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10.4k sats \ 113 comments \ @Car 26 Jan AMA

zaps forwarded to @PlebLab (100%)

https://m.stacker.news/13774

Hey Stackers! This is an exclusive AMA session. Discover the next wave of projects and builders in 2024.

In its 2024 debut, TopBuilder has already set a high bar, attracting 30 teams. The competition isn't just about winning; it's a global celebration of new ideas and emerging talent in the Bitcoin ecosystem, offering weekly workshops, mentorship, and unparalleled networking opportunities.

What to Discuss:

Ask why they chose to develop on Bitcoin...
Ask about the team experiences and the project...
Ask about their Bitcoin journey...
Ask about what they think about lightning, nostr, ai etc...
Ask why they think they will win Top Builder
Ask the Top Builders questions about their project...

🤘⚡️Teams Participating in Stacker News AMA

agstr - Facilitating local produce and meat purchases. Website | GitHub | SN: @boland
Alpaca Retail Management System - Integrating Bitcoin payments into retail management. Website | SN: @brewsbitcoin
Bitcoin Mastermind - Engaging WordPress users with Bitcoin-rewarded quizzes. GitHub | SN: @ealvar13
BitScript - Empowering Bitcoin developers with educational content. Website | SN: @setzeus
Blitz Wallet - A non-custodial Bitcoin lightning wallet. SN: @BlakeKaufman17
BTC-COLLATERAL - Marketplace for Bitcoin-secured loans. GitHub | SN: @tvpeter
BtcTestnetCoins - Facilitating access to Bitcoin testnet coins. GitHub | SN: @asterisk32
Branta - Automating PGP/integrity checking for wallets. Website | GitHub | @keith_gardner
CASCDR - Like Zapier but on open protocols. Website | @cascdr
CCNS - Nostr-focused community platform for link aggregation. Website | GitHub | SN: @sebastix
Clams - Addressing accounting challenges for Bitcoiners. Website | SN: @johngribbin
Coracle - Nostr client serving real-life communities. Website | GitHub | SN: @hodlbod_fr
Cypher - Simplifying PWA Bitcoin application building. Website | GitHub | SN: @cypherspace
Jippi - Interactive education app for Bitcoin beginners. Website | GitHub | SN: @Jippi
Plebwork - Marketplace for freelancers in the Bitcoin industry. Website | GitHub | SN: @plebwork
Resolvr.io - Bitcoin-native open-source dispute resolution. Website | GitHub | @Resolvr
Yopaki - Onboarding to Bitcoin with culture and financial tools. Website | SN: @carloschida
Zapmoji - A platform for Bitcoiners to share and monetize memes. Website | SN: @jowo

😎 Teams Not Participating in Stacker News AMA:

Access Tribe - Building Nostr-based Bitcoin communities. Website | GitHub
Bitcoineando - Automating quality web applications for Bitcoin education. Website | GitHub
Bitspend - Streamlining Business to Consumer Cross Border Payments in Africa. Project
Dosh - Quick verification of SATSCARDs for Bitcoin users. Website | GitHub
LNPlay - Deploying private lightning networks for user feedback. Website | GitHub
LunchMoney - Browser extension for selling demographic information. Website | GitHub
NEO - Social Finance Application for young professional entrepreneurs. Website | GitHub
Shopstr - Decentralized Nostr marketplace for anonymous Bitcoin transactions. Website | GitHub
Bitcoiner Freelance - Connecting freelancers with Bitcoin-paying gigs. Website
Code Satoshi - AI code assistant for Bitcoin-specific languages. Website

How to Join the Conversation:

Leave your questions below, and they will address them during the AMA. Whether you're just another stacker, an aspiring builder, or just curious about the competition, we're all here to share and engage with you.

Stay Connected:

Learn more about Top Builder Competition

🤘⚡️ Let's do it, Stackers! - @Car

view all related items

325 sats \ 9 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

What is the single hardest thing you have encountered doing your Bitcoin project so far?

156 sats \ 0 replies \ @plebwork 26 Jan

Local development on bitcoin can be tricky. Tooling isn't the easiest. But most importantly figuring out the minimal scope for the product to be quick to ship to get market feedback.

