Last Week in Bitcoin (July 7 - 13)
Highlights from the bitcoin developer ecosystem...
Hi Insiders. This is Tuma, open source reporter from the Insider Edition. I spent 10+ hours in open developer calls in the bitcoin open source ecosystem this week. Here is what caught my eye:
Bitchat is the latest project from ex Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey This “weekend project” allows people to chat privately and anonymously via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), without the need to rely on centralized internet providers.
Jack presented Bitchat on his social media platforms and is available to test on iOS TestFlight for Apple users.
Calle, the pseudonymous Cashu developer, released a version of Bitchat for Android-based phones which, according to the developer himself, was made relying extensively on vibe-coding. Today, they hit a record of 15 people connected to a single chat.
What’s cool about the tech: This messaging app allows people to communicate offline without the need to share personal information such as e-mails or phone numbers. This could work great with a system like Chaumian Ecash that also supports offline payments.
Fedimint Web Wallet started a collaboration with the Bitcoin Design Community to improve the UX/UI of this product.
Fedimint Web Wallet is a project developed by Harsh Dev Pathak during his Summer of Bitcoin internship. It aims to easily onboard new users to Fedimint.
During the kickstart call on July 10th, both designers and developers shared their thoughts on the main points regarding the desired user experience for the wallet.
What’s cool about the tech: UI/UX has always been one of the main painpoints of many Bitcoin-related projects. This collaboration between designers and developers brings federated ecash closer to users in a well-crafted way.
Alby Hub, the self-custodial Lightning Wallet by Alby, is adding new features and is ready for a new release
During the Alby Community Call on July 10th, developers showcased some of the new features that are ready to be released.
The new version v1.18.2 Johan Helsingius has been released today, July 15th, and allows users to receive funds with BOLT12, to make recurrent payments denominated both in fiat and sats, and to do channel rebalancing using funds from other channels.
What’s cool about the tech: Alby is trying to simplify the usage of the Lightning Network in a self-custodial way. With BOLT12 support and recurring payments in both fiat and sats, they’re moving in the right direction.
Shakespeare was released this week by Soapbox; Shakespeare makes building new Nostr-based websites and applications as simple as asking an LLM to do it.
Shakespeare is a new LLM-powered website builder that leverages Nostr services. It allows anyone to build their own website through natural language.
Soapbox, founded by Alex Gleason, is building free software that empowers communities online. The new Shakespeare website builder leverages their MKStack tool, a framework for building React websites with Nostrify. Use Nostr storage, relays, and signers in your apps; built by AIs.
What’s cool about the tech: Makes building on nostr accessible to the most degen vibe coders. If you’re looking to get an idea off the ground, and want to leverage the distributed data services and freedom oriented protocols, this might be the stack for you.
What’s on my radar for this week?
Payjoin Dev Kit Call: Monday 14th — 5PM UTC
Lightning Specifications Call: Monday 14th — 8PM UTC
Bitcoin Dev Kit Call: Tuesday 15th — 14PM UTC