#4 - The Summer of Bitcoin Experience
Summer of Bitcoin 2023 launching soon, chat with SOB 2022 intern César Alvarez Vallero on his bitcoin dev journey and best bitcoin jobs for freshers!
Hello Summer of Bitcoiner!
It’s happening! Summer of Bitcoin 2023 will officially launch on January 15th, 2023.
This year, Summer of Bitcoin and Saylor Academy have partnered to offer our applicants access to bitcoin courses, as a screening pre-requisite for the Summer of Bitcoin program.
If you’re planning to apply to Summer of Bitcoin 2023 under the designer track, you would be expected to complete certification for the following courses:
PRDV151: Bitcoin for Everybody
If you’re planning to apply to Summer of Bitcoin 2023 under the developer track, you would be expected to complete certification for the following courses:
PRDV151: Bitcoin for Everybody
CS120: Bitcoin for Developers I
In addition, Summer of Bitcoin will host weekly office hours starting from January 25th to answer your questions from the courses.
More details, including the timeline and application form, will be published on our website on January 15th, 2023. Stay tuned!
Pro tip - Navigating through the technicals of bitcoin can be a daunting task. We recommend you leverage a wonderful resource - Learn Me a Bitcoin - in your learnings.
Are you starting out in bitcoin today and want to learn how to build apps on the bitcoin blockchain?
Build On L2 (BOL2) is a community-led effort by contributors and companies building on Core Lightning and the Liquid Network. It's a space to connect with bitcoin builders, product managers, designers and developers through events and mentorship programs and learn from experts building the future of bitcoin.
Completely free and accessible, each layer-2 protocol has a respective community platform that will host activities including:
Localized hackathons
Virtual networking events
Project bounties and other incentive programs
International builder tournaments
Career development programs
Mentorship and coaching
AMAs with leading developers
Visit buildonl2.com to join the community and learn how to build killer apps on bitcoin.
Interview with César Alvarez Vallero
We spoke with César Alvarez Vallero, a 23-year old university student of Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina and a Summer of Bitcoin intern who contributed to Bitcoin Dev Kit.
César worked on improving the coin selection module in BDK. In simple terms, his work involved adding a ‘Waste’ metric to the coin selection module in order to minimize fees for a bitcoin transaction. César also shared his personal experience growing up under inflation in Argentina and how that attracted him to the principals of bitcoin. Finally, he shares advice on getting started with bitcoin open-source development and tips for cracking Summer of Bitcoin.
Listen to the full conversation on Spotify here.
You can also watch a video of the conversation here.
Read the full transcript:
ADI SHANKARA: Hey César, welcome to The Summer of Bitcoin experience. It's great to have you here.
CESAR ALVAREZ: Hello Adi, I'm glad to be here too!
SHANKARA: Alright, why don't we start with a little bit of your introduction.
ALVAREZ: Okay, so hello everyone, my name is César and I am a computer science student from Argentina, currently finishing my degree. And in the beginning of 2022, I have participated in Summer of Bitcoin, contributing to the BDK project, particularly to its coin selection module.
SHANKARA: Let's start with your journey into bitcoin. When was the first time you heard about it? And how did you stumble down the bitcoin rabbit hole?
ALVAREZ: I first read about bitcoin, I think it was around 2012 in a blog called ‘Xataka’ - a Spanish blog. And there was an article talking about this new currency that could be of value in millions in the future, and that was really interesting because it was based on cryptographic technical things. Back then I was in secondary school, so I didn't know a lot about it.
ALVAREZ: Well, the data really caught my attention. Because it talked about and focused on the value of bitcoin, like the value in dollars. I didn't want to fall into the bitcoin rabbit hole just because of the price. So I tried to read all the articles and then I continued with the whitepaper, trying to understand the principles of it. When I finished it, I couldn't understand a word of the bitcoin whitepaper back then because I didn't have any experience related to computers. But when I finished reading it, I told my father, can you give me $100 to buy bitcoin and he answered “No!”. That answer stuck with me for all the years that have passed, because every time I saw the new all-time-highs of bitcoin price; because in secondary school, I didn't put much effort to invest even more or to just contribute to bitcoin back then. So I was just looking at the price and why I didn't buy any of it.
