ARCx
DeFi onchain passport
ARCx
DeFi / Data & Analytics
Experience Leadership
In DeFi, every wallet is treated the same. A user with years of responsible borrowing has to put up as much collateral as someone who arrived yesterday, which locks up capital and holds the whole ecosystem back. In 2021, ARCx set out to change that with the DeFi Passport, an on-chain identity that gives each wallet a credit score from 0 to 999 based on its history. The Passport analyses an address’s past activity, such as borrowing, repayments, liquidations and engagement across protocols, to create a transparent, pseudonymous reputation. Protocols could then reward trustworthy users with better terms, like lower collateral requirements or access to higher-yield opportunities, and reuse the Passport as a credential across DeFi. As lead product designer, I led the creative direction, UX and UI for the ARCx dApp, launching the DeFi Passport alongside staking, farming, minting, swaps and NFTs. The challenge was making a brand-new idea, credit scoring in a permissionless world, feel understandable and worth engaging with for crypto-native users. My role Creative direction, UX/UI, initial UX copywriting, card and dashboard design, Web3 design standards. The outcome DeFi Passport launched as one of the first on-chain credit scores in DeFi Twitter following grew 200% from May 2021 ARCx NFTs sold for 1–5 ETH $ARCX token value rose 55% over the following months
Challenge
DeFi was built on the idea that everyone is treated equally, but that also meant no one could be trusted more than anyone else. Lending protocols required heavy over-collateralisation from every wallet, regardless of its history, locking up capital and making DeFi inefficient. ARCx wanted to change this with the DeFi Passport: an on-chain identity that scores a wallet’s behaviour from 0 to 999 and lets protocols reward good actors with better terms. The idea was new, and so was the design problem. Credit scores are familiar in traditional finance, but in a pseudonymous, permissionless world they raised hard questions. How do you explain what a score means when there’s no name attached? How do you show people why they got the score they did, and what they can do to improve it? And how do you get crypto-native users, who value privacy and distrust anything that feels like surveillance, to see a score as an advantage rather than a threat? At the same time, the Passport wasn’t launching on its own. The dApp also needed to support staking, farming, minting, swaps and NFTs, each with its own flows and risks. The challenge was to design a platform that turned complex on-chain data into a clear, trustworthy identity, brought all these products together in one coherent experience, and gave ARCx a distinctive brand in a crowded and fast-moving 2021 DeFi market.
Solution
I designed the ARCx dApp using a mobile-first strategy. Crypto users check their wallets, positions and prices on their phones throughout the day, so every part of the platform was designed for the smallest screen first and then scaled up to tablet and desktop. Starting on mobile forced clear priorities: each score, balance and action had to earn its place. At the centre was the DeFi Passport, designed as a collectible card holding a wallet’s score from 0 to 999. The card format made an abstract on-chain reputation feel personal and easy to understand, while plain-language copy explained how the score was built from behaviour like borrowing, repayments and liquidations, and what users could do to improve it. Because the Passport is tied to a wallet rather than a name, the design framed it as something users owned and controlled, a private advantage rather than surveillance. Around it, staking, farming, minting, swaps and NFTs were brought together in one dashboard built on shared components and Web3 design standards, so every product felt part of the same experience. A distinctive brand and creative direction carried from the passport cards through the whole dApp, helping ARCx stand out in a crowded 2021 DeFi market.
Result
The DeFi Passport launched in 2021 as one of the first on-chain credit scores in decentralised finance, turning a wallet’s history into a clear, portable reputation that protocols could reward with better terms. The concept gained strong traction with the crypto community, and the dApp brought the Passport together with staking, farming, minting, swaps and NFTs in one consistent, mobile-first experience. The launch generated real momentum. ARCx’s Twitter following grew by 200% from May 2021, and ARCx NFTs sold for between 1 and 5 ETH, showing users saw real value in owning a piece of the platform. The distinctive brand and passport card design helped a complex new idea stand out in a crowded DeFi market and gave ARCx a recognisable identity as it grew. One of the first on-chain credit scores in DeFi 200% growth in Twitter following from May 2021 ARCx NFTs sold for 1–5 ETH One mobile-first dApp for the Passport, staking, farming, minting, swaps and NFTs
From our Client:
"William took one of the hardest ideas in DeFi, credit scoring for anonymous wallets, and made it something people wanted to engage with. He led our creative direction, UX and UI from the ground up, and the DeFi Passport launched looking and feeling like a product people could trust. Thank you, William, for a great job.”
Kerman Kohli
Founder