What if we told you that the future of DeFi onboarding might just be... adorable? That's exactly what the team behind Zutchi discovered during their recent hackathon experience. By combining the universal appeal of virtual pets with the sophisticated world of decentralized finance, they created something truly unique: on-chain cats that not only steal your heart but also earn real yield.
With Zutchi, users adopt an on-chain cat and keep it healthy by feeding it, ensuring it gets enough rest, and putting it to “work”. Behind the scenes, that “work” means depositing funds into DeFi projects on Zircuit, where they benefit from Zircuit’s Sequencer Level Security (SLS.) The result is a playful, gamified experience where caring for a pet doubles as learning and earning through DeFi.
Strong team dynamics often make or break hackathon projects, and the Zutchi team nailed this from the start. Adam, the team’s Smart Contract Developer, joined with the goal of "building something great in a team, networking, and meeting with other builders," and Romi was driven to “reach the final and to develop the MVP of our game.”
They joined the hackathon with a small core team, and brought on two additional hackers at the venue. Despite adding new members on the fly, there were no alignment issues; everyone rallied around the shared vision: creating lovable on-chain pets to make DeFi more accessible.
No hackathon journey is complete without technical hurdles, and Zutchi faced several significant ones. The team initially planned to implement EIP-6551 (Token Bound Accounts) on Zircuit, giving each Zutchi its own wallet and balance. However, this proved more complex to finalize within the hackathon timeframe
They also encountered mysterious frontend issues that couldn't be easily debugged. Rather than getting stuck, the team rebuilt parts of the frontend to get everything working smoothly. Their adaptability is what separates successful hackathon teams from those that get bogged down in technical quicksand.
The team's development approach was notably strategic. They split the work between frontend and smart contracts early on, allowing progress to happen in parallel. Adam employed Test-Driven Development (TDD), which proved to be a game-changer.
"Once the frontend was done and we started to integrate contract calls, everything worked flawlessly contract-wise," Adam noted. This careful preparation on the backend meant that when integration time came, the smart contract layer was rock-solid and ready to go.
The focus areas were deliberately chosen based on the project's core mission: onboarding new users. Heavy emphasis was placed on UX/UI design to make the experience intuitive for Web2 users, while ensuring the smart contracts could handle all the on-chain pet logic flawlessly.
Looking back, the team identified one key area for improvement: frontend architecture. While Adam was happy with their TDD approach, they noted that being disconnected from frontend development made it harder to contribute when integration challenges arose. In addition, a recommendation from Romi was to “focus on fewer features and finalize the product as a whole, so everything works properly from the start.”
Even in a time-pressured hackathon environment, thoughtful system architecture (especially for the frontend) can pay dividends when the team needs to collaborate on debugging and feature integration.
Zutchi’s hackathon build is just the beginning. The team has ambitious plans for expanding the platform:
Their advice for future hackathon participants is refreshingly direct:
The message: meaningful innovation comes from solving real problems and focusing on user experience, not from copying existing ideas into new domains.
Zutchi represents something important in the blockchain space: technical innovation alone isn’t enough to drive adoption. By making DeFi interactions feel like caring for a beloved pet, they've created a bridge between the complex world of decentralized finance and everyday users who just want something that works and feels good to use.
Zutchi demonstrates that sometimes the best way to solve a technical problem is to step back and think about the human elements: What makes people care? What creates emotional investment? How do we make something complex feel simple and rewarding?
In a space often dominated by financial abstractions and technical complexity, Zutchi dares to be cute, approachable, and fun while still delivering real financial utility. That might just be the secret sauce the DeFi world has been looking for.
Until next time,
The Zircuit Team 💚
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