I think that made me interested in it, but it evolved from the attraction that the price had on me to the more technical aspects of bitcoin and why it was important. So at the end, I really like that the answer (from my father) was “no” and I could learn what was the real value of bitcoin at the end.
SHANKARA: That's very interesting! So you mentioned you're from Argentina. And as we all know, there's been so many stories for the last couple of decades about inflation and how that has impacted the lives of people in Argentina. So in that context, and with that background, why do you feel bitcoin is important and worth paying attention to?
ALVAREZ: Well, one of the first things that really attracted me about it and about the principles of bitcoin was that it didn't require any third party intervention. In Argentina in 2001, there was an event called a ‘Corralito’ - like a bank run. And the thing in that event, the government took away from the people their savings from the banks. I know that at the end of the day, the government took the savings of the people.
That was really rude for all the other people that were saving money, because we were in a crisis and at the end, the money was of the people. So that really was one of the things that I think that made me like to be more interested in bitcoin than other people from other countries because in Argentina, the government getting your money is a real issue. It has happened here!
SHANKARA: So let's talk about the Summer of Bitcoin. When was the first time you heard about it? Where did you hear about it? And what was your first impression?
ALVAREZ: Well, when I finished my secondary school, I started studying computer science, partially because I was interested in bitcoin. I wanted to know more and to really comprehend the technical aspects of it. So when I started learning about bitcoin, I discovered there were people contributing to open source projects that get paid in bitcoin because they had grants or things like that. I realized that I wanted to continue to open source projects and live my life in that way.
I was looking for some projects to allow me to enter into the environment. I was looking on the internet and I found that there was this thing called The Summer of Bitcoin. But at that time, it was the first time that it was launched. It was only available for Indian students. I decided that I wanted to participate in it, but I didn't have much background in bitcoin open source contributions.
So I started with small projects. I decided I wanted to really participate. I had to participate in making contributions to bitcoin open-source projects before trying to get into Summer of Bitcoin. So, I started with a project that’s called Learn Bitcoin from the Command Line and I also contributed to another project that was called peer-to-peer lightning bolt. It's really useful if you don't know about it, you should search for it. And later, by 2021 end, I think I found that there was another cohort for Summer of Bitcoin 2022. And I really wanted to apply, so I applied for it twice because I didn't know if my application was accepted into the process of Summer of Bitcoin.
SHANKARA: Awesome! Tell us about the application process and how to just navigate through that. And then what project or organization you ended up choosing to work on?
ALVAREZ: Well, the process began in January. They first gave us materials about bitcoin. There was a book from Rothbard, he’s an economist. I don't remember the name but it was related to the principles of money. We also received some books like Grokking Bitcoin and Mastering Bitcoin.
I had already read those books before, but I read them again just to get into the mood of the project and then we had like a preparation period to start preparing our proposals for different projects.
We had a list to choose a project from. I wasn't really familiar with BDK. I had participated before in a reading club that was in English and I didn't have much experience back then speaking English. So, at the end I quit. But when I was in a reading club for a BDK group, I really liked it, the BDK community there. And I really liked the idea of the project because it's a project that tries to address one of the most interesting things that I think that bitcoin has; there are very interesting parts of bitcoin.
Well, that's why I chose BDK because for me, the development was very interesting, and the project and the community was really good for me.
SHANKARA: Awesome. So tell us what BDK is and specifically what project idea did you work on?
ALVAREZ: BDK is Bitcoin Dev Kit. The idea is to help developers build over bitcoin principally, to build wallets - that's what the library is for. And I chose to be part of the project that is related to coin selection. Coin selection is one of the really important parts of wallet development, because it helps you to choose the UTXO's that you have. For those who don't know what UTXO is - for example, in your wallet, you have a bunch of UTXO's and you have to select them to spend your bitcoins. So the idea of this coin selection module is to choose between those UTXOs to pay the quantity that you want to pay in bitcoin. You can optimize that process by taking different considerations. For example, in bitcoin, you have to pay a fee so maybe you want to pay the least amount of fees possible. Or maybe you don't want to leak a lot of information to the blockchain about your transactions so you have to optimize in a particular way to fit your goal.
So the idea of coin selection is just to select the units to pay your amount of bitcoin optimizing for some goal.
