Everyone loves vibe-coding until you’re building an app that manages people's money. Then it’s not vibes. It’s foundations. Here’s how I built Lightswap from the ground up:
I started the process with a lot of thought. No pen, no paper—just thinking through what the app will do, the benefits, and how it could be built.
Once I had something that looked like a solid plan I was happy with, I wrote things down: features, benefits, target user, and an assessment of what that target user actually needs.
Then I thought about how it would be used: desktop, web, mobile, iOS, Android, Windows. I decided to start with iOS and go from there.
From there I moved on to architecture. I wanted something flexible yet fast to develop and easy to reason about. I chose:
- Non-custodial
- Do as much as possible on-device
- A smart client with a simple server when needed
For the stack I chose Django/Python and Swift.
Then I thought about the patterns. I created the basic framework in Swift after writing a detailed spec. I worked alongside Claude Code to build it out.
Claude Code is great when you give it water-tight directions and a solid spec. It makes mistakes, sure, but I stayed heavily involved in everything it produced. The majority of the code on the site, and server is written by Claude Code. The app is more evenly split.
We use code reviews, linters, fuzzy testing, vulnerability scans (coming soon), and more to ensure everything is documented, accurate, well formatted, handles edge cases, and is secure.
There are areas where we lean more on hand-written code, and areas where Claude shines: documentation especially.
Takeaway: Building Lightswap isn’t about cutting corners or chasing hype. It’s about laying down foundations that are solid enough to scale. That’s the trade-off: spend more time upfront so you can move faster later, with confidence that the ground beneath you won’t crack.
If you're new to Lightswap...
We’re building a mobile app that lets you move bitcoin and fiat across your existing wallets, exchanges and bank accounts — using natural language, you just type it out!
It makes moving and managing money much easier and much quicker.
It already works with major exchanges, so you can buy, sell, send, query, automate DCA, and build workflows without leaving the conversation.
We’re opening a 100-person beta and I’d love to get early feedback from bitcoiners here.
Join Our Waitlist! www.lightswap.com