experience to those who have decided to try out your product.

When new reviews are written or existing reviews are updated, we’ll send notifications to your team so that you’re always in the loop!

Update Profile Information in Real-Time!

Admins also have the ability to update profile information and have their updates published immediately! This includes all general / technical information for coins, and general / integration information for services. No more waiting on us to make, review, or approve changes. We put the power directly in your hands!

100% Free, Forever!

We want every developer on our platform to have the tools they need to manage their project’s identity, educate and engage with new users, and grow their community. This is why we’re making all of this 100% free, forever!

Get Started Now!

To start managing your coin or service profile on Cheddur, simply update your Android app or iOS app to the latest (4.x) release!

Download the Cheddur App

If you haven’t already, head over to the App Store or Google Play to download the Cheddur app!

Cheddur is your personal guide to digital currency, empowering you to get started with any coin or service, read and write reviews, share your coin addresses with friends, and more! Beginner friendly — no experience required!

Please recommend and share this with your friends if you enjoyed reading! 😃

Introducing “Managed” Coin and Service Profiles! was originally published in Cheddur Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

From Day 1, we’ve been listening intently to all of the feedback from the Cheddur community. And we think that there’s no better way to celebrate this important milestone with all of you than by releasing a handful of new features that you’ve been asking for!

So, without further ado:

Introducing “Gainers” and “Decliners”!

We’ve updated the dashboard on your Home screen to include two new search presets: “Gainers” and “Decliners”. Tap on these to see which coins have increased or decreased in value the most over the last 24 hours!

Translation: Had you bought a coin on one of these lists, 24 hours ago, are you currently broke, or are you enjoying the view up there on the moon? 🤑

Introducing “All Time High“ Prices!

For any coin that has a price integration on Cheddur, we’ve made it easier for you to look up its all-time high price! This snippet of information is now available on the coin’s “About” screen, under the general section.

Furthermore, when a coin is currently at its all-time high price, we have a little surprise waiting for you on the coin’s price chart!

Introducing Market Cap Filters!

We’ve added market capitalization options to our extensive set of coin filters. Looking for low market cap coins with a small supply and high popularity? No problem!

Finally: An Improved Coin Popularity Algorithm

Coins within the Cheddur app are ranked by “popularity” as the default option. While it is impossible to measure popularity objectively, we’re continuously improving our ranking algorithm to better mimic reality.

In addition to reviews, we now take into consideration the number of users that are watching each coin, as well as how many users have added public addresses for each coin.

Based on the new algorithm, the updated coin rankings are… drumroll 🥁…

Download the Cheddur App

If you haven’t already, head over to the App Store or Google Play to download the Cheddur app!

Cheddur is your personal guide to digital currency, empowering you to get started with any coin or service, read and write reviews, share your coin addresses with friends, and more! Beginner friendly — no experience required!

Please recommend and share this with your friends if you enjoyed reading! 😃

Over 5,000 Registered Users + New Feature Announcements! was originally published in Cheddur Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

First to get checked off the list: the ability to share Cheddur reviews and addresses over SMS, Email, Facebook, and your other favorite platforms!

Shareable Reviews

When you write a review on the Cheddur app, you have the option to instantly cross-post it to Facebook / Twitter. But what if you wanted to share (or re-share) it later? Or share someone else’s awesome review that you happened to stumble upon?

Well, now you can! Just tap on the three dots next to any review and use the “Share” button!

Shareable Addresses

Want to post your address somewhere online? Looking to send someone your address for a payment? Just navigate to your address on the Cheddur app and use the share icon on the top right! Works with any third-party platform, including text message!

Download the Cheddur App

If you haven’t already, head on over to the App Store or Google Play to download the Cheddur app!

Cheddur is your personal guide to digital currency, empowering you to get started with any coin or service, read and write reviews, share your coin addresses with friends, and more! Beginner friendly — no experience required!

Please recommend and share this with your friends if you enjoyed reading! 😃

Introducing Shareable Reviews & Addresses! was originally published in Cheddur Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.