The Spark: Why Go Decentralized?
So why a decentralized event planner?
One word: trust. I didn’t want some centralized admin owning or editing everyone’s plans. From weddings and hackathons to spontaneous protests—shared planning deserved tamper-proof transparency.
Enter Polkadot. I was already fascinated by its parachain model—a network of interoperable blockchains under one umbrella. Perfect for building modular, permissioned systems like collaborative event planning.
And with Substrate, spinning up a custom blockchain with on-chain governance and roles felt more accessible than ever.
Choosing the Frontend: Why Svelte?
I picked Svelte on a whim—and I don’t regret it one bit.
After dealing with bloated frameworks, Svelte felt refreshingly simple. No virtual DOM. Fewer lines of code. Insanely fast reactivity.
All my dynamic components—RSVP toggles, agenda changes, role switches—just worked. And animations? Built-in magic. Svelte made my UI feel alive, not over-engineered.
Early Days: What I Got Wrong
I made classic rookie mistakes:
- Storing everything on-chain: Bad idea. It bloated fast, syncing became painful, and costs stacked up. I learned to store only core data (ownership, confirmations, timestamps) on-chain. Everything else? Offloaded to IPFS or decentralized DBs.
- Overengineering roles: I had “planner,” “co-planner,” “guest with RSVP,” “guest with comment-only,” and more. It confused people. In the end, fewer roles = better UX.
Cool Moment #1: Real-Time Consensus
One highlight: voting on event timings using Polkadot’s consensus logic.
Attendees could submit times, vote on options, and finalize a slot—no central admin needed. Watching decisions form in real-time based on wallet interactions felt futuristic. The network became the mediator.
Cool Moment #2: Wallet-Integrated RSVPs
Instead of filling forms, users just connected their wallet and clicked “I’m in.”
Behind the scenes? A signed transaction recorded the RSVP on-chain. Tamper-proof, transparent, and (oddly) kind of fun.
Bonus: people loved seeing their wallet avatars as confirmation badges. One friend called it “LinkedIn for parties.” I’ll take it.
UI Lessons: Keep It Dumb-Simple
Here’s what I learned from non-tech users: they don’t care about validators, parachains, or cryptographic hashes.
They just want:
- A clean dashboard
- Intuitive buttons
- A fast way to invite, RSVP, and make updates
So, I scrapped the generic “Connect Wallet” label and replaced it with:
“We’ll use your wallet to save your RSVP. Click below.”
More human. More trust. Better engagement.
The Ugly Stuff (Oh, There Was Plenty)
- Parachain debugging at 1 AM? Not my favorite.
- Silent RSVP failures due to Polkadot API throttling? Painful.
- IPFS quirks? Images disappearing because I forgot to pin them. Yep, I did that.
- Accidentally draining my testnet wallet by reusing a public seed phrase? Rookie move.
This journey had bugs, breakdowns, and one near meltdown. But each issue taught me something important—usually the hard way.
Would I Do It Again?
Yes. A hundred times, yes.
Not because it was smooth. But because I learned—from building with new tech to rethinking how people interact digitally. Even event planning, something seemingly mundane, became a space to rethink trust, coordination, and experience.
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Final Thoughts: From the Trenches
Thinking of building your own decentralized tool? Here’s some honest advice:
- Start small. Build for your friends. You’ll learn faster.
- Polkadot is powerful but weird. Embrace the learning curve.
- Svelte is magic. For any new frontend, I’d start there. No regrets.
- Test with real users. Especially non-tech ones. Their feedback changed my app the most.
- Don’t over-decentralize. Use the blockchain where it truly adds value—like audit trails and trust. Let the rest stay light and fast.
