A Journey into the World of Bitcoin Lightning Development

The Context

This was 2018. Lightning was brand new. Documentation was sparse. I decided to learn by building.

What started as a weekend project became Zap - one of the first user-friendly Lightning wallets. This post captures that early journey: the confusion, the breakthroughs, and the moment it finally clicked.

Why This Matters

Looking back, this piece captures a mindset I still use today: when the documentation doesn't exist, become the documentation. Build the thing you wish existed and write about what you learn.

The parallels to the current AI moment are striking. The frontier is chaotic, the tooling is rough, and the opportunity belongs to those who ship first.