Shira Stember (shira)

This year I went from brand and product studio owner to vibe coder to builder to full stack founder. Day to day it doesn't feel dramatic. It is just showing up, trying to make things work, and trying to deliver the experience I want. But looking back I can't believe how far I've come. I'm capable of things today I never thought possible. And I still feel like I'm just getting started. Thinking ahead, my goal for @giftr isn't to build the best mini app or the best crypto commerce solution. It is to build a great app with a beautiful experience for both consumers and merchants where crypto is invisible. It is an app that is respectful of the community built around it, thoughtful about what is sold and how it is presented, and intentional across every aspect. Today the @giftr mini app is the first step towards this vision. Mini apps inherit social context and leverage key crypto primitives: identity, payments, and coordination. These primitives are the quiet infrastructure that makes an experience feel simple, delightful, and human. As the app layer evolves and gets stronger, crypto will really shine. Not because it gets louder, but because it gets quieter. Giftr is my bet on that future. Building in public on @farcaster and @baseapp.base.eth has been the highlight of my year. Possibly even my career. I'm pulling everything I've learned from the past about brand, product, and culture into @giftr. Seeing people post about the gifts they received and the gratitude they have both as a sender and recipient is the ultimate ROI. So here is to building more things people love in 2026. Not because it's exploring a new crypto primitive, but because it is just a better experience for all of us. 🥂

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I scored 25,800 in 2048 Farcaster and reached ted. I landed between jacy and rido09 on the leaderboard. Can you beat it? created with @viniapp

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1. The Rolling Stones (with Dave Matthews Band opening) 2. U2 (PopMart Tour 👎 but I had 8th row floor seats) 3. Coldplay in Helsinki (Music of the Spheres Tour) 4. Ariana Grande (plus backstage) 5. Dead & Company at Soldier Field + MSG with Maggie Rogers 6. Bon Iver at the Greek Theatre in SF 7. Gipsy Kings 8. Elton John 9. Rusted Root 10. The Black Crowes

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I didn’t set out to vibe code Giftr. I didn’t even think I’d be able to do any of the dev work. I set out to prove that care and generosity can be a growth engine for community...and that crypto can be warm, magical, and capable of connecting our digital and physical worlds. Over the past year, I've worked with @deployer on marketing and comms, first with /ham and then with @bankr. Watching @deployer ship, navigate chaos, assemble an incredible team, go mainstream, and build a ride-or-die community that shows up every day was incredibly inspiring. It made me believe a product can be both onchain and deeply human. Giftr started as a side hustle experiment. It was an excuse for me to play with all the new AI tools people joked their dog could code with. It was a bumpy start. The current Giftr repo is my third attempt. Twice I gave it everything and walked away thinking, “This just isn’t possible for me.” But I kept coming back. Kept wanting to try a slightly different approach that might work. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I started reading dev docs, asking AI to explain them back to me, and slowly connecting the dots. The day I got wallet transactions to work, I knew I could do this. Now I use AI daily (Claude, Cursor, Codex, Canva, Perplexity, etc...) They’re critical to my flow and absolutely accelerate my output, but they don’t decide what feels true or magical. They aren’t doing demos, asking for feedback, nurturing manufacturer relationships, packing boxes, walking to the post office or applying two decades of experience in product, brand, and innovation to make the experience special. My judgment, empathy, taste and lived experience (aka me being a human) is my moat. So yes, it's true what @adrienne said. I am not a dev. I’m a builder with conviction, creativity, curiosity, and patience disguised as obsession. Vibe coding is the art of staying calm, creative, and resourceful when everything breaks. It's trusting that you’ll figure it out. It's knowing that success isn’t just how it works but also how it feels. It’s listening, intuition, patience, and staying at your desk until what you push to prod finally feels right. 💜

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New collection is up! The @giftr lore store is now open. purple pill necklace. purple pill beanie. wowow beanie. warplet beanie. D.A.R.E. beanie. donut beanie. controlled substances. paid for onchain. dispensed irl.

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One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned building in crypto is that the strongest communities and networks are the ones where incentives are aligned and understood by everyone involved. That’s why working with @skycastle feels so exciting. They care deeply about how founders, users, and partners all win together. This is exactly how I want to build @giftr for the long term. Grateful to be building alongside @itsbasil @garrett @derek and the rest of the @skycastle team and projects.

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hey. its been a min. missed you & happy to be back. i’m working on something for @quotient and would love your perspective: what’s something people are talking about all wrong? especially something you know from your work/expertise where the public conversation is missing what actually matters. bonus points if we’ll know more in the next 6-24 months.

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