147 sats \ 0 replies \ @cypherspace 26 Jan

Assessing custodial vs non-custodial tradeoffs

171 sats \ 0 replies \ @resolvr_dave 26 Jan

Choosing one area to focus has been hard, it is almost that midwit bell curve meme when you're trying to justify choosing one thing over another. Ultimately, we're trusting our collective guts, build the thing that excites us the most.

141 sats \ 0 replies \ @hodlbod_fr 26 Jan

More wrt nostr, but content moderation. There is a tension between censorship resistance and safety (of various kinds). A lot of the content that shows up on the internet is objectionable or illegal. Objectionable content is relatively easy to deal with by using strict web-of-trust filters, but illegal content — especially CP — is very hard to detect, dangerous to handle, and presents a real danger to everyone exposed to it. There are screening techniques that exist, but rely on proprietary databases and hashing algorithms. Open-sourcing those components isn't an option because they're a form of compression, and so always possible to reverse-engineer by attackers. https://about.iftas.org/ is doing some good work in this space in the ActivityPub world.

131 sats \ 0 replies \ @keith_gardner 26 Jan

Building Trust and Reputation. Both are critical for success in Bitcoin, and take time.

Bitcoin products need to be hyper aware of security and transparency.

500 sats \ 0 replies \ @johngribbin 28 Jan

We are building an app to help Bitcoiners calculate their caps gains / losses across all of their wallets. For me, getting the messaging/pricing right for the marketing site has been difficult. I am enjoying the process, just takes time. But looking forward to sharing something with Top Builder mentors for some input very soon.

113 sats \ 0 replies \ @ealvar13 26 Jan

Getting user engagement is the biggest hurdle imo. Any tips or help would be most appreciated.

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @jowo 26 Jan

as others have said, choosing what to build. i tend to approach this from a perspective of what not to build. e.g. asking, can this wait? why should i build this now? can users do without this via work arounds?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Jippi 26 Jan

Making Bitcoin educational content that is both informative and not overbearing for newbies! It's a balancing act. Bitcoin is a pretty large technical beast as we all know, so trying to dissect the information into an easy narrative has been a challenge.

273 sats \ 13 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

I have a few questions for all the Top Builders. What made you want to start Building on Bitcoin?

315 sats \ 0 replies \ @brewsbitcoin 26 Jan

My background is point of sale, and I realized when bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador, I could help with the transition from a dollar to a bitcoin standard there. In doing this, I built a product that can also be used in retail and b2b sales here in the states, while also orange-pilling merchants through a fully integrated business management and point of sale system that takes credit cards and bitcoin with full reporting on all payment methods. Restaurant staff can carry the app on their own devices and integrate with the main system - no more waiting for a manager who may or may not know how to work a wallet, or the cook with their bitcoin wallet to come to the table to present a QR code. Yes, both of these types of interactions have happened to me when trying to pay at a business that 'took' bitcoin. AlpacaRMS fixes this problem.

144 sats \ 0 replies \ @asterisk32 26 Jan

Working on bitcoin is an opportunity to advance money as we know it, and that's exciting.

205 sats \ 0 replies \ @ealvar13 26 Jan

I think Bitcoin as a protocol is the future of money. I love that it is by nature international and permissionless. Just like sending an email. This literally opens up the world as a single economy.

I think the best way we can help make this happen is to build with Bitcoin.

191 sats \ 0 replies \ @tvpeter 26 Jan freebie

The purpose is to provide Bitcoin users with fast access to loans without needing to trade their bitcoins.

136 sats \ 0 replies \ @resolvr_dave 26 Jan

I have a background in building products and companies in FinTech and Legal Tech. I also have a bitcoin problem. More efficient to combine my bitcoin habit into my working hours, frees up a lot of space for activities.

110 sats \ 0 replies \ @plebwork 26 Jan

I (Thibaud) have been earning 100% in bitcoin for almost 2 years now. That comes with a few challenges. Being a freelancer in bitcoin is awesome. That being said, finding various companies offering regular part-time gigs is hard. Invoicing clients can be time-consuming as you often bill in USD and get paid in BTC. On the flip side, if you are a bitcoin business looking for part-time talent, it's the jungle out there. Check out Upwork... lots of "crypto or blockchain" devs but bitcoin is nowhere to be seen. We experienced these two realizations and thought that we could improve on that. Also it would be awesome to allow more people to work on bitcoin part-time but who are not ready or willing to commit to it full yet as of yet.

