Our new open source grant goes to Johns Beharry and his work to promote experiments with Lightning. Here’s what his latest project, Bolt.Fun, is all about. ⚡️
TL;DR
- We’re supporting Johns Beharry and his work to promote Lightning with a new open source development grant
- Johns leads a community dedicated to fostering Lightning web app development: Bolt.Fun
- Bolt.Fun is organizing a Lightning development tournament to support app builders and help them sustain development momentum
Lightning + Fun = Bolt.Fun
Johns Beharry is a developer and designer with a passion for Bitcoin, Lightning, and open source work. He has for example worked on the Bitcoin Design Guide and was very involved in the Bitcoin Design community, a group of developers and designers focused on making Bitcoin open source wallets easier to use.
His most recent project is Bolt.Fun, a platform built around a community of builders dedicated to making Lightning apps development… more fun. 💜
Bolt.Fun stems from the fact that core development, whether in Bitcoin or Lightning, comes with a steep learning curve, requires a massive time commitment, and is often slow to yield tangible results. Building web apps, in comparison, feels easy, fast, and… fun. That’s why the Bolt.Fun community came together: The more people experiment with Lightning, the more Lightning grows!
Hackathons and their limits
One of the ways Bolt.Fun brings more people to play with Lightning development is by hosting hackathons. Earlier this year, they twice hosted a week-long event called Shock the Web, to build and design Lightning web apps. With over 150 makers taking part and 20+ apps built, it was a great success.
However, as is often the case with hackathons, once the event ended, most projects lost momentum. Builders got back to their normal, busy life, and didn’t find the time and energy to keep their project going. To take these projects to the next level and generate a higher level of consistency, Bolt.Fun came up with the concept of tournaments. ⚔️
The Legends of Lightning tournament
Instead of asking participants to cram their hacking workload into a single weekend or evening, the Legends of Lightning tournament offers much wider start and end dates.
From now until November 28, makers will be able to accelerate their bitcoin projects through mentorship in design, development, and lightning integration. And they’ll be competing for up to ~$60,000 (3 BTC) in prizes. 👀
Finally, Bolt.Fun has partnered with meetups, hackathons, and workshops to provide participants the opportunity to accelerate their projects over the course of the tournament. They’ve even partnered with funding specialists, including VCs firms like Fulgur Ventures, or grant platforms like Geyser and Open Sats, to help developers figure out their next steps. 🔥
