🏔🏂
Short update for this week as school was off for the holidays, and like many people here, we went skiing with the family. Thanks to all who covered me with the newsletter, community call, etc.
The JoinMarket web UI is now live as an app on Umbrel (announcement), which was super cool to see. A big step in making an important privacy tool much easier to use. I helped the project kick off last year, and also with the logo and UX (Figma file, using the Bitcoin UI Kit). Unfortunately, I haven't been able to help very much the past weeks, just spread a bit too thinly across too many projects. The group has done a fantastic job getting it all done. So the first phase of the project is complete - to make it work and get it out. Now, there can be more focus on refining the functionality and UI (roadmap). There are still big issues to be resolved to simplify and more clearly communicate what is happening. If you're a designer, come and help out, the project needs someone to work along with the larger group.
Don't think it's written down anywhere, so a short background on the logo. It's a geometric shape called a rose. At first glance, it looks like a series of overlapping circles, but it's actually a continuous line. Your eye tries to identify distinct shapes, but it can't. Similar to how an observer might try to trace transaction histories through CoinJoins, but won't be able to (ideally).
On another note, I got invited to speak about open design at Offscript, a conference for creatives in Web3. I've been super hesitant to go to events, especially large-scale ones, due to Covid concerns, but things are easing up a bit now. This being a design-focused event, I am really curious to hear more stories from the trenches, and hopefully promote the idea of open design a bit further.
Next week will back to full speed. Looking forward to it.