116 sats \ 0 replies \ @johngribbin 28 Jan

I got tired of using my talents writing code for projects that I am not proud of. By building on Bitcoin I get to scratch an ideological itch and hopefully do my part to bring us closer to life on a Bitcoin Standard. If not me, then who energy.

116 sats \ 0 replies \ @cypherspace 26 Jan

Nostr mostly, seeing zaps in action definitely opened some doors
Lightning <3

116 sats \ 0 replies \ @hodlbod_fr 26 Jan

Bitcoin is simply the best money that exists. But I really got here through the completely unrelated avenue of wanting a censorship-resistant social media. The fact that the only protocol really living up to the promise was the one created by bitcoiners just demonstrates how focused bitcoiners are on real solutions rather than hype.

116 sats \ 0 replies \ @keith_gardner 26 Jan

Sound Money can fix the world.

But, people have to be able to hold onto their sound money safely :)

53 sats \ 1 reply \ @jowo 26 Jan

fix the money, fix the world. fiat is broken and we wanna play out part in fixing it, one meme at a time.

37 sats \ 0 replies \ @zapmeme 27 Jan

Amen!

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @Jippi 26 Jan

Hope! Hope for a better world on the other side of the crumbling Fiat empire. But a less hyperbolic answer: realizing that the process of achieving hyperbitcoinization will require many more new Bitcoiners to be educated in a more accessible, friendly, and less daunting way. And at a faster rate too! Usually, the process of orange-pilling yourself or others can take many years, at least it has done historically. Bitcoin education has come a long way, but it's still not quite there when you consider an Apple-like "it just works" experience. Jippi is positioned pretty well to craft some magical experiences tailored toward the average person.

227 sats \ 2 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Alpaca Retail Management System - Integrating Bitcoin payments into retail management. SN: @brewsbitcoin

Why did you choose that name?

318 sats \ 1 reply \ @brewsbitcoin 26 Jan

BTCRetailX was a placeholder name until we came up with something better. It was a mouthful and got complaints all the time.
So we knew we would be rebranding at some point as well as redesigning the GUI. So my bitcoin buddy (a graphic design artist among other talents) from Charlotte, Jacob Parrish, actually came up with Alpaca when we were bantering about animal names for a point of sale system - many animals were already taken. I had to think a bit about it and realized that in an Alpaca, we have a hard working pack animal, and then we came up with the graphic image, and the name and the image took off.

https://m.stacker.news/13828

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Those glasses 🤣

227 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

agstr - Facilitating local produce and meat purchases. SN: @boland

How do you plan on onboarding farms onto Bitcoin?

112 sats \ 1 reply \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 26 Jan

Holy shit this is a lot of teams

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

😅 all brilliant and hardworking

181 sats \ 4 replies \ @asterisk32 26 Jan

So why does bitcoin really need testnet, signet or regtest?

81 sats \ 1 reply \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Is this question for BtcTestnetCoins - Facilitating access to Bitcoin testnet coins. SN: @asterisk32 ?

92 sats \ 0 replies \ @asterisk32 26 Jan

It's a question I I'd like to ask users and other experienced bitcoiners. Especially why it's important to ship their bitcoin apps with testnet,signet and regetest functionality.

121 sats \ 0 replies \ @ealvar13 26 Jan

Adding my 2sats on the development side. Having test environments results in better final products for all users. We are able to test all functions thoroughly, including edge cases that are totally impossible with real BTC.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @keith_gardner 27 Jan

In the physique world, one cannot "undo." In the digital world, you can, and its a huge advantage to be able to do so.

181 sats \ 1 reply \ @setzeus 26 Jan freebie

Gmm gmmmmm fellow Bitcoiners!

