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Prototype User Interface
Inspiration
The internet is becoming more and more centralized, with large centralizing not only servers but also data. Most consumer data in the world is owned by a handful of companies. This is bad. Really bad. With the history of corporate dishonesty and failures of companies to enforce proper security, our data is not safe in the hands of a few powerful companies.
The only solution is to decentralize our web and put control back in control of the users. Distributed, democratic technologies are becoming more important every day, such as crypto-currencies and peer-to-peer streaming. Our inspiration comes from the most sensitive parts of the economy - stocks and banking. We wanted to show that decentralization can affect the largest, most powerful institutions, giving power back to the consumer.
What it does
Open Pools is essentially a simpler, decentralized, stock market interface. It works by allowing individual users to pool their money and purchase stocks with it. Users can buy into a "pool," and the amount of money they put into that pool determines their overall influence within the pool. Controls are in place to prevent any one person or group from purchasing a majority of the pool and controlling the result. Open Pool also is intended to work with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether, allowing users to buy in anonymously and use non-traditional currencies to control their investments.
How we built it
We used angular.js to create a web application with our data stored on Google's firebase. The backend is written in Python and utilizes the Capital One Nessie API to simulate transactions and user accounts.
Challenges we ran into
The biggest challenges we ran into probably involved learning the new frameworks we needed to to build this application. None of us had used angular.js before, and we have little experience in databases and .json formatted information. We also had a lot of difficulty integrating front-end and back-end processes.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Built a dynamic website, utilizing angular.js and firebase, learning new API's, such as Capital One's, using Google to log into our website seamlessly, integrating transactions, customers, and accounts with the Nessie API.
What we learned
We learned some basics about databases and the JSON format as well as understanding more about dynamic web development and back-end integration.
What's next for open-pool
Refactoring and formatting the code, allowing for pool buy and sell conditions, integrating real-time data from the stock market and other sources to help users make decisions.
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