#9 - The Summer of Bitcoin Experience
A peek into Bitcoin Scripts, chat with SOB 2021 intern Shashwat Vangani, and best bitcoin jobs for freshers!
Hello Summer of Bitcoiner!
Peeling into the layers of a bitcoin transaction reveals a lot of interesting concepts! For starters, let’s look at the anatomy of a block:
Each block, then contains some transactions:
If you look closely, there are several scripts mentioned in every transaction. To give an overview of what a bitcoin transaction entails, it can be divided into inputs & outputs.
Transaction inputs consists of:
A transaction ID, referencing the transaction that contains the UTXO being spent
An output index (
vout
), identifying from which UTXO the transaction is referenced (the first one is zero)A scriptSig, which satisfies the conditions placed on the UTXO, unlocking it for spending
A sequence number
Transaction outputs consist of two parts:
An amount of bitcoin, denominated in satoshis, the smallest bitcoin unit.
A cryptographic puzzle that determines the conditions required to spend the output.
The cryptographic puzzle is also known as a locking script, a witness script, or ascriptPubKey
.
In Bitcoin, the verification is done by executing a script. The scripting language is called Script. It is very similar to Forth.
Why does Script has so many limitations?
The reason Script is a very simple language that was designed to be limited in scope:
To ensure it is able to run on a range of hardware from a simple wallet to a miner and doesn't need much processing power to execute the script and validate the transaction.
The fact that the Script language can't do everything any modern high-level language like C++, Java can; is a deliberate security feature.
But even after these restrictions Script provides a lot of flexibility, and there are various ways of making transactions as we will see later. But bitcoin devs decided that only a few transactions should be considered Standard
and these transactions should follow a particular format.
The above excerpt is from Arnab Sen’s blog on ‘Intro to Bitcoin Script’, read more about script construction in his blog post.
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 Shashwat Vangani
We spoke with Shashwat Vangani, a 22-year old university student of Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India and a Summer of Bitcoin 2021 intern who contributed to Bitcoin Core. Shashwat graduated in 2022, and became a full time Bitcoin Core contributor, sponsored by Superlunar. Shashwat is working on redesigning the Bitcoin Core GUI, making it easy for anyone to run a node with a user-friendly and slick user interface. We discuss his journey from Summer of Bitcoin to contributing to Bitcoin full-time, his personal journey into the bitcoin rabbit hole and advice for young professionals on getting started with 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: Welcome to the Summer of Bitcoin Experience.
SHASHWAT VANGANI: Thank you very much Adi for inviting me here. And first of all, I should congratulate you for such a great presentation and inspiring us all to start on a great note with this podcast.Â
SHANKARA: Thank you. So Shashwat let's start with a bit of your introduction. Tell us where you're from and what are you up to today?Â
VANGANI: I come from a small city named Banswara from Rajasthan, India, and from there I did my childhood studies and went to study at Indian Institute Technology, Roorkee, to do my Bachelor's in Engineering, post that I'm sitting here in Bangalore (smiles).
SHANKARA: Alright, so let's talk about your journey into bitcoin. When was the first time you heard about it? All the way up to what you think about it now and why is it worth paying attention to?
