Disclaimers:
Introduction –
Hey everyone, I’m Ritankar, and I’m excited to share my journey into Summer of Bitcoin 2025 with you all. It wasn’t the easiest path ofc, filled with its fair share of challenges and learning curves, but it turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had so far.
For the SOB’25 session I am selected for the project Liquid Network Integration for Angor Wallet. under the organisation Angor which comes under the parent organisation Blockcore
So, a basic intro on myself, I am currently a sophomore at the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Jabalpur, majoring in Computer Science and Engineering. I won’t bore you with a long intro (this blog’s gonna be long enough already 💀), but here’s the gist:
I’m a developer passionate about Decentralisation, Open-Source, and all things Backend and Blockchain. Over the past year, I’ve dabbled in technologies like Go, Rust, Solidity, TypeScript and many more and built everything from Decentralised Applications to Event-Driven Microservices systems using Kafka and RabbitMQ and scalable Backend systems. I’ve also had the chance to contribute to 30+ open-source repositories contributing over 40,000+ lines of code and lead developer sessions as part of my college programming club.
Discovering Summer of Bitcoin –
I first heard about Summer of Bitcoin right after joining college. One of my seniors, Ayush Saxena (now a developer at Meesho), had already cracked the program, and after a few close chats with him, the whole thing piqued my interest.
But let me be brutally honest here, what really caught my eye at first wasn’t the open-source work, the mentors, or even Bitcoin’s philosophy. It was the stipend in actual BTC 😂. I was new to the whole crypto scene back then, and the idea of getting paid in Bitcoin felt like hitting a goldmine. The words “decentralisation” and “open-source” sounded like the kind of stuff only some caffeine-fueled dev with 80 mugs of coffee a day could understand.
At that point, I was just a confused freshman tossing my hands around, trying random things, and pretending to understand Git. So yeah, the Bitcoin part hooked me but luckily, things evolved from there.
Once I got past the shiny “oMg BtC pAyMeNt” phase 😅, I started digging deeper and that’s when the real reasons to apply hit me. What truly motivated me was the amazing mentorship SoB offers. Getting to learn from experienced developers working hands-on in the Web3 and Bitcoin ecosystem? That’s gold. Add to that the chance to be part of a tight-knit, global community of like-minded devs, students, and contributors it felt like the right environment to grow fast and grow right. I was excited about the idea of building something meaningful, contributing to projects that are pushing decentralisation forward, and getting real-world exposure to open-source development. And yeah… the BTC stipend still sweetened the deal 😁.
The Application Process —
Honestly, the initial application process was super straightforward and also kind of refreshingly low effort (at least at first). They have two tracks — Developer and Designer, apply to which ever you are most comfortable at. They don’t grill you with 20 questions or ask you to write a thesis. Just the basics:
✅ Your name
✅ GitHub link
✅ LinkedIn link
✅ A couple of your noteworthy pull requests (if you have not a compulsion)
✅ And a short blurb on why you want to join the cohort (cue the internal panic: “uhh… because Bitcoin is cool?” 😅).
✅ Possibly your resume as well tbh I don’t remember properly now 🥲
Pro tip though: Make sure your GitHub is active, like actually active, not just starred repos and “Hello World” commits. They’re looking for folks who’ve gotten their hands dirty, pushed code, made PRs, and maybe even fixed a bug or two.
After submitting, you wait for a bit (refreshing your inbox 500 times a day), and then comes the email:
📩 “You are invited to the Summer of Bitcoin 2025 Bootcamp”
That email is a goldmine itself, it includes:
- A full list of course materials (including Grokking Bitcoin which is kinda like the holy book here)
- Links to super helpful resources
- And an invite to their Discord server where you’ll find mentors, peers, and possibly your future collaborators or friends-for-life.
The Assignment Phase (Where Things gets Real) —
Once you’re shortlisted, the real work begins. You’ll get an email with 4 assignments, spaced out over 4 weeks. These aren’t your usual “print this, loop that” type tasks either these are designed to push you out of your comfort zone and helps you to understand the concepts under the hood. You submit each one through GitHub Classroom, and only after a successful submission can you move on to the next.
Now here’s the catch:
These assignments are tough. Like, “why is Bitcoin so complicated??” tough. I’m not even joking—Assignment 3 took me nearly 5 days to figure out 😭. You’ll probably find yourself deep-diving into blog posts, articles, old GitHub repos, and random Stack Overflow answers at 3 AM.
That said, you’re not alone. This is where the community magic and the discord server kicks in.
You can (and totally should) explore ideas, debug errors together, and talk through tricky concepts with your peers, just don’t be that person who slides into DMs asking, “bro send code?” 😅(unless you’re aiming for a free ticket to the debar list 😬). Instead, do what I did, ask around when stuck. My peers shared some amazing blog posts, GitHub repos, and explained how they debugged similar issues. That helped me not only fix stuff but also understand why it was broken in the first place.