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @keith_gardner 26 Jan freebie

181 sats \ 5 replies \ @TheWildHustle 26 Jan

Hey freaks,

Which top builder project are you most bullish on? (Cant name your own project)

Would be cool if Branta had a baby with https://samouraiwallet.com/sentinel A Clams app on my Start9 would be nice CASCDR (The only project I've tried) looks cool

150 sats \ 0 replies \ @hodlbod_fr 26 Jan

This will reveal my pre-existing bias, but I'm excited for shopstr because despite lots of PoC decentralized markets being built (in fact, censorship-resistant markets was the original idea of nostr), none of them have really reached maturity.

I also think cascadr is really cool. The concept itself is really good, but they're doing some neat design work under the hood as well.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @cascdr 26 Jan

Thanks for the kind words @TheWildHustle . Since you're an S9 aficionado I will be sure to alert you as soon as we have our S9 package available (you can see the update on the TopBuilder Github Issue comment #1

For this version we allow. you to exchange calls through your ChatGPT API keys for sats but plan to add support for some other things soon.

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @johngribbin 28 Jan

@TheWildHustle We have an recently opened request on our Github to add Clams Remote to Start9 https://github.com/clams-tech/Remote/issues/221

We will be bugging @farscapian every few weeks to check on progress :)

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @keith_gardner 26 Jan freebie

@TheWildHustle - Sentinel is solid. Huge market for this

Branta has adjacent functionality coming soon 🚀

Also adding broader/deeper wallet support. Drop any wallets/software you'd like to see supported below 👇

81 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

I love them all, everyone is working so hard!

110 sats \ 2 replies \ @benwehrman 26 Jan

I'm too dumb to come up with a good question on this topic, but just wanted to stop by to say: This is AMAZING 🔥🔥🔥 Keep killing it, everyone!

162 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Let’s share this everywhere Ben, Bitcoin builders never get enough attention.

🤙onward

242 sats \ 0 replies \ @keith_gardner 26 Jan

🔥 🔥🔥🔥

521 sats \ 6 replies \ @art 26 Jan

From the point of view of product building, how are you embedding rapid iteration and user testing to validate ideas prior to release?

30 sats \ 1 reply \ @keith_gardner 27 Jan

This probably depends on the product.

I needed Branta, so I was the first customer.

There was a total void of Antivirus-esq products focused on guarding my stack. Custodying Bitcoin on a consumer computer/laptop is risky. Moreso if you are building software on Bitcoin Core, playing with TOR, configs, etc. From there, I wanted my family to have Branta. And my friends, and so on.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @art 27 Jan

Yes that's the beautiful grassroots push to product building.

The next step for product is typically accelerating mistake-making and hypothesis-disproving through many micro iterations.

Otherwise more effort put into bigger bets. More emotions at stake. Etc.

10 sats \ 3 replies \ @Jippi 26 Jan

Good question! I've spent the last 2 years building the education app I wish I had when I was being orange-pilled back in 2020. Now that Jippi has a prototype MVP on TestFlight, we're opening up a waitlist to get our beta app in front of users. We'll then test our assumptions/hypothesis to see what works and doesn't work, then we'll iterate quickly on features until we get the engagement we want. Lots of analytics and speaking to users!

21 sats \ 2 replies \ @art 26 Jan

It's such an interesting paradox.

The profession (product/ UX) screams "YOU ARE NOT YOUR USER. SPEAK TO USERS."

And then some of the best products out there are because the builder solved a problem that they most needed to see solved. Though many would argue that it's more the builder has deep empathy for the needs of others, recursively though solving their own problems - like Steve Jobs.

Anyway - how big's the team? What's your North Star metric at this beta phase?

542 sats \ 1 reply \ @Jippi 30 Jan

Exactly, two opposing frameworks that produce varying degrees of great results.

I've always been more into the Steve Jobs/Henry Ford model of "customers don't know what they want until you show them".

At the moment we're a team of two, myself (software engineer & product), then my co-founder (operations). We're looking to find a third (software engineer), so if you know of anyone, do let us know! We'll be building a team next and going for funding.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @art 5 Feb

Godspeed!

121 sats \ 1 reply \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Resolvr.io - Bitcoin-native open-source dispute resolution. @Resolvr

How big is this market potentially?

110 sats \ 0 replies \ @resolvr_dave 26 Jan

https://m.stacker.news/13830

Current legacy infrastructure for legal spend is $1T annually in US, $2T globally.

