For a music creator, getting paid by listeners around the world should be as simple as a fan clicking “subscribe.” But for many artists in less developed countries, existing streaming platforms make that difficult or out of reach.

An Informatics Capstone team, in partnership with their sponsor Joko, is working to change that. Joko is a reimagined streaming platform focused on increasing earnings for recording artists. Its payment-subscription model is designed to enable direct monetization for artists — a vision that Team DashJoin is helping bring to life.

For their Capstone project, students (pictured, from left) Harman Zhang, Sara Duan, Justin Dong, Noa Avitan and David Pham focused on building the payment infrastructure for Joko. They designed a way for users to pay with credit cards, resulting in instant payouts to musicians using stablecoins, a form of cryptocurrency. 

“We're essentially providing an interface that abstracts all of the crypto away, making it as simple as any other online payment method, to streamline the exchange between artists and users,” said Dong.

Through innovation and collaboration, the students set out to create low-cost, low-friction subscriptions for creators around the world. 

“I’ve never seen cryptocurrency in this application before,” said Zhang. “While crypto often carries negative connotations, it’s been incredible to see how this technology can be leveraged to expand opportunities for musicians in underserved countries.” 

Over the course of two quarters, the students successfully built a unified back end for the streaming platform. This foundation enables Joko’s developers to implement a new payment model, expanding access for creators in less developed countries who have historically been excluded from cross-border opportunities.

“I’m quite impressed with the way these students have navigated work that is so new to them,” said Adeoluwa Adeyemo, a UW alum and founder of Joko. “This team was a pleasure to work with. Their energy, hard work, and commitment to seeing Joko succeed have helped make our bigger picture possible.” 

Though navigating the unfamiliar world of blockchain and cryptocurrency was challenging, the students emerged from the experience more confident in their skills and career readiness.

“It has been incredibly valuable to work with information architecture and connect different aspects of an interface,” said Pham. “I definitely feel more prepared to take on the industry after graduation.” 

Avitan added: “I’m leaving very happy and fruitful with my Capstone experience. It’s been so exciting to work with this team. These are all amazing people who have done great work.”

For Duan, the Capstone experience embodied the essence of the major. “Informatics is like wearing a lot of hats – and wearing them well,” she said. “This Capstone is definitely a really great example of that.”