SHANKARA:  First time I heard about bitcoin was around 2017/2018 when I was in my 11/12th grade - senior secondary. So at the time I heard about it in newspapers, like something known as bitcoin is there in the world. Like there was some kind of news about bitcoin in newspapers, but it was not obviously properly explained. At that time, the impression that I got about bitcoin was that it's something of a mystery, not something like the usual thing that you're talking about. But there is something about it that is worth exploring. By the time I was in my 11/12th grade, was more focused on academics, obviously. At that time, I was not able to focus on this, but then post that when I was in college in my third year during the internship period, again, heard about bitcoin at the time when I was searching for different internship opportunities. The thing is that even from childhood, I didn’t want to work on things that everybody else is working on. I don't want to think what everybody else does. So even when all of my friends were trying to apply for internships in, say, Microsoft or Adobe or Google, I was like, if I am gonna apply as they did, then I will be betraying myself; in the sense that I just want to do something that's not done frequently by peers. That's why, I waited and then I heard about Summer of Bitcoin through the notice board of our college and then I thought that, again, the same memory tickled upon which gave me an experience that it is something mysterious and finally I'm getting an opportunity to explore it. That's why I thought that it's worth my time. And then I applied for it and did good with my internship process, proposal process and then finally I got there.Â
SHANKARA: Awesome. So before we kind of talk about your specific Summer of Bitcoin project and your experience during the internship, let's just focus on bitcoin, right. So you started off by telling me that this was this mysterious thing that was going on in some parts of the world; and finally, you got a chance to basically peek into it through the summer. At the end of the summer, like, what was it that changed your impression about bitcoin? What did you learn? How did it go from being a mysterious thing to actually an important thing that now you're working full time on it?
VANGANI: Before the internship process, even before I started to study technically about what bitcoin is or what blockchain is, in general, I had just the sense that it's just a black box as any kind of technology that's too complicated to understand for me. But once I started to understand what the basics of the thing is; what blockchain is, what bitcoin is, and what exactly happens with bitcoin, I came to understand they're some number of parts, some moving parts to bitcoin that are so elegantly attached with each other - if you put it that way. The simplicity of the whole structure, right, which solves such a big problem of money itself. It just kind of blows my mind. So first, it was like I was curious about the project, what bitcoin is, and then after my two months of internship, I was just excited about what I'm working on, and how the level of simplicity, depth and elegance present with bitcoin’s moving parts is such a great thing. And then post that I came to understand, like at the time, I was just curious about the technology only and that's why I continued my work on it. Because at the time all my friends were selecting something that they can continue their work upon. So I continued my work at that time with bitcoin because of the only reason that I was excited with the technology, like how it's moving. I was not kind of remotely aware of the revolutionary aspect it brings with the money itself, the level of changes it can bring, then post that, we can go about that later in the podcast, but something happened and recently I had my orange pill moment. So after that, I now realize that what I’m working on is not only a very interesting or very experimental technology, it's something that can change the world, is changing the world and I'm helping to do that. I think it will.
SHANKARA: So you mentioned the technology aspect of it. And that's actually a very good point. And before we go into the whole societal impact that it can have, I think, the technology itself, as you said, is unlike anything else that has come before, right, so a lot of people think okay, bitcoin is based on blockchain. And blockchain is a data structure like a linked list. And that's a big breakthrough. Whereas we can build other types of blockchains, and we can do things. But in doing so, they are essentially just looking at just one piece of that data structure and disregarding everything else that makes that data structure important, right, that makes bitcoin what it is.
I think that's a key distinction we at Summer of Bitcoin are focused on bitcoin and not blockchain. Because bitcoin is not just blockchain. Blockchain is simply just linked lists and linked lists have been around since the 1970s - so that's not a new breakthrough.
The breakthrough is in how that linked list data structure works alongside proof of work, which is in itself a big breakthrough. And then you know, in terms of the cryptography that it uses, and the game theory that comes about, and the problem that it chooses to solve, which is money itself. I think all of those aspects are what makes bitcoin so special and that is what has stood the test of time as far as bitcoin's security and reliability is concerned. Whereas every other thing, every other ‘application’ of blockchain has just you know, faltered or basically gone nowhere.