$9B of that is online dispute resolution (ODR) tools, $15B by 2030.

By taking the best of the conventional ODR principles and deploying it on open-source protocols like Bitcoin, Nostr, and Fedimint, the result is a protocol for Open Source Justice. That is our goal. Our co-founder Aaron of @Resolvr has a longer article on this here: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/legal/open-source-justice-on-resolvr.

We are starting with something we can do close to home, resolving hacking bounties-- using that to bootstrap the protocol. We see Replit and HackerOne as incumbent competition, they combine for maybe $2B in market cap. We like our chances.

191 sats \ 5 replies \ @kr 26 Jan

@jowo love the idea of Zapmoji. How did you settle on the format of the feed, and what are you doing to get more people creating memes/exploring the site?

378 sats \ 3 replies \ @jowo 27 Jan

I was just day dreaming about some of growth strategy we'll be trying, so thought I'd outline some more of them here, as a more detailed response to your second question.

As I mentioned, we're gunna lean heavily on SN meme mondays for a few weeks. We still need to refine the product a fair bit, and getting some early alpha testers on board from SN would be ideal :) we'll work with them to refine our app and get a better feel for what sort of things we can build into the core product.

Also, our CMO (Chief Meme Officer) will be reaching out to active memers on Twitter, Nostr and SN etc. He'll be handling most of the user engagement and will be in the trenches talking to users and gathering feedback.

Another thing we're really excited to experiment with is going to be 3rd party integrations. Think of how Giphy have integrated into WhatsApp.

Most likely, our first port of call for integrations will be Nostr. It's permissionless so no waiting around. There are loads of meme lords on Nostr. We'll implementing various Nostr related features, and be setting up a Nostr relay with the goal of reaching towards our 1,000 and 10,000 user marks. The Nostr integration will come with various other tools to help meme creators reach their potential. We have a bunch of other exciting back-of-the-napkin ideas on this front that still need hashing out, but should start to come into focus by the 2nd round of the contest.

Reaching 100,000 users will require us to branch out of the Bitcoin ecosystem. The goal would be to tap into a large platform and draw new users in from there. I'd say we'll do something like: 2 week sprints, build an MVP integration, see if hits, if it doesn't, then scrap it and go back to the drawing board and try a different angle. Rinse and repeat until we tap a rich vein of ore.

I tried this approach with a previous project and eventually got a big hit and millions of views: first, I built a Discord Extension, no one used it, then I tried an Android App, same thing, then I tried a Twitch extension... The Twitch extension blew up and racked up 3m views which converted into about 100k views on the website that accompanied the extension.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @asterisk32 27 Jan

Great strategy.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 27 Jan

can’t wait, meme monday is gonna be on fire!

354 sats \ 0 replies \ @jowo 27 Jan freebie

@kr just emailed you a question at Keyan's suggestion, lmk if it doesn't arrive (just setup the new email address so it's the first email sent via that address)

361 sats \ 0 replies \ @jowo 26 Jan

hey! overall, the design of the site has been heavily influenced by SN. and to your question specifically, the design of the feed came quite naturally really. it's essentially the classic instagram style infinite feed mashed up with the WhatsApp concept of emoji "reactions". the reason this came naturally stems from the core concept of the site: the core building blocks of the site are memes and emojis, so the most natural way to combine those two elements seemed to me to be reacting to memes with emojis. initially we had planned to include zapping a la SN too, but that was dropped somewhere down the line and we settled on **all ** zaps being attached to an emoji reaction.

your second question is a good one! since our app is only 3 weeks old, and isn't even officially launched yet, we haven't yet had an opportunity to pursue growth. however, that'll be the absolute priority going forward, since the site is almost at an alpha stage. I tend to look at growth dynamically. e.g. what we need to do to get 100 users will be different to what we'll do to get our first 1000 users, 10,000 users etc. so, first focus is to get 100 users, and we'll probably lean heavily on SN for that. keep and eye out for upcoming Meme Mondays :D

181 sats \ 1 reply \ @satoshiplanet 26 Jan

Hey @Car, some website links are not working properly (yopaki, pleblab, neo, lnplay)

81 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Gosh I am sorry I'll post here,

yopaki: https://yopaki.com

pleblab: https://pleblab.dev

neo: https://prjctlazrus.com

lnplay: https://lnplay.guide

171 sats \ 3 replies \ @satoshiplanet 26 Jan freebie

Plebwork | @plebwork What are the most notable differences between plebs and freelancers using another platforms?

