About a month... (or maybe was it two... it's hard to tell when you spend most of the nights on the toddler's floor...) I was invited to a product testing for Pigzbe as I was one of the original Kickstarters for the project. It was mainly to test out the adult-facing part of the ecosystem... and to see what sort of feedback we could provide after a roughly half hour hands on with a dummy version of the app.

It was quite interesting to do, as I had never done a product test before... so it was a bit daunting, but after about 5 minutes I started to get into the swing of things and could provide some hopefully interesting insights. It began as a remote session which then led me down the path of installing the app on an Android device (I was an Android tester, I'm sure that there were iOS testers as well...). Needless to say, I had dug out an old phone (actually, it was a decentish OnePlus One from a few years back...) to avoid having to have a remote session and an unvetted app being installed on one of my more regularly used devices.

Basically, Pigzbe is aiming to bring the pocket money experience into the digital age... and what had interested me was that it was harnessing a cryptocurrency, Wollo (WLO) based on the Stellar blockchain, as it's "currency" of choice. The reasoning behind this was that it was going to be cheaper for transactions to be sent from extended families and all of that...

The adult version of the app (the one I tested) is quite functional in it's User Interface (at least, when I saw it... there were lots of placeholder elements...).... whereas, I understood that the kiddie facing part of the app is much more "fun". Anyway, the apps can be installed on mobile devices, or as a Kickstarter backer, you get a special hardware device for the child (I assume you can also purchase those separately as well after the launch).

During the testing, I was able to run through the process of setting up tasks and various rewards and setting savings goals... during the product testing, I was supposed to talk through the process of everything that I saw and did on screen (the screen was already mirrored to them, so they could see what was going on... plus there was video and audio streaming...). I did have some workflow and other basic suggestions... in some cases, it did seem like they had had no experience with children....

Some examples of suggestions that I had made:

1. When you set chained tasks (say, set the dinner table on Saturday and Sunday) there was no all or nothing option. So, a child would be rewarded (half the reward) if they set the table on only one day! Well... that's not the way I think most parents would want this to work... you don't get rewarded for doing half the job!
2. The reward for tasks done was automatically defaulted to "no checking required". I don't know about any other parent... I trust my kids and I think they are the greatest things ever... but if they said they've done something... I still will check to see if it is done... and done well! Half arsed jobs are not rewarded! So, I suggested that the default should be "checking required"... as it is better to give trust, rather than to take it away.
3. You can set savings goals... which other family members and friends can help contribute to. I said that there should be a cap on outside contributions... I don't know about other families... but if my mother sees that one of our kids is saving up for something... well, she's going to be asking if she can just get it for them!

There were also some crypto based questions that I had in the general question and answer session that I had afterwards... it was apparent that the interviewer wasn't totally up to speed with how crypto worked.... on the other hand, I think I tend to have a slight edge over a normal layperson. I had issues with the fact that the kid's wallet and parent's wallet... were actually the same wallet on the Stellar blockchain. I thought that they should have different Stellar addresses, to be more like ownership of the Wollo.

The other question that they weren't able to answer adequately for me was how they were going to deal with the volatility in price of Wollo. It's great to set a savings goal... but the the lesson I don't want to teach my child is to do nothing and Wollo will moon and you will get everything that wished for... or work your arse off, and Wollo will keep dropping... and your goals will keep getting further away. I hope that they've sorted that... but I'm not sure about that, after the interview, I stocked up some Wollo... and see that it has doubled in value versus fiat since then. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure why they had to use their own custom crypto (probably for control...). instead of an existing stablecoin.

Anyway, the company (Primo) is planning to integrate Wollo into more of it's coming toy launches. They do make a really good line of technical/scientific educational toys.. of which we've been really happy with. Cubetto was a Christmas present from a few years ago for the oldest child, and now the two of them enjoy playing with it! It's a cute way to introduce young kids to sequential programming.....

However, there was an awkward sort of moment at the end of the interview/testing... where they were asking about the value of subscriptions that I would be happy with. It was really really awkward because essentially I told them that the value of the app (to me), whilst being handy... was essentially zero. The way we handle "pocket money" and saving in our household is not the reward for task or the wages model. Basically, if the kids are generally good and we are happy with them... they get treats... if not, then nope! The kids also know not to ask for everything or anything unrealistic... because we just say NO!... well, actually... I say "I want a PONY!".... but that is a story for a different blog!

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