VANGANI: So, that was one of the points I want to mention. The interesting thing with bitcoin is that the protocol that it implements encourages people to be honest, like being dishonest in this system, would be automatically discouraged because you would get some kind of penalty, for example, in real life we have to enforce the law or vice versa. You have to enforce that people don't steal from each other. If they do so, we are going to punish them externally with the third person. And that involves the involvement of trust - as I studied about that recently in a book, so that involves creating a third party that's gonna keep checking on those one/two parties that they're not gonna break the protocol. But what if I say, we kind of form a protocol in which if somebody's gonna even try to steal they're automatically gonna be punished.Â
So for example, an author gave an example, like he told me that he has two sons. So he asked them to share their food with each other, okay, now, if he's going to be sharing food for them, then what would happen if they need a third party. They're somewhat at risk of, say, favoritism, not on the father's side but on the child so that they would think that child one is more favorable or child two is more favorable, and that will create chaos. But what if we change the approach of doing the splitting instead of father splitting for them, what he can do is that, the child one to do to make equal half and child 2 select which half he’s going to take and what would happen if the child one, say is he's gonna do the cheating and not gonna split like equally or say properly, the child 2 can take more quantity food so what would happen? So through the protocol, the cheaters get punished. Same happens with bitcoin itself. So in the real world, cheating is not enforced in bitcoin, cheating is automatically punished by protocol. So there is no third party involved. That's why I like the fact that I recently read about this and worked on this stuff for so long and I recently studied about them. I was like, poof, such beauty!
SHANKARA: Yeah, I think that's a very great example. And it's at the core of how the protocol functions and how the game theory actually works, where the protocol forces all of the participants, right, whether it's the miners or the nodes, or somebody who is just using bitcoin or even the developers, it forces all of these different stakeholders to act honestly and meritocratically because otherwise you will be ousted out of the system. So I think that's what makes it tick. That's what makes it work. Where we do not need to rely on trusted third parties for enforcing the protocol of money. And so that gets rid of any single entity, whether it's an individual or whether it's a group of individuals or some corporation or some government, gets rid of all of those centralized parties and gives power as far as the bitcoin protocol is concerned to individual participants, which is what makes it decentralized. I think that aspect, or that definition of decentralization is something which is very hard to wrap your head around. But once you get it then you understand why bitcoin is unique in its technology and how the protocol functions and how everything else is basically screwed up.
So, let's talk about the Summer of Bitcoin. So, then you apply to this internship program, tell us about the process, and specifically, what project did you end up working on?
VANGANI: So the application process of Summer of Bitcoin in 2021, which was basically the pilot year of Summer of Bitcoin, my application process consisted of three key stages. The first one was the technical round in which a question was asked, we were given some time to do it. So basically, the question was, we have to fill a block with the maximum number of transactions and when I kind of understood the problem, it was basically a version of knapsack problem. Now, we are given some time, two days’ time to explore the problem and to solve it. And give the answer as best as you can. So, after the first technical round, it was followed by the issue finding round, in which we have to find the issue in the Bitcoin Core repository and see if you can answer and find a solution to that or at least can find a way to approach the problem of the issue. The third one was the interview round in which you were interviewed both on the technical level - like our basic knowledge of the fundamentals of bitcoin, as well as on the non-technical level - asking if we were ready for this kind of thing, where we are gonna have to invest time on this experimental technology and stuff. So after these three rounds, I performed satisfactorily and so finally, I was selected for the Summer of Bitcoin program. Then, during the Summer of Bitcoin program, you're first given a crash course on what bitcoin is, again to get a basic understanding, so that all the participants can get back on the same footing. And then can they start with the project, it was a one-week crash course in which you are with Kalle Rosenbaum - who is the writer of Grokking Bitcoin.
