Another update on Arké. Started to add tags, contacts and lightning functionality. It's a mess, but it's progress.

Second Community

Arké MacOS prototype

Hello again with another update. I spent the last few days with the basic integration of tags and contacts and better address handling all around, ...

As I've been working on the Ark prototype, I tried to feel out the economic viability of the system, which can be a make or break. One part of is that every ASP is its own separate microcosm. That seems manageable for bitcoin payments, but adds exponential complexity for the advanced stuff in Arkade (lending, swaps, etc). And it seems like a centralizing force that will put intense pressure on ASPs and also invite regulatory scrutiny. - Stablecoins are locked into individual ASPs - how many of those will Tether/etc support? - Will ASPs need to provide liquidity for non-bitcoin assets also? - What if a liquidation cascade depletes ASP liquidity? What if rounds are too slow? - Is there unilateral exit for non-bitcoin assets? - If your app only implements the payments part, are you still exposed to the other dynamics? Do I have an answer, or understand the complexities of all this? Certainly not. If you do, congrats, please share. Intuitively, I prefer simpler systems. How do you think about these things?

A bit more work on Arké, adding wallet creation/import/deletion/backup.

In my Ark prototype, I added this super handy X-Ray screen. Let's you inspect all the underlying data that drives the wallet. Looks like I need to refresh my VTXOs...

I tinkered with an Ark wallet prototype (second.tech implementation) to get a feel for the squishy parts of the protocol. Here's a demo video and some questions that came up. Maybe some of you have answers?

Second Community

Arké MacOS prototype

Hi all. Big shout-out to the second.tech team for the great work on Ark. I put together a MacOS prototype wallet app because I wanted to feel out h...

Big thing I appreciate about AI assisted coding is that you can keep your brain focused on the architectural level. It really takes care of the small stuff.

So cool to see the Saving Satoshi workshops happen.

Past Workshops | Saving Satoshi In-Person Workshop Guide

Any preference for AI icons? (Just having fun, these will not go into the icon set)

Pretty amazing what you can do in a day with €0.5 worth of Claude Sonnet 4 credits via Github Copilot in Visual Studio Code. Man do I wish that these workflows were also available for design tasks.

Two more icons from these explorations.

Which variations do you prefer? Other ideas to try?

I'll be on an X space next week to talk about Open Design. Tune in.

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CHAOSS Project Africa (@chaoss_africa) on X

Explore how design shapes open source with us! Join our Design Focus Group alongside @iamkingsleey, @VictoryBrown_, @EriolDoesDesign and @GBKS for...

First draft of the new milestone for Bitcoin Icons. What do you think of these? As always with icons, some are more intuitive than others. Also just realizing I need to add one for faucet.

Regarding graduated wallets, the multiple wallets reference design in the Bitcoin Design Guide goes in that direction. Multiple different setups in the same application for different use cases and appropriate levels of security.

Bitcoin Design

Multiple wallets

A UX reference design for a multi-key bitcoin wallet designed for both daily spending and storing medium amounts.

Where the activity seems currently in the ecosystem seems to be around whether Ecash, Ark, Spark, etc have a place at the very low-end for really small amounts.

I'm preparing a new release for the Bitcoin Icons (https://bitcoinicons.com). We've got some requests for mining pool, bitaxe, faucet, fingerprint, and derivation path. What are some other ones that should be added?

Saving Satoshi is a very special project to me. We got invited to speak about it with Nik Bhatia yesterday on his podcast.

Are any bitcoin wallets currently implementing the "Graduated wallet" concept? Basically moving your bitcoin to more secure (and typically higher fee) layers as your funds increase. We also called this "progressive security" in the Bitcoin Design Guide (

Bitcoin Design

Design principles

The key principles to follow when designing bitcoin products.

I like asking AI to summarize and evaluate podcast transcripts (when I don't have time, or for a second perspective on certain topics). Claude is really good at this. Now for the first time I did this for a podcast that I was a guest at. Feels weird, but it is very helpful. Sounds like I am doing OK overall, but should give more specific examples and discuss design trade-offs and learnings more. Do you do this?

I was told that UX is one of the biggest problems in Nostr these days. What are people seeing that needs improvement? If this is the case, it would not surprise me. Early on in an ecosystem, it's about maturing the tech and infrastructure to a decent point. Then it commoditizes a bit, and the user experience gaps become more prevalent.

FOSS Backstage is now looking for speakers. It's a great conference. Take a look:

FOSS Backstage 2026

Call for Participation

Open Source software is not only a way of licensing code but also a model of collaboration and community. At FOSS Backstage we want to explore the ...