130 sats \ 2 replies \ @plebwork 26 Jan

Hey @satoshiplanet! Good question. On Plebwork, a pleb creates an account, link a bitcoin wallet and can get paid directly by their clients. Everything is handled in a chat between the client and pleb, and invoices are automatically sent out once a pleb submits their work. Payment is also handled directly on Plebwork for the client with a simple QR code scan enabled by BTCPay Server. So it is 100% bitcoin, no fiat and no KYC for plebs. You can work part-time (ore more) anonymously while keeping your fiat job. Our aim is also to attract reputable bitcoin businesses that may benefit from working with part-time talent. We hope to not only solve work management and payments but also discovery for part-time bitcoin gigs. I hope this answers your question.

121 sats \ 1 reply \ @satoshiplanet 26 Jan

Really exciting, thank you very much for your time and effort in creating something like this, all my questions were resolved after your reply, greatly appreciated, I just have the feeling that something very big is coming 🤠

248 sats \ 0 replies \ @plebwork 26 Jan

Of course! And thank you, love your enthusiasm. We have a small TG group getting started, you can also find us there. We should announce our alpha release in the next few days: https://t.me/plebwork

110 sats \ 3 replies \ @Gian 26 Jan

How many users approximately does Shopstr have? Great team and very cool projects!

31 sats \ 1 reply \ @calvadev 29 Jan

Currently it has around 400 DAUs on average. We're actually planning on rolling out a global stats dashboard on the site for everyone to see the number of listings, sales, and new/active users to truly build in public!

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Gian 29 Jan

Great! Thanks

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

all of Nostr 🤯

81 sats \ 2 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Bitcoin Mastermind - Engaging WordPress users with Bitcoin-rewarded quizzes. SN: @ealvar13

What are some interesting facts about WordPress in relation to Bitcoin?

171 sats \ 1 reply \ @ealvar13 26 Jan

Hey @Car we think the most interesting fact about WordPress in relation to Bitcoin is that it powers about 40% of all websites according to our research.

This means that by focusing on WP we can get more Bitcoin adoption all over the web ⚡

81 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Wow! that's a lot of people

10 sats \ 5 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

👋 hey Top Builders!

Another question here for everyone!

In the Bitcoin ecosystem, is there a specific company or individual whose work has inspired or influenced you, even if indirectly or from a distance?

299 sats \ 0 replies \ @jowo 26 Jan

@MerryOscar over at Fountain, @kr and his podcast are a great inspiration, and of course stacker news and team!

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @cascdr 26 Jan

Personally I can say:

Blockstream for the way they consistently develop amazing products and amazing talent like @niftynei
The Start9 team in general for their commitment to doing things the right way and to protecting individuals' privacy & sovereignty.
And of course @k00b. I don't think most people realize how relentless this guy's work ethic is and how much he cares about excellence & focus. He is completely commited to creating a superb experience for users. Not to mention the calm wisdom he dispenses on the daily.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @keith_gardner 26 Jan

Branta took branding inspiration from River.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @Jippi 26 Jan

Very much so! The work that the folks over at JoltzRewards (https://twitter.com/JoltzRewards) are doing is awesome. We use them for our Lightning rewards back end and we're proud to be working with them.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @ealvar13 26 Jan

I think BTCPay Server is it for me. They just make the coolest stuff and they focus on compatibility across implementations. We couldn't do what we do without them.

92 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 26 Jan

@boland excited to see what you build, can you share more details about how this project will work?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bolander72 30 Apr

Hey @kr! Better late than never. I apologize for not seeing this post until now.

I still owe you an explanation.

The problem-space:

People want high-quality, fresh beef for a reasonable price.

People may also say they want a relationship with their rancher or farmer, but convenience often wins out. If the steaks are available in the supermarket, you grab them there.