So my first week of the Summer of Bitcoin, we were given a crash course by Kalle, in which we were taught our basics of bitcoin, not on the technical level, but more on the basic level, like why things work the way things work. And it was followed finally by choosing our project. So I chose the Bitcoin Core GUI, which is Bitcoin Core’s graphical user interface. Bitcoin Core as most of you might be knowing is the reference implementation for bitcoin protocol. Now, why I chose this project is because I was always interested first of all, with the design aspect of the things I always like, like how the things are placed, on the screen, so that it attracts me. It makes it intuitive for me to play with it, to work with it, and how a bad design could make the best technology in the world look just bad and a good design to make even the average product look awesome. This is how this thing actually happens on the ground level and that's why I applied for a graphical user interface project for Bitcoin Core. And I was assigned Jarol as a mentor. And I would like to thank him for the whole journey. I was like asking him small questions, he always patiently gave me answers to them and he brought me to a place from not knowing anything about Bitcoin Core to actually be able to work on Bitcoin Core; so he and especially Jonas, those guys - they were very much involved in my whole process of getting me to the place where I'm currently sitting on. Now also, before I forget, thank you very much Adi, because we got Summer of Bitcoin - giving me this platform so that I could do what I wanted to do. So thanks for that.Â
VANGANI: Jarol helped me with the onboarding from Bitcoin Core to finally moving to the project part. So my project part consisted of two main aspects: the minor one was to implement some basic features on the Bitcoin Core GUI, which was quite minor and the major part of the project was to be involved with the review process. So I want to mention in a very brief way why review matters for a technology like bitcoin. So bitcoin is a technology that works on reviews. Nobody, no one can push their idea into bitcoin, whether it be just a small change, adding a close button to the app, or a big change like adding some level of protocol change. Nobody can push their idea without cross reviews and cross checks on it. Bitcoin is probably one of the only systems in the whole world - the kind of technological system in the world where reviews are as valuable as adding new features. So my main part of the project was helping in that review process. Now, during my internship, I did almost like 50-52 reviews - they were majorly focused on the PR that add more value on the bitcoin Core GUI at the time and help to get them merged. So during my internship, I got my PRs as well as those PRs to be able to get merged. That pretty much summarizes my two months of internship!
SHANKARA: Now that you basically went through the internship program, you were fascinated by the technology. Tell us about the other aspects of bitcoin that got to you later, much later, probably after your internship experience, and what is it about those aspects that make you feel a lot more bullish on bitcoin’s impact on society.
VANGANI: My orange pill moment when I realized how big this thing actually is - it happened recently when I went to the bitcoin conference, so I was able to meet a lot of bitcoiners - whom I was not able to meet since I started with bitcoin. So at the time, I let my curiosity flow out, I let all my skepticism about bitcoin out because first of all the bitcoiners are not there to question my allegiance with the technology. But they were sitting there to help me understand what this actually is. So when I first saw that this environment, this group is there not to judge me, but to help me understand and let all my skepticism out; all the things that were troubling me for a long time and then finally, each question each minute-to-minute question, each intricate question that I could form in my head, I got a satisfactory answer for all of them. Like this is my approach of approaching different things in life when I question it. If I want to see if the thing works, anything, say bitcoin or an idea or anything, any philosophy or anything, if I can question it to the point that I can question it like all the points that I can think of and it doesn't break - its right. It's like questioning and proving my contradiction. I question why in any way possible and if it's tense, my only question is basically - truth. Maybe my reasoning is limited - that could be possible, but I'm ready to take that blow. But for now, I can say that whatever I can't break with my series of questions is the truth. And then I realized probably bitcoin is truth, because it stands on all the levels of question that I could perform - that was my orange pill moment. And most of the questions that were focused, were on the protocol - that how its implemented, how it's able to enforce that all the people are being honest to the system, how this technology is much better than say fiat currency. You mentioned all the inheritance problem and all the problems in which you can take your money outside your system and it can be censored, all these points are not significant in the country, and in the town we are living currently, like especially in today's India, or even see any first world country which we get the news of mostly, but if we just look into the other side of the world - small countries like Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, like where the inflation rate is not as stable as probably India or say America. Then what happens is that they just lose their money almost immediately. And also, they can't be sure of whatever they are doing, they're working for is gonna hold its value tomorrow. And it's such a big trouble on their mind.Â
You know, my family comes from the other side of the border. So when during the partition, they have to leave all of their property, all of their everything and come and start from scratch. So it was like hitting home when you were talking about that. So after that, when I got all my skepticism answered, I know that it's something worth working upon.
