Dana

Why a Currency

Fecit has a Public Library. A space where someone’s polished task templates can be picked up by others. Workout routines, study plans, habit trackers — one good template can shave time off another person’s start.

There was an asymmetry here. The work the maker puts in versus the work the user does. Putting together a good Overview takes time. Downloading takes one tap. We thought about how to address that gap.

The answer was simple. Make the maker’s contribution visible. A unit for that recognition was needed, so we made a small currency.

We called it Dana.

The First Rule

Right now, there’s only one rule.

Publish an Overview to the Public Library, receive 100 dana.

That’s it. No download rewards, like rewards, activity rewards — all postponed. Releasing many features at once makes it hard to tell what’s working and what’s noise. Start with one thing.

Balance and Ledger

Dana is tracked in two places.

Balance lives on the user record. Just a single number. So we can answer “how much do I have right now?” quickly.

Ledger lives in its own collection, accumulating every transaction in time order. When, how much, why it came in or went out. The balance is technically the sum of the ledger, but we keep it denormalized so reads stay fast and users can see their own flow at a glance.

A Balance entry now lives on the profile screen. Tap it, and you see your transactions in reverse-chronological order. The first time, there’s probably one line: “+100 Overview publish reward”.

A Coin, and a Name

The icon is a simple coin. A donut rim with a small dot in the middle. We tried more details, but small sizes turn detail into noise. Pulled it back.

The name “Dana” doesn’t show up much. Small under the balance number, not at all in the ledger. The first thing a user sees is “+100” and a coin icon, not the unit’s name.

The name is for those who notice. Show it too often and it wears thin.

What’s Next

This is a starting point.

We’ve already sketched what comes after.

• User-to-user transfer. Send dana to friends, to strangers, with a reason attached.
• Charging via payment. A path for when you’d rather buy than earn.
• Market. Overviews are rewarded on publish and free to download — but a place for selling carefully crafted Templates is on the table.

When the Market opens, dana shifts from a score to something closer to a real currency. Makers spend dana they earned to pay for others’ work, and a small economy starts moving.

The Weight of a Currency

What we thought hardest about when introducing a currency: “what does this make better?” Not a game-style accumulation loop, but a more natural flow of value between users.

Making good Overviews has happened with no reward at all. Not wrong, exactly, but the act of making works better when there’s a small acknowledgment.

100 dana is the starting point of that acknowledgment. Small, but a clear signal.