FestPay — Crypto Micro-Payments for Festivals
A Twint-style payment app for festivals built at SwissHacks, using the XRP Ripple ledger to eliminate micro-transaction fees. Guests load coins once at the entrance, pay merchants by scanning a QR code, and cash out at the exit — only two real blockchain transactions, regardless of how many beers.
Festival payments are broken. Every €2 beer triggers a card transaction fee. Every NFC tap adds latency and cost. Existing cashless solutions are either closed systems or technically clunky. We wanted to fix that in 24 hours at SwissHacks.
The idea: use the XRP Ripple ledger as the settlement layer, but keep on-chain transactions to an absolute minimum. Guests buy coins at the festival entrance — one transaction. During the festival, all payments happen within the XRP ecosystem, which is fast and near-feeless for in-network transfers. When they leave, unspent balance is paid out — one transaction. Two blockchain transactions total, regardless of how many items were purchased in between.
For merchants the flow is: open the app, enter an amount, show the QR code. For guests: scan, confirm, done. No card reader, no cash, no wristband. Built in Next.js and React over a hackathon weekend, with the XRPL JavaScript SDK handling wallet management and transaction logic. The UI was designed for a crowded, loud environment — large touch targets, minimal steps, fast feedback.
A working prototype, not a production system — but it worked, and the concept holds.