My Journey to the Summer of Bitcoin Program

Hey everyone! I'm Abhijay Jain from India, a dedicated Computer Science student currently pursuing an MSc in Cyber Security alongside my recent graduation with a B-Tech in Computer Science.

Talking about my background so I am an avid contributor to open-source projects and have worked with organizations such as FOSSASIA, JBoss, Layer5, Mexili, P5.js-sound, Script Foundation, Open Horizon, SCoRe Labs, and EtherealEngine. I also contributed to Open Horizon as an LFX mentee in the spring of 2022, participated in SCoRe Lab as a GSoC'22 student, worked with Ethereal Engine as an XROS fellow in 2023, and recently contributed to Uptane as a GSoC'23 student. Currently, I am an Engineering for Change fellow with Ampaire Inc. I have also been selected for the Summer of Bitcoin internship with Spiral.

In this blog, I will share how my Summer of Bitcoin journey started, how I applied, and how I got selected for the HereComesBitcoin project with Spiral under the Summer of Bitcoin program.

I will create a series of blogs around my whole SOB journey and this will be the first blog of that series so let's get started :

How I Learned About the Program

I discovered the Summer of Bitcoin program during my undergraduate studies back in 2021. As an OSS enthusiast who has previously participated in Google Summer of Code and the Linux Foundation fellowship, I like to explore opportunities like this. The program is fascinating as it offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the Bitcoin space and helps bridge the gap between students and organizations. I applied for the program in 2021 but did not make it as they followed a different approach to entry back then. I passed the first few stages but couldn't advance further. I applied in consecutive years but had to drop out for various reasons, mostly due to time constraints and other commitments. In 2024, I decided to give it a final shot and applied again.

The Application Process

Summer of Bitcoin changes its selection approach every year. This year, there were three rounds of selection.

The Applications

Firstly, you need to apply for the Summer of Bitcoin, and their team will review your application by checking your eligibility and passion for the OSS and Bitcoin ecosystem. After the review, they may select you and invite you to join their Discord server for other rounds of selection.

There are two profiles in the Summer of Bitcoin (referred to as SoB from now on): Developer and Designer. I applied for both tracks as I have a background in both design and development (also, it was not mentioned that you can apply only for one, so I thought why not, lol).

With extensive developer experience due to my past OSS work and design experience from my previous internships, I applied for both the developer and designer roles in SoB'24. The first round you have to clear is the screening round, where they review your design portfolio (luckily, I had one on Behance), GitHub, LinkedIn, etc. They also asked in the application form if you have been part of programs like GSoC, which was a plus for me as it might help them know your background better. If they found your profile impressive, they would select you for the next round.

A few days later, I received an email informing me that I had passed the screening round on both tracks and was shortlisted for the upcoming SoB'24 bootcamp. Upon reading the email, I was thrilled to have cleared the screening round and now had the opportunity to attend the bootcamp, learn more about the Bitcoin space, interact with the community, and gain insights from my peers.

I received a similar email for the dev track as well. As action items, we got this to be part of the program:

Action Items

• Your first exercise is to read the first chapter of the book Grokking Bitcoin. You'll find the first chapter available for free at Grokking Bitcoin.

• Join the Discord server.

• Introduce yourself in #reception. Tell us your name, what technologies you love to work on, and one new thing you learned about Bitcoin from the chapter.

• Feel free to discuss your readings, ask questions, share resources, and help others in #general.

The Bootcamp :

The Bootcamp spans four weekends (starting from February 24th to March 16th), with two meetings scheduled each week. Participants are placed in breakout rooms with groups of 4 to 5 people to discuss their opinions and understanding of the weekly materials provided by the SoB team (which include videos and articles designed to teach Bitcoin from the ground up). Each week, we needed to read some chapters and discuss our learnings in those breakout rooms.

The Bootcamp was highly enjoyable, and I greatly appreciated learning from individuals from various parts of the world. One of the most valuable aspects of SoB is its ability to connect people globally, offering diverse perspectives on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Bootcamps were important as it was a requirement to attend them to be part of the proposal round and also a prerequisite to being part of the Summer of Bitcoin internship. Once we completed the BootCamp, we received the link to the assignment for both tracks.

The Assignments

Designer Track :

After the Bootcamp, we were assigned a specific assignment for the role for which we were shortlisted (in my case, both a designer and developer). There were several tasks available for designers, but I chose to develop a low-fidelity interaction flow for a Bitcoin wallet. This flow explained everything from setting up the wallet to receiving the first Bitcoin and completing the transaction.

Developer Track Assignment :

For the developer track assignment, the task was to simulate the mining process of a block, including validating and including transactions from a given set of transactions. The repository contains a folder 'mempool' with JSON files representing individual transactions, some of which may be invalid. Your goal is to successfully mine a block by including only valid transactions, following specific requirements.

The primary objective is to write a script that processes a series of transactions, validates them, and then mines them into a block. The output of your script should be a file named output.txt that follows a specific format.

