Announcement: https://x.com/Breez_Tech/status/2011827334840484031

Time2Build: Meet the 2025 WinnersTime2Build: Meet the 2025 Winners

There are two kinds of people in the world: the first kind talks about doing stuff and the second just does it. In October 2025, we bet on the latter.

We launched </time2build>, our first global developer challenge, with the simple goal of putting bitcoin inside the open-source apps people already use.

This was not a hackathon nor a bounty. It was a challenge built for long-term impact with integrations that can keep delivering after users move on to whatever they build next.

And we had help too. More than 50 developer communities worldwide got involved, alongside partners like Tether, Lightspark, Fulgur Ventures, Plan ₿ Network, PlebLab, Geyser, and Draper University.

Builders came from everywhere, and what they delivered was much more powerful than a single “killer app;” it was a constellation of practical, clever, useful things. Plugins. Crypto wallets. Merchant tools. Tipping for streaming. Lightning tucked into places where it feels more like a sixth sense than just “payments.”

With that context in mind, here’s what we learned from the challenge.

What We LearnedWhat We Learned

On the surface, the submissions couldn’t have looked more different. But when we took a step back and looked across everything that was built, a few clear patterns started to emerge. They are patterns that are important for any developer looking to build on Bitcoin today:

1. Lightning Is the Common Language1. Lightning Is the Common Language

We repeatedly saw Lightning paired with new emerging technologies like Nostr and Cashu.

These projects were not trying to reinvent how value moves inside each system. Nostr has its own social primitives. Cashu has its own model. What they needed was a shared way to move bitcoin between systems, users, and instances.

Lightning filled that role. As the common language for bitcoin, it allowed these new protocols and technologies to interoperate without changing how they work, giving developers the flexibility they need now, and the confidence that what they’re building won’t become obsolete tomorrow.

2. Plugins > Deep Integrations2. Plugins > Deep Integrations

Many participants in the challenge avoided deep integrations. Instead, developers focused their efforts on building plugins that sit alongside existing apps such as CMSs, forums, game engines, and creator tools.

This was a pragmatic choice. Deep integrations require maintainer buy-in, long review cycles, and ongoing responsibility. Plugins let developers ship Lightning independently, test demand quickly, and iterate without blocking upstream projects.

Through plugins, developers brought bitcoin into apps faster, without waiting for permission, experimented quickly, and learned what actually works for users.

And you can see both of these trends play out across the winning submissions. More importantly, they show that the most effective way to build is to meet users exactly where they already are. This is what the future of building on Bitcoin looks like.

With that, we’re proud to present the winners of the </time2build> challenge.

$3,500 Prize Winners$3,500 Prize Winners

BTC Pay Server | Team: AljazBTC Pay Server | Team: Aljaz

Aljaz built a plugin for BTCPay Server, the free and open-source payment processor used by merchants around the world.

The integration removes the need to run a full Lightning node, avoiding the headaches of channel management and liquidity. Instead, it uses the Breez SDK to reduce the complexity while preserving full Bitcoin functionality. For merchants who want to accept bitcoin without having to run complex Lightning infrastructure, this is how.

Evento | Team: Brianna, Andre, and AaliyahEvento | Team: Brianna, Andre, and Aaliyah

Brianna, Andre, and Aaliyah built a Lightning integration for Evento, which is a social events platform that helps people connect, host gatherings, and build communities.

Using the Breez SDK, they added Lightning directly into the Evento experience. Users can tip each other on event pages, support hosts, send and receive sats, buy and earn bitcoin, and spend it via Bitrefill, all without leaving the app.

Most social platforms monetize by extracting value through ads or data. Evento flips that logic. Value moves peer-to-peer, in real time, inside the moment that created it.

Portal | Team: Alessandro, Gianluca, Gabriele, and JohnPortal | Team: Alessandro, Gianluca, Gabriele, and John

Alessandro, Gianluca, Gabriele, and John integrated the Breez SDK into Portal, a universal protocol and mobile app for identity and payments.

