Arké
Ark, eh?
Two months since the last update here, but not the last update elsewhere. I’ve been really heads-down on trying to get a reference implementation wallet for the Ark protocol by Second going, and posting my updates in their community here. There are 8 posts and videos in there chronicling the development of this new app I am calling Arké for now.
Here’s the latest one that I just posted today, which was all about mobile navigation.
So why Ark and Arké and starting a new wallet project?
AI has written 98% of all Arké code. Code is cheap and fluid now, which makes building 100x easier.
There are various UX best practices we have outlined in the Bitcoin Design Guide that I don’t think have been implemented well in the ecosystem broadly. Not that anyone is required to, but I want to see good UX being pushed and in people’s hands. If code is cheap, why not build at least realistic prototypes, possibly actual apps, to get these ideas closer to “the market”. Let’s iterate fast, test and validate.
I’ve implemented UIs for 20+ years, it’s fun and not that difficult for me (especially now with AI, it is such a breeze to build with).
Ark was designed to complement the weaknesses of Lightning. I really think the trifecta of the Bitcoin network, Lightning, and Ark, has great promise to make for amazing payment rails in the future, while staying close to principles of self-custody, interoperability, etc (some thinking here in my BTC Prague 2024 talk). Arké can help speed this up by getting this tech into people’s hands in a user-friendly way.
I like the Ark implementation by Second because it just focuses on money and payments (Ark Labs, the other implementation, also does tokens, DeFi, etc). They have been super nice to work with. Mainnet launch will be soon, and I’m excited to hopefully be a small part of that.
So this quiet time has been focused productive time. Focus means not doing other things, like community calls, visiting conferences, etc (sorry if I ignored you). And once Arké is stable, then it will be time to be more public and get user feedback, discuss and share the design decisions, etc.
Now what are those design best practices that I am trying to tackle?
Contacts - which abstracts away all these unwieldy addresses
Tags - lots of wallets allow users to label things with no clear value prop
Activity - rich displays rather than raw data where you can’t tell what the transaction was about
Human-readable addresses - just supporting those for now, possibly offering them to users in the future
Fees - lots of wallets are intransparent around fees, but low fees are a really attractive benefit. What can we do here, particularly with Ark?
Servers/Services - similar to Lightning service providers, Ark relies on servers. How do we allow users to choose servers, communicate benefits, deal with required trust, etc?
BIP-177 - simplify the display of amounts
Design principles - make all this self-custodial, interoperable, transparent, private, etc, as much as possible. I am putting this last, but this really is huge and affects all kinds of decisions.
And by choosing the Apple ecosystem, you get a lot of benefits like iCloud syncing, secure Keychain storage, and it’s much easier to build rich and fluid user experiences. Arké is not the app built for resilience, low-end devices and shaky internet. It tries to do the opposite and tries to explore what bitcoin can be like with an abundance of resources. That’s an intentional choice, see my recent post for reference on product positioning.
If you’re wondering why Arké is full of AI-generated fancy fashion models? Just having fun there. I didn’t want to go with the usual 3d icons or Corporate Memphis. So why not throw some fancy AI videos in there? Something to revisit at some point, for sure.
So compared to the first half of the year, which was very much about events and conferences, the last couple of months were the opposite. Going into January, I’ll start moving a bit more out of the focus zone again.
That’s Arké. What do you make of it? Would you use it?
If you celebrate Xmas, have a merry Xmas. If not, have a great time whatever you’re doing.
✌️🇺🇦🎅