Learnings from the Fetch Alpha
By: Hansmeet Sethi
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Fetchproduct

Since releasing the Fetch Alpha two weeks ago to a group of intrepid users, we’ve learned so much. In the frenzy to digest and take action on all of it, we’re taking a second to share a bit about what we’ve learned.

The goal of the Alpha was to get the product out in the wild with a set of trusted, diverse and active users to help kick the tires and get Fetch ready for upcoming beta release to our growing wait list. Some more about the journey below.

We have the best Alpha users ever ❤️!

Thank you to all of you for your feedback, suggestions, bug reports and time to help make Fetch great. We’ve been energized by all your input and are heads down for the next few weeks to improve so many of the small touches that make a product magical to use. Can’t say it enough, THANK YOU!

Simple user experience unlocks complex protocols

Alpha users were selected to cover a spectrum of user personas, some are power users who mine blocks for breakfast, while others are novices just getting started. Across the board, the feedback has been clear:

The key to unlocking the benefits of powerful protocols is to make it simple to use.

In the Alpha, power and novice users transacted on exchanges and protocols they never had previously without having to learn how they worked. They wanted to make a trade and Fetch solved their pain by abstracting away the complexity. We are absolutely thrilled about this.



Power users reported using trading protocols they hadn’t previously because the execution was handled by Fetch. Sometimes they knew about the protocols but just hadn’t had the time to learn how to use them, in other cases it was brand new to them. Novice users reported not knowing what the underlying protocol or exchange was when executing a transaction, but still being able to transact.



We’re even more excited to continue to support more protocols so all users can benefit.

Crypto 101 can still be confusing and stressful

Fetch aims to simplify even the basics of crypto, including depositing and withdrawing assets. We’ve learned from our users, from power to novice, how much better we can do here. While the interface is simple, there is so much more Fetch can do to make these basic transactions less stressful and time consuming.

We’ve heard you loud and clear and are working on ways to save user’s time and lower stress levels on even the most basic tasks with their assets.

Privacy preserving customer support is huge…and hard!

Fetch is a desktop app that keeps keys and user identity private and secure. Great. Fetch also wants to provide top-notch customer service that is delightful for users, while still preserving that privacy and security. This is hard.

Behind the scenes we’ve built an entire stack so that when a user has a question or concern, we can support them fully without compromising their privacy or security. The goal is that users don’t have to check Etherscan or understand transaction hashes to get support.

Kicking the tires on this customer support with Alpha testers has been invaluable and exposed important and subtle ways we can improve to make it smoother. We’ll be working on this infrastructure before the beta and sharing more in an upcoming blog post on how it works.