Chibi
I did not post a newsletter last Friday, as I was sick that day and throughout the weekend. Luckily things were back to normal by Monday. So let's take a look at the past two weeks.
A major highlight was the presentation of the Summer of Bitcoin design students about their work on Padawan wallet. Really impressed with how well they worked together, what they came up with, and their empathetic approach to design. Really hope we get to see a lot more of them (and even more students overall).
For the design guide, I spent a lot of time reviewing PRs and giving feedback. Treating the daily spending wallet like a real project forces many detailed discussions and design decisions, as well as a strict internal consistency, that require lots of back and forth.
The security page update is merged
The privacy page update is still getting reviewed (should be close)
I started a branch for a settings page that is maybe 50% ready
The Sign in with bitcoin page PR is now also awaiting review
Hopefully all this can get merged next week, but review will likely take a bit longer.
After the daily spending wallet is done, I think I'll look further into how lightning wallets will evolve. Sign in with bitcoin is part of that, integrating wallets with other applications and services for authentication and payments. It also looks like stablecoins will become a reality very soon, with things like Stablesats, and Taro/RGB on the near horizon. Taproot will also bring multisig to lightning, so there will be plenty to figure out. However the technical details will play out, we can already sort out many of the UX changes needed.
For the Bitcoin Core App, activity has really picked up. Jarol is busting through the UI implementation, and the design crew is finding a good pace (design calls two and three). Other designers also seem interested. Gene asked today what he can help with, so I made the video below with an overview.
Here's another video with a question about a small design decision we shared with the design community to get broader input.
There's a huge amount of design work immediately in front of us for Bitcoin Core (two more videos on design decisions here and here). I think we're finding our stride and have a good team and process (see the design docs). I am excited to be part of it.
On a more goofy note, I did a quick design exercise mocking up an imaginary (yet groundbreakingly innnovative) bitcoin-only charting app (on Dribbble). Another one of those moments where I needed a break from serious design/tech thinking and just arrange pixels for an hour. The app is for bitcoin maxis (I hope I never have to have a conversation about this term) who love observing price. It provides all the charting tools and analytics so they can always ensure that one bitcoin equals one bitcoin (or 100M satoshi). This type of design exercise is a bit like futuristic UIs in movies (Iron Man). Looks cool when it briefly passes through your brain, and you realize it makes absolutely no sense when you look at it longer than 2 seconds. Similar to the term metaverse, I suppose.
Although things overall feel a bit quiet on the surface, which may be partly due to it being summer and maybe also due to the bear market, there is a lot of stuff bubbling underneath. Should make for a really interesting rest of the year. More short-team, I am looking forward to Baltic Honeybadger in Riga in two weeks to chat IRL with people.
If you made it this far, first of all, thank you. And if you want to keep reading more about bitcoin design, check out the latest newsletter from this week.
Time for the weekend now. Have a good one. 🌻🏝🍻