Founding designer at BetDEX Labs. I owned end-to-end design of a peer-to-peer prediction exchange on Solana: market UX, onboarding, wallet, and discovery. I built the design vision, first component library, and research programme from scratch, and grew the team from one to three.
12,000+
Early-access players, World Cup beta
8m+
Matched trades on the protocol
100+
Countries live
Role Founding Product Designer
Team Design team 1 → 3
Platforms Responsive web
Validation Maze · Discord community
01
Context
BetDEX set out to build a prediction-markets platform where customers forecast real-world events directly with one another. The space was young, with Polymarket and Kalshi only beginning to explore what consumer prediction markets could look like, and the product was built on Solana for fast, transparent, peer-to-peer settlement.
The blockchain unlocked the exchange. It also introduced concepts of trust and usability a mainstream audience had never met. The job: keep what it enabled, hide what it demanded.
02
The World Cup beta
The 2022 FIFA World Cup was a rare launch window: global attention, peak engagement, and ten months to prepare. Rather than a full-featured platform, we shipped a simple, resilient public beta built to prove three capabilities at scale.
1
Handle wallets & funds
Safely manage balances and transactions in a live environment.
2
Make & track a prediction
A complete end-to-end flow from discovery through to settlement.
3
Meet compliance
Core flows aligned with early regulatory expectations.
We launched two weeks before kick-off and iterated in real time with a Discord community that had formed after the pre-seed announcement. The event-first interface borrowed from FTX, Binance, and Coinbase Pro to match the expectations of DeFi-native early adopters.
Fig. 02 · Beta home page
Fig. 03 · DeFi-inspired trader UI
Fig. 04 · Player leaderboards
03
What the beta taught us
The beta generated a high volume of insight, from Discord feedback and user interviews to social discussion, bug reports, and behavioural analytics, complemented by a competitive review of exchanges and consumer betting products. Four learnings set the roadmap.
1
Web3 patterns blocked mainstream adoption
Crypto-native onboarding and wallet flows confused anyone arriving from a non-web3 background.
2
The exchange UI limited broad appeal
The buy/sell model worked for experienced traders and intimidated casual customers.
3
Limited markets hurt retention
A narrow slate of events gave customers few reasons to return and engage repeatedly.
4
Growth needed promotions
Without incentives, acquisition, activation, and retention were difficult to sustain.
Fig. 05 · Identifying & mapping feedback inputs
04
Post-beta direction
The beta made one thing clear: to grow, the experience had to be simpler, more familiar, and easier to start. Four priorities were set before full launch, iterated with product and engineering, and validated with customers in Maze before final execution.
A
A native BetDEX wallet
Hold and manage funds inside BetDEX, removing the need for third-party crypto wallets entirely.
B
Simplified account creation
Familiar web2 patterns such as email/password and SSO to cut sign-up friction to near zero.
C
Pro vs Lite experiences
Keep the full exchange for savvy traders; add a Lite mode with a simpler, sportsbook-style flow for everyone else.
D
Request a Boost
A promotional mechanic to boost odds on any market, supporting acquisition and engagement without a promo budget arms race.
Fig. 06 · SSO sign-up, account creation & management
Fig. 07 · Simplified exchange UI
Fig. 08 · Lite mode: a sportsbook-like experience
Fig. 09 · Request-a-Boost: explainer & betslip UI
05
Outcomes
Early-stage, but real: a functioning decentralised prediction-markets platform with live usage and measurable results. Built on the Monaco Protocol, BetDEX demonstrated the viability of shared-liquidity, peer-to-peer markets and laid the foundation for broader adoption.
12,000+
Early-access players at beta
~3%
Fees on net winnings vs sportsbooks
20×
Markets year-over-year
$50k+
Available liquidity on key events
8m+
Matched trades, Monaco Protocol
100+
Countries operated in
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