My journey to full-time open source.

I want to spend my days reviewing Bitcoin code, contributing, and teaching my community for free. Here's where I am.

My GitHubWhat I'm studying

So far

1. Co-founded BitDevs KisumuA Bitcoin developer community in Western Kenya. Our first Socratic Seminar at LakeHub Kisumu covered Bitcoin Core pull requests, BIPs and Layer 2 design.
2. Lightning Developer Bootcamp, Addis AbabaSponsored by Btrust Builders, Africa Free Routing and the Human Rights Foundation: Lightning internals, routing and channel management.
3. 24 pull requests mergedInto Minmo's open payment-channels registry, starting with Ethiopia's Telebirr channel.
4. A Bitcoin node by Lake VictoriaWrote the BitDevs Kisumu guide to syncing a node offline over Blockstream Satellite.
5. My own Lightning node, in daily useIt runs Ye₿ente, my open-source wallet.
6. First talk: setting up Bitcoin CoreTurned into the Bitcoin Core setup guide.

The bar I'm working towards

Btrust's starter grant asks for this. I use it as my checklist. Progress is public on GitHub.

1. Pick one projectChoose one Bitcoin open-source project and go deep.
2. Five merged code PRsAt least five, not docs, none labelled “good first issue”.
3. Review others' workHelpful reviews that move other people's code forward.
4. Show up in the communityIssues, discussions, or a community like BitDevs.
5. A six-month planWhat I'll work on, written down.
6. Two endorsementsFrom mentors or contributors on the project.

Source: Btrust starter grants · Btrust developer grants.

How I work

• In the open

  Code, notes and guides are public. Anyone can check them.

  GitHub

• Don't trust, verify

  I test before I review, and show what I ran.

  How I verify

• Teach what I learn

  Each new skill becomes a free guide or a better tool.

  The Library

Back this work

Mentors, reviewers and grants help most. Sats help too.