Builder Spotlight: BlockSurvey
by Claire Topalian on October 5, 2022

Wilson Bright is the co-founder of BlockSurvey, a privacy-first platform (free of ads and trackers). Built on Stacks, BlockSurveys providers users with a stack of tools and audiences for data collection with ownership, privacy, and security at an affordable cost.



  • Claire:
    For those who aren’t familiar, can you share what your team BlockSurvey is all about and your vision?
    Wilson:
    BlockSurvey's vision is to become the go-to data collection infrastructure for the whole of Web 3. If you are a business and looking to collect data for waitlisting, whitelisting, consumer research, concept testing, or running opinion polls, there is a lack of access to high-quality data at scale to gain insights. Also, not all data types across domains are available, and it is also costly and time-consuming due to multiple intermediaries. With BlockSurvey, you get a stack of tools and audiences for data collection with ownership, privacy, and security at an affordable cost.
  • Claire:
    What problem are you tackling with your project? What inspired you to address this problem?
    Wilson:
    There is a fundamental concern with privacy and security in data collection. This space continues to see data breaches and leaks. There is zero ownership of data. Personally identifiable data shared through forms & surveys must be protected. With BlockSurvey, users own their data; it is end-to-end encrypted and not censored. Only users can unlock their data to see it. Not anyone. Not even BlockSurvey.

    Following the initial launch, BlockSurvey was used by activists, protestors, and healthcare workers to collect sensitive data. During the process, we learned data collectors want to protect their data and respect individuals who share their personal information with them. Their goal is not to be intrusive or invasive using big tech tools.
  • Claire:
    What functionality does your work unlock for Stacks entrepreneurs? Developers or other stakeholders?
    Wilson:
    Businesses can collect data for waitlists, whitelists, and feedback with minimal friction as information like BNS names, STX addresses, and BTC addresses are collected automatically. Also, rather than building a data collection infrastructure from scratch, they can start with BlockSurvey in a few minutes to focus on their data collection.
  • Claire:
    Can you share more about your experience working on your project? Any learnings or noteworthy pivots?
    Wilson:
    The first 12 months were devoted to discovery. Together with early adopters, we learned and refined the product. By actively listening to our customers, we were able to ship things that gets their job done. We still follow the same approach today. Our positioning was also limited to forms and surveys at the beginning. Use BlockSurvey if you are looking for a platform to collect sensitive data. Later, we realized the problem and opportunity were much greater; then we started to see BlockSurvey more as an infrastructure for the whole of data collection. We see these micro pivots on positioning, messaging, and features are critical to getting to product market fit.
  • Claire:
    How did you first get involved with the Stacks ecosystem?
    Wilson:
    Our journey began during the Can't Be Evil hackathon in 2019. We used centralized survey tools for research during this hackathon. The survey tools were full of trackers, and third-party analytics and didn't have end-to-end encryption. The company sees all the insights and ideas you collect from your respondents, and the data is not yours. This was when we realized the need for a secure, private, and decentralized survey tool. We began with Stacks and built from there. After 3 days of building from the hackathon, we launched it on PH and got the first 100 early adopters. This is how it got started. We started from a hackathon to build a business out of it.
  • Claire:
    Are there any updates/announcements coming up that readers can look for?
    Wilson:
    Our data wallet is one of the most recent ones. When people sign in to answer forms & surveys, they can begin to own their data. Each time they submit a survey through BlockSurvey, their data is deposited into their data wallet. They can amend or even delete the data. In the upcoming releases, we are bringing in automation to complete forms in a single click for contact forms and application forms to start with. In the data sharing space, it is a paradigm shift in data ownership.
  • Claire:
    Where can we send readers to learn more about BlockSurvey?
    Wilson:
    Follow BlockSurvey on Twitter, join our Discord. Check out BlockSurvey if you are looking to create your first privacy-focused form & survey.

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