Plasma (XPL)

Wednesday, I upgraded to @Plasma One Platinum. As a branding and UX/UI junkie, I was heavy on the Plasma app even in the beta stage. Strong believer, so I had to write up some product / UX ideas covering improvements to onboarding, perks, rewards, & a launch campaign concept 🧵

Before I touch the app, first: The Platinum Campaign - or The First Thousand Campaign Crypto has always run on “early” as a core identity. It’s the most reliably shareable status in the space - “I was early to that coin/product/etc.” Even though Plasma already nods to this with “You’re in rare company,” I’d take it a step further. As an early Platinum member, you get a unique number that lives in-app and on your virtual card (it would be sick if it could also be engraved on the metal card). It becomes your social flex: being the 0037 of 10,000 claimed. It also creates a built-in marketing tool for the Plasma brand with a simple “Share your number on X” button. People can flex their new card and the fact they’re part of the Platinum club with one tap. Remember the Monad cards? Everyone was sharing theirs; CT never misses a chance to show status.

Okay, now to the product itself... At least in the beta version, a new user with a $0 balance landed on an empty-state screen with no guidance, and that gap leads to the highest drop-off point in any finance app. Plasma could do a simple "Getting started" pop-up. It should be very easy to dismiss, and it disappears forever once all steps are completed. This welcome message appears on the home screen below the card and vanishes once the user finishes the onboarding steps. Added an optional $5 bonus as a behavioral hook to give new users a reason to complete onboarding rather than just exploring passively.

From personal experience, after upgrading to Platinum, I was a bit lost on how to actually use and monetize the perks. The entry banner would be the perfect opportunity to include a “Make the most” guide that sends users directly to “How to take advantage of Platinum perks,” instead of making them search for it manually. There’s also a (?) option top right on the tiers list where a “Make the most of Platinum” button could be placed, giving users clear, step-by-step guidance on setting up the perks. Right now, I imagine it takes several clicks before people discover tier section perks, and that they need to tap on each listed perk to see how to use them one by one.

In the “Invite Friends” section, the message says “Spend more to unlock more invite codes,” but it doesn’t show how much more, so it feels like a dead end with no visible goal. My suggestion: Add a clear tracker and a tiered ladder that shows exactly how many invite codes you can unlock based on your spending. This would tap into progress psychology and become a strong motivator to use the Plasma card more often. "15$ more to get 10 invite codes? Let me order a pizza real quick." Oh, and that DCBCAT code is valid ;)

Lastly, as someone who used the beta version and had to manually sell my $XPL rewards into USD, I noticed there’s no longer a “Claim Rewards” option. Anyone who still carries that mental model will assume the old system is still in place. So right now, I’m not sure whether rewards are automatically added to my card balance. If that’s the case, a simple (i) icon that shows a short, plain note confirming “Cashback is automatically converted to USD” would be a low-effort UI fix that brings clarity for all users.

Who from the @Plasma team can I reach to see this? Trying with the ones I saw sharing the card release posts 🕊️ @pauliepunt @zaheerebtikar @0xG00gly @lemurf @kay00nee @xkonjin @proofofnathan @murat_ontop