degenie

Case · 2017–2018 · Director of Product

Waves

A wallet, an exchange and a token launcher, in one app, in 2017.

The problem
In 2017 most crypto sat on exchanges that held it for you; trading from your own wallet, or issuing a token, meant a command line.
What I did
Set product and design direction for the new Waves Client, a wallet, a decentralised exchange and a token launcher in one app, and directed the identity ONY designed.
What happened
330,000 active wallets and 90,000 traders during the beta. It left beta in July 2018 after 53 releases, four months before Uniswap launched.
The Waves Client dashboard on a light device: balances in Waves, Bitcoin, Ethereum, US dollars, euro, Dash and Litecoin under a portfolio chart.
Role
Director of Product
Scope
Waves Client: wallet, exchange, token launcher; identity and design system
With
Waves’ product and engineering teams; identity by ONY
Period
July 2017 – December 2018

In 2017 most people kept crypto on an exchange that held it for them. The new Waves Client put a decentralised exchange and a token launcher inside the wallet, for people who had never used a command line. I set its product and design direction and directed the identity ONY designed.

active wallets during the beta, December 2017 to July 2018
330K
about 47,000 a month over the seven-month beta
CryptoNinjas
traders in the same period
90K
27% of the active wallets
CryptoNinjas
to issue a token and trade it on the built-in exchange
< 60 s
where issuing one usually meant writing a smart contract
Waves
beta releases before the full release, July 2018
53
in seven months, nearly two a week
CryptoNinjas

In its time

A year before Uniswap, the exchange lived in the wallet.

In 2017 buying a token usually meant an account on an exchange that held it for you, and issuing one meant writing a smart contract. Waves let a person hold, trade and issue tokens from one app, with the keys on their own device.

2017

  1. Waves puts its decentralised exchange live on mainnet, at first through a full node or the API. Cointelegraph

  2. I join Waves as Director of Product.

  3. The new Waves Client goes into beta at a launch in Amsterdam: wallet, redesigned exchange and token launcher, under the new identity. Waves

2018

  1. The client leaves beta after 53 releases. During the beta: 330,000 active wallets and 90,000 traders. CryptoNinjas

  2. Uniswap launches on Ethereum. Contrary Research

2019

    2020

    1. MetaMask adds token swaps inside the wallet. The Block

    My workThe field

    The product

    Hold, trade and issue, from one screen.

    Elsewhere these were three products: a wallet, an exchange and a way to create tokens. The Waves Client joined them. A wallet with gateways for bitcoin, ether and fiat currencies; a decentralised exchange with an order book, where funds stayed in your own wallet until a trade settled; and a token launcher that issued a token in under a minute and listed it on the same exchange.

    Most people opening the client had never traded, and many had never held a key. So the client opens on what you own and what it is worth, with send, receive and exchange on every asset. The full exchange is one step further in, for the people who want it.

    The Waves Client dashboard: a getting-started checklist, a portfolio chart, and balances in Waves, Bitcoin, Ethereum and US dollars.

    The wallet, a swap and the full exchange, in one client. Waves working files, 2017 · sample balances and prices.

    The full Waves exchange: two watchlists, a Bitcoin chart with sell and buy, the order book, your orders, trade history, and notices for a submitted and a declined order.The Waves decentralised exchange on a tablet with a stylus: a Bitcoin chart, an order ticket and open orders.

    The full exchange, and the order ticket on a tablet. Published on Dribbble, 2017 · sample prices.

    The identity

    Get started with blockchain.

    Waves needed one brand for very different people: traders, developers, companies issuing tokens, merchants and people buying their first crypto. I briefed ONY and directed the work on the Waves side, then carried it into the product and the design system.

    ONY drew the mark as an antithesis to circles and coins: a diamond tipped off its axis, money with no physical form. Around it, a language that is technical without being cold, so a first-time buyer and a developer could both feel it was for them.

    ONY’s Waves brand film: black cubes turning in the dark, five seconds, no sound.
    • The Waves wordmark in black with the blue diamond, on light grey.
    • Black cubes in deep shadow with the line Economics of free, perfect and instant, and the Waves wordmark.
    • Waves business cards floating in light grey: We’re making blockchain easy for everyone.
    • Eight Waves product icons, white line drawings cut into blue diamonds.
    • A phone showing the Waves onboarding: You control your bitcoin, with an illustration and a Create bitcoin wallet button.
    • Two Waves brochures, Get started with blockchain, with a field of blue diamonds.
    • A laptop showing the Waves developer site: Build unstoppable applications.
    • A black tote bag on blue: Use blockchain, it’s easy with waves.
    • A woman in a white T-shirt with a single blue diamond on the chest.

    Identity by ONY, Moscow, for Waves, 2017. Briefed and directed on the Waves side by me; images and film by ONY.

    From ONY’s case, Waves: get started with blockchain.

    The decisions

    Three calls that shaped it.

    1. 01

      The exchange lives in the wallet.

      Funds stay in your own wallet until a trade settles. Elsewhere you deposited to trade; here the order book came to the keys.

    2. 02

      Open on what you own.

      The client opens on balances and their worth, with send, receive and exchange on each. The full exchange, with its order book and depth, is one step further in.

    3. 03

      Each screen teaches the idea it relies on.

      A token list, a signed but unmatched order, a key as the account: none had a convention yet, so the screen that used one explained it.

    What lasted

    Early is a design problem.

    In 2017 there were no conventions for any of this. No one had agreed what a token list should look like, how to show an order that was signed but not yet matched, or how to explain that a key on your device was the account. Each screen had to teach the idea it relied on.

    The client left beta in July 2018. Trading from your own keys, inside the wallet, became the default soon after, first through Uniswap and then as the swap tab in every wallet. The order of the first screen, what you own before what you can do, is the one I carried to De.Fi and to Trust Wallet.

    Credits

    Product and design direction by me as Director of Product, with Waves’ product, design and engineering teams.

    Identity by ONY, briefed and directed on the Waves side by me.

    Sources

    1. Cointelegraph: Waves debuts DEX, March 2017
    2. Waves: Waves Client major release, the beta and what the client includes
    3. CryptoNinjas: fully reworked Waves Client out of beta, 24 July 2018
    4. Waves: 2017 roundup, the year in review
    5. ONY: Waves, get started with blockchain, the identity
    6. Contrary Research: Uniswap Labs, Uniswap’s launch
    7. The Block: MetaMask adds token swaps, October 2020
    8. Dribbble: Igor Pugachevsky, the published shots

    Product screens are Waves working files and published Dribbble shots from 2017; balances and prices are sample data. Identity images and film are ONY’s.

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