By adding Lightning to both the app and the underlying library, they also made Bitcoin a native capability of the protocol itself. Any application built on top of Portal will now inherit the ability to send and receive bitcoin without needing to build it from scratch.

Portal’s submission shows Lightning’s role as the common language, allowing identity, reputation, and value to travel together across apps.

Primal | Team: DanielPrimal | Team: Daniel

Daniel integrated Lightning directly into the Primal web client, bringing a self-custodial bitcoin experience directly into one of the most widely used Nostr apps. For many, Primal is Nostr. While best known as a mobile client, its browser version mirrors the same experience.

But until now, activating Primal’s wallet required a custodial flow and a KYC process that could fail based on email or location. For a network built around censorship resistance, being blocked during onboarding created an obvious tension.

The Breez SDK integration removes that friction. No personal information is required to generate keys, and onboarding takes about a minute. Identity, communication, and bitcoin come online together, without gatekeepers.

$1,000 + Special Prize Winners$1,000 + Special Prize Winners

$1,000 Prize Winners$1,000 Prize Winners

• OBS Studio Donations Plugin: An OBS Studio donation plugin for Lightning payments, with send/receive functionality, multi-device sync, and on-chain interoperability.
• Backend for Nutshell Mints: Support for Spark as a Lightning backend for Nutshell Cashu mint — a reference Python implementation of the Cashu protocol.
• SatsMobi: A Telegram-based wallet that adds self-custodial Lightning alongside an existing custodial flow.
• CDK Payment Processor: A CDK payment processor using Spark for Lightning.
• Godot Engine Breez Plugin: A plugin bringing Lightning into the Godot game engine, unlocking bitcoin-native monetization for games.
• Umbraco Marketplace NuGet Package: A package that adds Lightning to Umbraco sites, including a tip jar, content paywall, and admin tooling.
• Discourse Breez Tipping: A Lightning plugin that adds tipping to Discourse forums, integrating bitcoin directly into community discussion.
• CTFd Bitcoin Rewards Plugin: A Lightning rewards plugin for capture-the-flag challenges, bringing bitcoin into security education.

Special Prizes from DraperU & PlebLabSpecial Prizes from DraperU & PlebLab

• DraperU | Lib de Satoshi & B4OS: A community platform integrated Lightning to gamify education.
• Pleblab | Sparkihonne: A Nostr-focused wallet experience, blending identity, messaging, and payments.

Not every submission ended up with a prize, but there are several other projects worth checking out: Sabi Wallet, Backend for CDK mints, Jumble, Breez MCP Server — Docker Catalog, CoFi Lab, OpNode, and BitNGN.

What’s Next? Builders Decide.What’s Next? Builders Decide.

You answered our call to action.

In just two short months, developers around the world delivered a wide range of real use cases with the potential for long-lasting impact on the open-source apps they enriched. Thank you again to everyone who participated in the challenge and to our judges — Abubakar, Giacomo, Jeff, Kevin, Keyan, Lisa, Roy, and Subash — for taking the time to review the winning projects.

For us, the next steps are clear. The era of building has begun. Whether that means adding Bitcoin to messaging apps like Signal, integrating it into leading crypto wallets, or bringing Lightning into entirely new apps with use cases we’ve yet to dream up, we can’t wait to see what you do next.

It’s time to build.

</time2build> Winners</time2build> Winners

$3,500 Prize Winners

• BTC Pay Server, Evento, Portal, Primal

$1,000 Prize Winners

• OBS Studio Donations Plugin, Backend for Nutshell Mints, SatsMobi, CDK Payment Processor, Godot Engine Breez Plugin, Umbraco Marketplace NuGet Package, Discourse Breez Tipping, CTFd Bitcoin Rewards Plugin

Special Prizes

• DraperU | Lib de Satoshi & B4OS
• Pleblab | Sparkihonne