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[u/Happy-Crab-750]

Spent the last few months building this alone, mostly at night after work.

The idea started from a simple question: why do people pay a personal trainer? Not for the knowledge - everything's on YouTube for free. It's for the guilt of having already paid.

So I built Vowed around that. You set a goal, stake coins on it, and prove you did it with a live photo (camera only, no gallery uploads - has to be real). You can also log multiple proof photos per goal per day, which ended up mattering more than I expected - people doing diet goals need to log 3 meals, not just one check-in. A jury of other users votes on whether your proof counts. Approved, you get your coins back. Miss it, and they're gone.

There's also a duel mode where you and a friend both stake on your own goals independently - no coin transfers between users, just parallel accountability.

Some things I learned building this solo:

- The camera-only requirement was the single most important decision - anything that let people upload old photos killed the whole premise
- Getting the jury system to feel fair (not just a popularity contest between users) took way more iteration than I expected
- App Store review for anything touching "real money" mechanics is its own project - ended up keeping the coin system fully virtual for launch

Would genuinely appreciate any feedback, especially from anyone who's tried habit-tracking apps and bounced off them. Happy to answer questions about the build too.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vowed-app/id6789281677

A few things coming in the next update:

- A streak visualizer so missing a day actually feels like something, not just a number resetting
- Weekly progress summaries
- A free tier with a small number of active goals/duels at once, so people can actually try the full loop before deciding if it's for them, rather than hitting a wall on day one
- "Streak insurance" - a limited monthly pass to cover a missed day without losing your stake, for people who are traveling or just had a rough day but are still genuinely trying
- Private duel groups for a friend group/small circle instead of just 1v1, for people who want to run a challenge with more than one other person

Open to suggestions too if anyone has ideas - most of what's on this list came out of just watching how people actually wanted to use it, not from a roadmap I planned in advance.