Would you stake real money to get rid of doomscrolling?

I’m a solo founder building Screen Challenge Buddy, a screen-time app for people who want to reduce their screen time but don’t want another app that just send reminders or simply blocks their app.

The idea came from my own frustration with existing screen-time tools. They’re good at telling you that you spent six hours on Instagram, but that information alone doesn’t always change anything. Traditional blockers are easy to bypass, and once you start ignoring their notifications, they become part of the background noise.

That led me to focus on accountability instead of relying only on restrictions.

The app tracks screen time and gives users insights into their usage. The main feature is an accountability buddy who can see your live screen-time stats and talk to you about your progress. Users can also create optional challenges where they set a screen-time goal and put some money at stake as a commitment device.

The app is being built with Flutter and Firebase. I’m handling the product, development, backend, and early validation myself.

The biggest lesson so far is that the product is not really about screen-time tracking. Tracking is just the measurement layer. The harder problem is helping someone act differently after they see the data. That’s why I’m testing whether social accountability and personal commitment work better than simply adding stricter blocking.

I’m currently pre-launch. I’m collecting early feedback and waitlist signups.

I’d particularly like feedback from other Micro SaaS founders on three things:

Does an accountability buddy provide enough ongoing value to stick to the app?
Does the optional money-based challenge feel motivating, or does it create too much friction?Would you position this primarily as a productivity app, a habit-building app, or a digital wellbeing app?