When selling animal shares, farmers are not incentivized to handle small orders for a typical household fridge. Below (in my opinion) a 1/2 cow share, it doesn't make sense for a farmer to spend a lot of time marketing and/or selling to smaller (normal people) buyers.

A solution:

Small scale Butcher Box-like offerings and Bitcoin customer aggregation for animal share purchases / processing.

Using Nostr (a protocol used heavily by Bitcoiners, some of whom claim to desire fresh red meat and developing relationships with their ranchers), farmers could blast out information about Butcher Box-like assortments that they have available.

In turn, consumers could either zap or respond to the message as a deposit for their order. If 16 people zap for 1/16th of a cow each or 32 people zap for 1/32nd of a cow each, now a farmer is selling a whole cow and the incentives are back.

A farmer could then get the animal processed, boxes filled, and orders shipped to customers (within regional limits).

Challenges I ran into:

The Lightning ecosystem / Lightning as a service. Obfuscating Lightning and Nostr networks in UI to create a simple user experience for farmers and ranchers selling on the platform. Deposits requiring more liquidity than typically transacted on Lightning and Nostr rails.

Additionally, this business idea eventually is meant to connect consumers and farmers, effectively cutting out my middle man platform. Why would you by from Agstr when you can now call up your farmer for orders?

Final Thoughts:

I still really like the idea and want to continue working on it and hopefully collaborate with others. There's a lot more to explore in terms of connecting consumers and producers in this ecosystem and making it easier for consumers to buy meat, dairy, and produce (more) locally.

92 sats \ 0 replies \ @ealvar13 26 Jan

Hola Stackers!

We just made a landing page to sign up for project updates: https://velascommerce.com/bitcoin-mastermind/

Sign up to earn free sats with our Bitcoin quiz or if you have a site you'd like to setup with bitcoin quizzes or surveys.

We'll guide you through the process and would really love the feedback!

71 sats \ 1 reply \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Zapmoji - A platform for Bitcoiners to share and monetize memes. SN: @jowo

What is your all-time favorite Bitcoin meme?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jowo 26 Jan

some news! we just renamed our app from Zapmoji to zap.meme!

we liked Zapmoji, but settled on zap.meme - it's snappier, cleaner, easier to spell and just straight up dank. the rename may also have had something to do with a similar site name, zapmojo, being pretty questionable and definately NSFW...

71 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Yopaki - Onboarding to Bitcoin with culture and financial tools. SN: @carloschida

What are the biggest hurdles and friction points with the Apple App Store today?

71 sats \ 1 reply \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Jippi - Interactive education app for Bitcoin beginners. SN: @Jippi

What are some interesting ways to educate people about Bitcoin that a lot of bitcoiners might not know?

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @Jippi 26 Jan

We’re approaching education a little differently here at Jippi! We’ve found that there isn’t a “one size fits all” approach when it comes to Bitcoin education. A lot of platforms out there offer lots of long-form content like essays or extensive videos, but there isn’t an all-in-one education platform that combines:

Bitesize, accessible learning modules tailored to beginners
Supportive online communities for educational audio conversations
Unbeatable Bitcoin rewards to incentivize consistent learning momentum

We believe that education should be as varied as Bitcoiners themselves, so our goal is to provide tiered learning experiences:

Tier 1 - Beginner-friendly, bitesize content for quick-fire learning Tier 2 - Narrative-driven content for more immersive learning Tier 3 - A deep dive, personalized learning experience tailored to your interests

We’re just getting started! Sign up to our waitlist today: https://jippi.app/

71 sats \ 1 reply \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Coracle - Nostr client serving real-life communities. SN: @hodlbod_fr

Which is one NIP you wish everyone would implement?

121 sats \ 0 replies \ @hodlbod_fr 26 Jan

NIP 65! But really, anything to do with indexing and discoverability. NIP 89 is also really useful for helping people find special purpose clients, and NIP 01's relay hints are super important for helping people who are different relays find the content you're pointing at.

I think we've only really begun to discover solutions to the problem of network partitioning, there is a lot of research still to be done in this area. The fact that kind 10002 is mutable means that you can't easily look up people's relay selections at a point in time. Relay hints are set in stone, but easily become stale. I don't know what a decentralized indexing solution would look like, but this is part of what I mean when I talk about "de-commodifying relays". Relays should have different data sets, and reconciling/navigating them should be core to what nostr does.