SHANKARA: Okay, so tell us about your experience after the internship like, you probably completed your university and what did you end up with in regard to your work on bitcoin?
VANGANI: So after my internship I continued my review and work process with Bitcoin Core GUI, as I was doing before, during the internship, and I continue to work with the purpose that I want to work on it full time. So to build up both my proof of work as well as key contributions on this great technology that I was curious about - I continued my work during my whole of fourth year, and after that I applied for a grant process. It was at the time when the grant was given by Gemini. My mentor, who was already funded by Gemini and Jonas as well - they helped me get some help with the Gemini team and got me able to get funded full time on this. So basically, at the time, Bitcoin Core GUI was implemented using QT widgets. So the QT widget framework is usually focused on desktop development and it's not as flexible and not suitable for the modern way of designing. And the mobile development focus is quite limited. Currently me, Jarol and another two/three team of designers and developers - 4 to 5 people are currently working on Bitcoin Core GUI QML, which is the new implementation of bitcoin core’s graphical user interface using the QML framework. So the framework is more focused on mobile development, which is the most common computer device present on the planet. And also, it's more in line with the way designing currently happens so it's easier, it's less hacky to form great designs using QML - so currently we are working on that.
SHANKARA: Alright. I think a lot of people are not aware of how the grant process works because it's sort of new to them, right? Most people in universities, most students, think of it as either having a job in some company, or maybe starting their own company. Tell us a little bit more about being an open-source developer and working or subsisting on grants.
VANGANI: Yes. So the major difference between a job's way of doing things and a grant is that in the job you first get the commitment that you would be paid for some time, then you are trained in their particular technology and then you finally start working with them. So basically you’re first paid, then you work; it's completely opposite with the grant. With grant you’ve to first form proof of work - in the way that you're already working on this and you know what you're doing - all the training is done by yourself. And finally, when the whole ecosystem is seeing enough potential in your work, that they're seeing that this work should be done as a full-time thing, then we can finally approach some kind of say, the company that organizes grant program like Gemini, Brink etc. So these companies we can apply to and then they will see the work that we have done currently till now and they will see that it holds potential and will continue to be done in the manner it's done. And then we can finally get through this process. So the main difference is that you have to first commit your hours before you'll be able to get money for it. Completely opposite of the traditional job. So that's the main difference between them. How the process happens? It's like as you get more familiar with the system, as you get more into the system, you meet more people around you, say good people who are already in a system, then finally the process of applying for the grant becomes quite simpler once you're already in this ecosystem. But the most major thing with the grant is, first we have to work for free, putting in our hours not knowing when we'll be able to get funded. And then we can finally say that now we are ready to get paid for what we're doing.
SHANKARA: There's also another difference in terms of the style of work that you get to do and the level of independence that you enjoy. Do you want to comment on that as well?Â
VANGANI: Sure, I forgot about that point. So the major difference between a job and grant is that in the job you're paid to do work on a specific project, a specific kind of thing that you have to work on. So there is a proper hierarchy in the job that you are probably, say, when you start you're probably a developer, a junior developer, and there is a manager on top of you and there is a proper hierarchy of the system. And the order trickles down from top to bottom and you have to do what you're told to do. Basically like an army for example - I just thought of random example to do what you're told to do. You can't think about it, you can but not much. In the grant system, it depends first of all on the contract - the way the contract is formed, usually the way the bitcoin grant process contracts are formed - it's clearly mentioned on the contract that you can work in whatever way you want to work, such that it benefits the bitcoin ecosystem, and you are being paid for doing that. So now you have the whole sky open to you. Like the sky's the limit at the time when you can do anything you want to do. It could be for say, probably, you're doing education in the bitcoin ecosystem. So now you can say you're using your teaching skills, your way is to teach people etc. Now, you want to work on specific technology, say Bitcoin Core itself, so you can go in depth about what bitcoin is actually about and you can actually make some significant change on the core, pure core of bitcoin, the sky's the limit, basically, I'm just thinking of some random example at this point, but you can do anything at this point. So the level of freedom that grant brings, is just exceptional, it's incomparable to the job.