Also, Assignment 4 wasn’t mandatory in the 2025 cohort (thanks exam season 🙏), so that was a bit of breathing room.
Moral of the story? — Communication is key in open source.
Ask questions, help others, stay active in the Discord Channel. Everyone’s there to learn, grow, and code for good. And that’s the best part about this community—you’re never coding alone.
Each week, if you successfully complete your assignment, you’ll get a sweet little email saying “Congratulations, you passed Week X.” and boom—you’re off to the next one.
And if you managed to cross the Week 3 finish line (this year specific, you may not be lucky next year and need to complete all 4 weeks 🥹) , you’d get the golden mail that basically says:
🎉 “Congrats! You’ve advanced it to the proposal round.”
Cue happy dance and mild panic because… now comes the real boss level 😅.
The Big Fat Proposal Round —
Before I get into the madness that is the proposal phase, I’ve got to thank my seniorDhruv Bhanushali—this guy was an absolute lifesaver 😭.
I spammed him everywhere text, calls, mails💀 you name it. I even messaged him once at 4 in the morning, and he actually replied 😭. From helping me choose the right project, giving me tips, reviewing my proposal, and even guiding me on how to text maintainers without sounding like a complete noob he was there for all of it.
So yeah—Step 1 to surviving SoB? Get yourself a Dhruv. 🫡
Welcome to the Chaos —
Alright, let’s dive into the wildest part of the journey, the proposal round. Buckle up.
SoB 2025 brought in 29+ amazing open-source organizations, each with their own set of project ideas. That’s like 80–90+ projects to explore, dissect, and choose from. You can check out the full list here:
Now here’s where SoB adds a little plot twist.
Like most open-source programs, you can submit proposals for multiple project ideas—up to 3 in SoB’s case. Sounds chill, right? But here’s the catch:
SoB gives you a strict 3-day window to finalise your choices. During this window, you’ve gotta lock in the 3 project ideas (across any orgs) that you plan to submit proposals for.
And after that?
No switching. No take-backs. No last-minute “wait I changed my mind” moments.
Once your choices are locked, it’s either submit proposals to those orgs—or don’t submit at all 😬
So yeah, make sure you take your time, explore all the orgs, and pick wisely. It’s like tattooing your top 3 project ideas on your SoB soul permanent until judgment day (aka the deadline) 😂
Also obv your proposal isn’t just “Hey, I wanna work on this project 🥺” It needs to show:
- Your complete understanding of the project idea.
- How you plan to actually structure the entire thing and implement it.
- The Entire architecture of the stuff that you will be building.
- Possible challenges and trade-offs you foresee and how you plan to overcome them
- A rough Timeline, goals, diagrams, and all the geeky goodness
- Bonus: Impress the mentors with clarity, effort, and research
- Cherry on Top? It’s not strictly mandatory—but trust me, dropping a couple of PRs or solving a few issues can really set you apart. It shows the maintainers that you’re not just interested in writing a fancy proposal—you’ve actually taken the time to dive into the codebase, understand it, and contribute meaningfully. It’s like saying, “Hey, I’m not just here to talk—I’m here to build.” And that goes a long way.
- Also, Talk. Communicate. Don’t Be a Ghost 👻
Seriously—TALK.
Be active in the community. Don’t just lurk around like an undercover dev. 🥷
Engage with your peers, your mentors, the maintainers, and anyone else involved in the project or organisation. Ask questions when you’re stuck. Drop a message if you need feedback on a PR. Ping them if something’s unclear in the documentation. Just communicate.
And no, nobody’s thinking “ugh why is this person texting me?”
Most maintainers are super chill and genuinely want to help as long as you’re respectful and show that you’re trying. In fact, regular interaction leaves a positive impression. It shows that you care, you’re invested, and you’re trying to contribute in a meaningful way.
At the end of the day, it’s a two-way street:
- You want a great SoB experience, your project to succeed, and that final approval.
- They want a contributor who delivers the work and doesn’t vanish into thin air.
So be formal when needed, be polite always, and most importantly just CODE and communicate.
It’s that simple.
Here’s my own proposal that got selected if you want a sneak peek:
📄 My Proposal – Liquid Network Integration for Angor Wallet
This Proposal was on the project idea Liquid Network Integration for Angor Wallet
Now, how do you choose the right project?
Here’s the simple 3-point formula I followed:
- Pick something that genuinely excites you – You’ll be working on it all summer, might as well love it.
- Match it with your skillset – Or at least something you can learn and manage. Don’t pick a Rust-core Lightning project if you just learned Python last week (trust me 😅).
- Look for an active community – Check the project’s GitHub activity, see if issues are getting responses, and make sure the mentors/maintainers are kind and approachable.