Realizing that both assignments were designed to be intensive, requiring significant time and effort to complete successfully, I decided to focus solely on the design assignment.

The Proposal

While I was working on my assignment, we received instructions to submit our proposals and participating organizations.

In the email, it was mentioned that organizations would be announced on April 1st. On that day, Adi (Program Lead of SoB'24) announced on the Discord server that a few organizations would be presenting their projects in the coming days, with more to follow later. The time had come to engage with different companies and their various projects. Participants could choose up to three projects and prepare a proposal outlining their approach to the identified problem and their solution strategy.

On April 3rd, several organizations presented their projects. After reviewing all of them, I initially felt that none were a good fit for me, except for one that I was somewhat uncertain about. I looked into both the design and development programs and made a list of projects I wanted to make proposals for. When I first read the project ideas from Here Comes Bitcoin, I decided to consult with the mentors before making a decision. Little did I know that this would be the project I would eventually work on. I reached out to the Here Comes Bitcoin Discord channel and talked to people there. Once I introduced myself, I got a DM from Haley for guidance.

I visited the project site and found it had two mentors: Haley and a "Mystery Mentor" (who is no longer a mystery, but let's keep the title for fun). Initially, I did not contact them because, being my first time participating in the Summer of Bitcoin, I was unsure about the project and didn't want to make any mistakes.

Haley advised me to start working on the proposal and see what possibilities could arise. It took me many days to decide which organizations to choose and what project to start with. I messaged the Here Comes Bitcoin group around April 17th, and I got a message from Haley that day, giving me roughly 10 days to prepare my proposal.

For the proposal, I decided to build a solid foundation first and prepare a draft before seeking guidance from the mentors to ensure I was on the right track. I allowed the ideas to flow and prepared a proposal. The challenge was that we also needed to add the assignment before the proposal submission. The proposal and assignment submission deadline was April 30th at 11:59 PM. I managed to complete my proposal just one day before the deadline (just engineer things). I reached out to Haley on Discord to share my proposal with her, but Haley mentioned that mentors were no longer allowed to review white proposals as many applicants were spamming them. So, I submitted it directly.

Assignment Approach

For my design assignment, I took a different approach. I already decided on the organization I wanted to participate in. I checked every project that came in SoB this year and wanted to try something different. I chose many projects but finally decided to go with the Here Comes Bitcoin project as it was the most different. I created my whole assignment and proposal around this project only.

I used their assistance to develop my assignment and proposal, and I tried my best to showcase my ability to adopt their aesthetics as our tasks were closely related to that.

For the proposal, I did thorough research on various things I could do in the project. I read the project description and started creating the proposal. Adi shared many resources for assignments. I thought if I am applying for a design project it is not good to send a proposal on Google Docs so I tried a different approach. I took inspiration from one of the previous interns' proposals in terms of color scheme and format and decided to use HCB assets in my proposal. I believe this is the most creative and well-organized proposal I have prepared so far for my internships or fellowships.

The Results

I submitted my proposal and assignment on May 1st, and Adi mentioned on Discord that they extended the deadline for a few hours for proposals and assignments. So, I refined what I did but not much to do. The results were scheduled to be released on May 7th, as mentioned by Adi. I waited till May 7th; however,

no results were announced on May 7th or even on May 8th. Some individuals mentioned on the server that they had received selection emails from their organizations. So, I thought Here Comes Bitcoin might not have released results yet, or I might have been rejected. Then, on the morning of May 9th, around 4:30 am, I received a message from Haley on Discord requesting a call to discuss my proposal further.

I shared my calendar links, and she scheduled a call for May 10th at 9:00 pm my time. I was a bit nervous as I was not expecting any call or interview, as I thought it might not be part of the process. Also, I was wondering what they might ask, but Haley mentioned that it would mostly be about the proposal and assignment I created, so I thought not to worry about it. In the call, I met Haley and the Other Mentor (the mystery mentor).

The call was pretty casual. I introduced myself, and Haley and the mystery mentor (not a mystery anymore :P) also did the same. We started a discussion about my proposal and assignment. They liked what I did, but during the mid-call, my internet dropped. I reconnected somehow and mentioned what happened; they were cool about it and continued the discussion and wrapped up everything.

After the call, I didn't have much thought. I was unsure if they would reject or select me. But, on the very next day, May 11th, around 11:30 am IST, I received an email mentioning "Summer of Bitcoin: Congratulations!" I was ecstatic, finally making it. I was blown away by how quickly everything happened! I had been selected for the Summer of Bitcoin program with the organization "Here Comes Bitcoin."

So, that's it for now about my journey of getting selected for the Summer of Bitcoin program. I will share more blogs in the future about the progress of the project, so stay tuned!

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Feel free to ask if you have any questions about the Summer of Bitcoin program or my journey. I'm always happy to help aspiring participants!