SHANKARA: Awesome. So what other bitcoin developments are you excited about that are basically in the roadmap, well there is no such roadmap in bitcoin, but maybe there are developments on the horizon that you're excited about.Â
VANGANI: So one of the major ones is the one I'm working on. Obviously, so basically, this particular thing that we’re working on, now it has, as I talked about earlier, as well, in one of the presentation, it has a potential of changing the way bitcoin is used currently in the world, for the simple reason being, because the app that we’re creating would allow people to run their own nodes on say on even a mobile device as well using just a space of around 2 or 3 GB at max, which is like a normal amount of space today, like freely available on mobile devices. So this would allow people to run their own nodes on their mobile phone. They will not need a separate hardware to run or have to run an SPV client - basically, a light wallet, which doesn't have the ability to verify for themselves the transactions.
In very short simple terms, light wallets are things that you have to trust upon a third party to verify for you, that whatever you're seeing, whatever transaction you want to verify is in the block. Running your own node is equivalent to verifying the whole chain.
VANGANI:Â So the full node gives you the ability to verify for yourself that the transaction is actually in the block or not. So, in line with the bitcoin philosophy, it's very much encouraged, like almost all of the time as much as possible to run your own node. So if people can run their own node on their mobile phone without any separate hardware, it will become a streamlined process to run their own node. Also, this app will be very lightweight. It's not heavy on the application side, the total block data will be high, but the app would be very easy to run on any kind of smartphone. So that's where it could change the way that bitcoin is used currently. And it's also very nicely designed so you should check it out.
SHANKARA: So let's move to the last segment of the podcast. Would love to hear from you, how should one go about understanding bitcoin, if you're a beginner, even before becoming interested in the developing side of things - how should one approach bitcoin? Maybe you want to chat about how do you convince your friends or family and what sort of conversations come up when you talk about bitcoin? What advice do you give to those people?Â
VANGANI: First of all - if you're interested in the technology, first start with what bitcoin actually is and why it is different. So the thing that I got to understand very late in my journey, I would like if I could go back in time, I would first understand that part - why and then I can start with how. First we have to understand the why bitcoin. So one book that I could easily recommend is the Bitcoin Standard. So that book focuses on the theoretical aspect not in the technical way, theoretical aspect in the sense that economics of bitcoin and why bitcoin works - so that's the major focus of the book. First, you can read that book, go through the book and hopefully if the book kind of orange pills you, which it will, I'm sure of it, so if it can orange pill you, make you understand why bitcoin is really important, you can then move on with a technical book like Programming Bitcoin by Jimmy Song or Mastering Bitcoin, through them, you can understand the technical aspects of bitcoin, like how, what is it and how it works? And after completing the book you can directly jump onto any bitcoin code base. So after jumping in the codebase, you might have some trouble understanding the code base of the project, but now because the fundamentals are clear, you will be able to easily grasp what things are presented or how the code functions basically. So that is basically the roadmap I would suggest to anybody who's interested in the project, first get the why done and how done and then what.
