With our goal of making cryptocurrency as ubiquitous as Euros, Dollars and Yen, the technical testing of the app is only part of the larger effort. We also want to make sure that a regular user would find it intuitive and logical.

We needed to test the app’s usability in everyday scenarios, and what better way for a group of developers to do that than by ordering takeout! After all, for most app developers —or any tech team, really—long hours and takeout are part of the routine.

We decided to try a little experiment: we would order takeout and one of us would pay the delivery guy in standard currency BUT would then request each person’s share of the total, within the office, via CHANGO. A perfectly normal, everyday use-case that would help us to experience the app from a purely non-technical point of view.

While it sounds like a routine thing to do, it’s also true that we were all a little fired up by our test. The idea that we could be stepping that much closer to a world where cryptocurrency is used in day-to-day life, and not just as an investment tool, was exciting!

The plan is simple enough, though the technology behind it requires a little explanation:

The entire test is being set up as a trusted, closed group using the Ethereum testnet, within our team. Basically, for the test to be accurate, we need to set up an ETH account on the mainnet, with real ETH. Every member of the team will contribute real ETH to that account, and then those funds will be re-distributed back to their CHANGO accounts on the testnet. This will allow all those enjoying their pizza to ‘pay’ the person who bought the food, on the testnet, while the real ETH remained on the mainnet. Keeping the test within our group—requests cannot go to people outside the designated group on the testnet—will allow us to review usability without affecting real currency.

When each of our team is ready to cash out, they will simply request their share of ETH on the mainnet by sending their testnet ETH back to the original address.

There are a couple of other advantages to this form of test, besides the use-case / usability testing:

The cash out process will allow us to examine the hourly ETH / USD exchange rates, to see how the funds fare; Every transaction on the Ethereum blockchain is charged a fee: whether on the mainnet OR the testnet. By having real ETH on the mainnet, the amount of which isn’t altered by transactions on the testnet, we are easily able to reimburse our testers for the fees they incurred on the testnet, in addition to the funds they initially put in.

With this solid use-case test plan, we will really get a chance to check out the advantages (and disadvantages) of using an app like CHANGO to engage in everyday transactions with cryptocurrency. Stay tuned for the results of our test in a future post!