2 weeks ago we organized a tokenhunt at my conference Blockconf.io. The tokenhunt (found at https://tokenhunt.app) is a simple dapp which lets you collect QR codes which we printed and placed around town close to landmarks in the city. These QR codes are NFTs that represent colored keys, and each key opens a specific chest. Having all 5 lets a player open a master chest with 5 locks and the major prize.
Each chest had 3 decreasing rewards for the first 3 players, while the master chest had only a single reward. Players had to decide if they want to open fewer individual chests and forsake the master chest to get the top prize in each, or if they want to risk it, try to collect all 5 keys in time and open the master chest (along with getting the leftover prizes from individual chests).
The game went over well with 10 teams participating and some were soloing it.
I chose Status as the official app through which people were supposed to play this. A few days later we sent out a participation survey and focused one section of questions on Status - it’s usefulness, usability, pros and cons, etc. Here’s our collective feedback.
Feedback from the organizers
Pros
- built-in chat for the dapp was incredibly helpful and might just be one of the major selling points of the app. People were genuinely thrilled to find out that they get a free semidecentralized chat for their dapp without having to build anything extra. We used this to distribute the starting amounts of Ether so that people can submit transactions. They used the chat to send their Status address + their conference ticket code, which we used to verify their claim and distribute $5 of Ether per team. This let the teams start playing. The chat was also helpful for issuing clarifications and keeping players updated on the game status (i.e. “Team 0xddef now has 4 keys! Hurry! No chests have been unlocked so far!”)
- easy access to dapp, dapp stays in list afterwards for quick access.
- relatively easy to distribute Ether to people, went smoothly
- interaction with the dapp worked flawlessly, was very easy to integrate, though we did not try privacy mode yet
Cons
- needing gas was a huge contributor to friction and elicited strange frowns. The gasless mode can’t come fast enough, but I’m vaguely afraid of Status going their own way in terms of implementation rather than a metacartel compatible way. We want Status to ideally support metaTX-ing for multiple dapps, not just itself. A multi-incentivized desktop node would be a huge selling point.
- there was no way to “request eth” from multi-user channels like the dapp’s chat. This would have been very handy as no copy-pasting of addresses in a clumsy mobile UI would have been necessary.
- the app crashed often if the mobile device was allowed to fall asleep while Status is in the dapp, which happened fairly often as people had to run around town in the cold. A waking would cause a nasty Java exception and require re-opening everything.
- it was hard to get Ether, so hard to access the app’s intended functionality. (This was made much easier by the fact that my Coinvendor.io platform assisted with the distribution of Ether, teller-style, but would be much more frictionless if the Teller network was live).
- no way to send images. (This prevented people from sending screenshots and communicating about locations and QR codes which presented a small barrier in terms of gameplay.)
Feedback from the community
30% of surveyed participants noted that they intend to keep using the app. Another 20% said that they would if the glaring stability issues were handled, while all except one said that they would use the app if, on top of stability fixes, metatransactions were implemented. None noted the lack of ability to send images as a dealbreaker.
I’ve explained the ins and outs of Status to around 20 people who asked, we had a round table about it. Some people came to correct conclusions about centralization of certain Status elements, but not a single one was cypherpunk enough to be turned off by these aspects. Win? 
Curiously, not a single person was interested in the ENS aspect. Two said they would consider registering a name if it didn’t mean they had to have both Eth and SNT just to do it.
Pros
This is what the community collectively identified as pros (more than one response indicating this) - my clarification in parentheses.
- dapp chat (everyone loved this)
- wallet (novelty factor, sending money to each other was fun for most)
- decentralized communication (we did not go into details, so it’s possible they weren’t fully aware of current limitations)
Cons
This is what the community collectively identified as cons (more than one response indicating this) - my clarifications in parentheses.
- dapp browsing too slow (assets seem to be waiting for Web3 to load, making the user stare at a blank screen. Even a loader would be better, but offline cache of assets + preloaded or async web3 would be better)
- wallet (centralization - inability to add custom tokens)
- battery usage (drained phones completely in combination with extreme cold during the hunt)
- the three-word signing code was 100% unclear to everyone and on two occasions reported as a non-working menu. People thought they were supposed to pick one of the three words for something.
- sending transactions required inputting the password, people would have preferred fingerprint identification
I hope this feedback is helpful and can contribute at least a little bit to the compass that’s navigating Status’ further progress. I’m still waiting for some survey results and will update if they make the result set deviate from what’s here.
We will probably be doing another tokenhunt at Blocksplit.io if we can find sponsors (we were hurt pretty bad financially this time, so it’s all in the air), but we’re not yet sure whether or not we’ll be using Status. If we do, I’ll certainly announce it.
Congrats, and I hope you get sponsors for the next one!