71 sats \ 3 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Clams - Addressing accounting challenges for Bitcoiners. SN: @johngribbin

What are some misconceptions about building on Core Lightning?

100 sats \ 2 replies \ @johngribbin 27 Jan freebie

Some folks say the developer experience is much worse than LND. This may have been the case a few years ago, but my sense is that this is unfair.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Car OP 27 Jan

interesting, has it gotten better? If so, what changed?

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @johngribbin 28 Jan

Huge improvement in their documentation. And I also feel like the CLN plugins community has grown with the help of some stellar education series that they are putting out. Love to see it.

71 sats \ 2 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

CASCDR - Like Zapier but on open protocols. Website | @cascdr

Is it true the person behind the project is a Patriot? Also, when can I run CASCDR on my Start9?

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @cascdr 26 Jan

I actually identify as a vampire.

We should have a StartOS package out on the community by the end of next month (out of my hands, dependent on S9 team's bandwidth)

But if you really want to, just bring your device into Pleblab and I'll flash it on there right now.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Wow! 🤯

71 sats \ 2 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

BTC-COLLATERAL - Marketplace for Bitcoin-secured loans. SN: @tvpeter

What is stopping Bitcoin loans from taking off? Is it just a lack of a marketplace?

181 sats \ 0 replies \ @tvpeter 26 Jan

Lack of awareness by both institutions and users

181 sats \ 0 replies \ @asterisk32 26 Jan

Volatility is always a concern for most users.

However there will always be incentive for users to take loans against their bitcoin holdings as opposed to selling it.

71 sats \ 2 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Blitz Wallet - A non-custodial Bitcoin lightning wallet. SN: @BlakeKaufman17

Blake, tell us why you chose to build with the breeze SDK instead of other offerings.

181 sats \ 1 reply \ @BlakeKaufman17 26 Jan

It came down to community for me. I tried other lightning implementation services, but the unconditional help and service that I got from the Breez team was unmatched. They could have easily seen that I am a young 20-year-old kid and not believe in my project, but they didn't. And, not only did they believe in my project, they gave me support when I needed it, and were always eager to help.

Also, the SDK is extremely well-built which allowed me to focus more on the new features I wanted to add to my lightning wallet rather than the lightning infrastructure itself.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

Interesting enough I was on a call with the team and mentioned your project and they remembered you.

71 sats \ 5 replies \ @Car OP 26 Jan

BitScript - Empowering Bitcoin developers with educational content. SN: @setzeus

Should the average bitcoiner learn Bitcoin Script? Why or why not?

181 sats \ 1 reply \ @bitcoinplebdev 26 Jan

How does your tool help with learning bitcoin script? Does it teach me the script types in Bitcoin? Does it give me an ide for running scripts? Does it go into miniscript at all?

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @setzeus 26 Jan

It provides help in both reading & writing script so that developers can understand the applicable use-case within transactions.

Currently the site is split into two main sections (learn & develop). The former leans toward an educational platform with articles that introduce the basics of scripts & documentation on common ops & scripts. The latter part of the site is more akin to developer tools with a transaction deserializer that highlights script within the raw hex & with a sandbox IDE that displays the status of the stack as script is executed.

181 sats \ 2 replies \ @setzeus 26 Jan

Learn script? hmmm maybe not? But a necessity for working on Bitcoin.

Learn how script is a critical part of inputs & how inputs are a critical part of a transaction? Yes! Needed to understand Bitcoin under the hood.

81 sats \ 1 reply \ @Car OP 26 Jan

How much are the memberships? and could bitcoiners try just for a month to test?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @setzeus 26 Jan

We're still very much iterating on pricing strategy since there are a few incentives we want to balance but currently, there's three tiers:

Free (no email / sign-up required)
Beginner Bob ($20/Mo or flat fee)
Advanced Alice ($80/Mo or flat fee)

It's tricky because we're finding that servicing teams/following a b2b path will yield more subscriptions, but on principle, we want to keep a majority of the site free/available to the individual/freelancer.