SHANKARA: Awesome. So you worked with a mentor who is also an open source developer in the bitcoin ecosystem, and specifically BDK. You want to tell us about your experience working with them and how it was?
ALVAREZ: Well, I think that my experience was wonderful because I worked with Daniela Brozzoni. Back then when I was in the first semester of the year, when I was contributing to Summer of Bitcoin, I was also attending to faculty because now I am in the northern hemisphere, but in the southern hemisphere, we have a different schedule in the academic year. So I was in the middle of my semester in the faculty and I was also working and she really helped me to not feel pressure with all the things that I was doing.
I think that really helped me to make valuable contributions to the project. And she also taught me and was of great help with the technical aspects of my proposal. For example, I have to make some considerations related to the weight of a transaction - its simple arithmetics, but if you don't know a lot about these structures that you're using in bitcoin, the weights are aggressive, you can get lost like me. She really helped me with that. And she was always really helpful with me, I really enjoyed the experience working with her.
SHANKARA: Awesome. So now that Summer of Bitcoin is done, what are your plans now? And are you currently working on any bitcoin projects and are looking forward to contributing to any other projects?
ALVAREZ: Well, I would like to continue contributing to bitcoin and particularly to BDK; but currently I am trying to finish my degree. I'm not in Argentina right now because I’m completing a scholarship in Spain, but I’ll go to Argentina to finish my degree and then try to get into bitcoin and open-source projects again and see if I can get my hands on that.
SHANKARA: Yes, I'm sure you will! Let's talk about other young developers out there. What do you think are the best resources for those beginner developers who want to contribute to bitcoin open-source?
ALVAREZ: When I started, just learning about bitcoin, it took me a long time, because I knew about it since 2012. I started reading about bitcoin back then, but I didn't really grasp the technical aspects of it until I was into faculty and I started learning about and reading more about it. And for me the most helpful things or resources to learn about bitcoin are Mastering Bitcoin, the book from Andreas M. Antonopoulos, and also Grokking Bitcoin!
I think that Grokking Bitcoin is more helpful when you want to delve into the technical aspects of bitcoin and if you're not learning bitcoin to contribute to it, but you want to learn bitcoin in a general way, I think that Mastering Bitcoin is the right way.
Also I think that there is a good resource on the web that is Learn me a Bitcoin - that's a very good site that has a lot of information about bitcoin. It has information for newbies and also for advanced users. I think that is a really great website!
In general, the advice that I can give to students trying to learn about bitcoin and trying to get into Summer of Bitcoin, for example, to find your pace and start doing things.
I identify myself as a super slow learner, like a turtle. I take my pace with all the things that I do.
I knew I wanted to contribute to a bitcoin open source project and gain background in it so I decided to start learning slow, like reading something about bitcoin each day and trying to figure out the things that I didn’t understand, so I think that it's important that you find your own pace and don't rush in the process. Because at the end, you will really appreciate what you have done in two weeks to learn about bitcoin. So find your own pace and just start. That's the final advice! :)
SHANKARA: Awesome! Those are some really great resources and advice.
ALVAREZ: And also if you want to learn about how to interact with Bitcoin Core, the project that I first contributed to related to bitcoin was Learning Bitcoin from the Command Line. That's also a really good resource to start interacting with Bitcoin Core.
SHANKARA: Cesar this was very useful! Thank you so much for spending time with us today and sharing your advice and your experience with bitcoin. I hope to see you contributing more and more to bitcoin open source.
ALVAREZ: Thank you Adi for having me here and I really enjoyed this interview.
JOBS IN BITCOIN
If you are a fresher straight out of college, here are a few exciting job postings we recommend:
Engineering:
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Full Stack Software Engineer - Front End | NCR (LibertyX / LibertyPay) | Georgia Virtual Remote | Apply
Full Stack Linux Software Engineer | NCR (LibertyX / LibertyPay) | Texas Virtual Remote | Apply
React Native Developer | Synonym | Remote | Apply
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Front End Developer | Foreman | United States (Remote) | Apply
Software Engineer (Fixed Project) | Joltz | Remote | Apply
Design:
Graphic Design Intern | Riot Blockchain Inc. | Costa Mesa, CA, USA | Apply