SHANKARA: You've been an open-source developer for, I think, about a year now. Do you have any advice for people who are looking into getting started with open-source development?Â
VANGANI: The first advice is also the first warning that I can give give with open-source. Open source is lonely, very, very lonely. So you have to first be mentally prepared that you are the only person who is going to keep a check on you for what you're working on. So to minimize this effect of loneliness, I would recommend that whatever project you work on, join their meetings, probably the meeting might be happening bi-monthly or every week. So join their meetings, discuss what's going on with the project, so that you will keep whatever you're doing and check what others are expecting from you as well as from themselves. All of you can keep a check. But that also is limited in its capacity. The main thing you have to understand with open-source development is first of all is that you have to be a manager of yourself. You have to understand why you're working and keep motivating yourself to keep away from that issue. If you say you did less work on a weekday you will want to make sure yourself that you're gonna cover up for that in the weekends probably. So with open-source development, there are no weekdays or weekends. But that can be a boon as well as a bane - in which first in the first one say you know in a job, where you work five days a week and you can take a two day holiday, which is enforced on you by a third party, if that's enforced on you; that may also work because we humans are the creature of habits, but if you're gonna have the freedom of making your own workday, and however you might want to make it look like you have to also be responsible - you're gonna make that look good, basically. So that's one of the caveats, one of the warnings I want to give you about open-source but again, I started with warnings because they are limited. Now the good thing is that you're free. And what more do you want than that?
So the freedom that open-source gives you and as well as the capacity to work on the things you want to work on is enormous with open-source. So that's the best part of open-source. So come and join us in the open-source world.
SHANKARA: Alright. Let's move onto advice for Summer of Bitcoin applicants. What tips would you share for someone who wants to participate and apply in Summer of Bitcoin?Â
VANGANI: I would again share the same tips that I just listed. Any beginner wants to get used to what bitcoin is, before applying to Summer of Bitcoin, understand why you are applying to it. The reason for applying is probably a stipend or for the perks you're gonna get - it's good. If you're aware of the fact - why you’re applying to it - the reason you're applying to it, then it's good. Because then your actual interest and your theoretical interests would not align and that could create just dishonesty in your head. So just be super aware of why you are applying in this process and to be aware you have to first be knowledgeable. So again, before being knowledgeable you have to understand why? Start with the theoretical aspect. If you really get this interest in bitcoin technology, you can move on to understand the technical sides of it. And I'm sure that if you complete let's say these two books, if not even these two books if you just understand the core of these two books through summary or through say some kind of lectures - probably there are many lectures available on the internet as well. If you get familiar with what these two books are about the ‘why’ book and the ‘how’ book, then I'm sure that you can easily form a good proposal with some help, with some help in the sense that you have to clearly be able to write what you want to say.
Like I have seen a lot of times people have great ideas to share, but they don't know how to say and that’s just sad because you have your world of things to say and you can't. So you also have to learn how to write, learn how to share your ideas. And once you learn that, you have things to share about and you know how to share them. That's pretty much it. You can do anything about this with these skills. Now you can write a great proposal and if your theoretical and writing part is clear you can easily get into Summer of Bitcoin as an intern.Â
SHANKARA: That's fantastically put. Thank you so much. I think that's a good note to wrap up on. Shashwat, thank you again!
VANGANI:Â Let me also again add that I might have forgotten then, I would like to thank Jarol, Jonas, Caralie, you and all the people involved in Summer of Bitcoin from the time I came with this and till now, who gave me the stage who made me who I am right now - from a person interested in the technology, interested in this black box of bitcoin, to finally be able to understand this great scale and be able to work on it. So, thank you very much!
JOBS IN BITCOIN
If you are a fresher straight out of college, here are a few exciting job postings we recommend:
Engineering:
NOSTR Dev | Zion | Austin, TX, USA (Remote) | Apply
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Senior Front-End Engineer | Coinbits | Remote | Apply
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Lead Open-Source Developer | Saving Satoshi | Remote | Apply
iOS engineer (Lightning, Nostr) | Bookmark.org | Remote | Apply
Backend Engineer (protocol and API development, Lightning, Nostr) | Bookmark.org | Remote | Apply
Lightning Infrastructure Engineer | Lightning Labs | Remote | Apply
Protocol Engineer | Lightning Labs | Remote | Apply
Vue.js developer | LNS | Remote | Apply
Software Engineer Intern | Riot Platforms, Inc. | Austin, TX, USA | Apply