P.S. I’ve shared more insider tips (the ones that actually set you apart from the crowd) in my video . Can’t reveal everything here it’s a public blog after all lol, and some things are best kept off the record 😅. So if you’re serious about cracking it, definitely give the video a watch!
Choose wisely, because this decision drives your entire SoB experience. Now let’s talk about how I approached writing that beast of a proposal…
Almost forgot to mention most organisations also have a competency test that you need to complete and submit along with your proposal.
This isn’t just for fun it’s their way of checking whether you’ve actually got the skills to handle the real project. Think of it as a mini audition. It might be a coding task, solving a bug, or implementing a small feature from the project repo.
It’s not insanely difficult, but it’s definitely important so take it seriously and make sure to submit it along with your proposal. It gives the mentors a clear signal:
👉 “Yep, this person knows their stuff.”
The competency test I had to submit was a CLI based tool in Rust that can generate a Liquid address and display basic information about Liquid assets. Also has an Implementation of a basic proof-of-concept that demonstrates transferring an asset between two Liquid addresses. The full implementation for this idea can be viewed at Competency Task
Oh, and fun side story, I had also picked P2Pool as my backup org and cooked up a whole proposal on “Building Atomic Swap from P2Pool to Ark and LDK.”
The link to the proposal is atMy Proposal - Building Atomic Swap for Ark and LDK
This Proposal was on the Project Idea - Building Atomic Swap from P2Pool to Ark and LDK.
Guess what? It actually got ranked second in this proposal! 😎
But after a lot of thinking (and even more coffee ☕), I decided to roll with Angor instead. It felt like the right fit not just technically, but vibe-wise too. To be honest, I was pretty comfortable working with either org, but once I got the confirmation from Angor, that sealed the deal. Plus, I was already having some great conversations with the maintainers there, the communication was smooth, the people were welcoming, and the whole vibe just clicked.
So yeah cheers to good convos, and good vibes ✌️
Also I’ve explained the whole process in way more detail (with less rambling and more clarity, I promise 😅) in my video . There’s only so much I can pack into a blog before it starts feeling like a never-ending scroll and y’all ghost me halfway through because it reads like a history textbook 📚💀. So if you’re genuinely curious, go check out the video it’s got all the behind-the-scenes details, straight from my experience, no filters, no fluff.
(Surprise Interview, Well Sort of 😅)
Okay, so this part isn’t officially listed in the SoB process but hey, be prepared for anything.
I got scheduled for what I thought was going to be a serious, sweat-inducing interview. I revised DSA, Web3 internals, Bitcoin white-paper—you name it. I was ready for war 😤.
And then… it turned out to be a chill conversation. Just a casual chat with some of the senior devs, and mentors from the organization. We discussed my proposal, my past projects, my GitHub, my understanding of certain concepts and Web3 Related Technologies and Decentralisation and even my schedule for the summer. A few technical questions came up, but nothing scary. Most of it was just about whether I actually understood what I had written in my proposal.
So yeah tip of the day: don’t bluff in your proposal. Know your stuff, and you’ll be just fine.
In the end, it was super smooth. No mess, no pressure—just people trying to make sure you’re the right fit. Honestly, I stressed more about it than I needed to 😂. Everyone was super chill like actually chill, we even cracked a few jokes on call. They even asked me about my end semester exams and told me to give them properly lol 😂. I’ll talk more about the interview in the video (trying really hard not to turn this blog into an autobiography 😭), so do check it out if you’re curious!
The Selection
And finally I got the mail!
The official selection email from SoB confirming I’d been selected for the project 🎉 (along with some formalities I had to fill out, of course).
By that time, though, I had already started working with the organisation picking up issues, getting access to the super secret company issue board, and even joining community meetings like a proper team member. So the selection just made it official.
Reflections
Looking back, this whole journey taught me a lot more than just writing proposals or making PRs.
I learned how to:
- Navigate open-source communities (hint: just be nice and ask questions)
- Write proposals that don’t put readers to sleep
- Communicate like a human, not a bot
- And most importantly, how to be okay with not knowing everything and still giving it a shot anyway
Some real-talk tips for future applicants:
- Start early. Don’t wait until the deadline to panic-scroll through GitHub issues. I must admit I didn’t start early. I was too hooked up with other commitments and ended up doom scrolling SoB endlessly for 3 days. Everywhere I looked people had already taken their choice of the lot and began hitting on the “Submit PR” button.
- Choose projects that excite you, not just the ones that “look cool” on a resume.
- Talk to people. Like actually talk. Maintainers and mentors aren’t scary.
- Keep your GitHub active that’s your real resume here.
- And lastly, don’t bluff in your proposal. If you don’t understand something, learn it or ask—don’t just throw fancy words around.
This journey also gave me a proper push into the world of Bitcoin and decentralisation. What once felt like something only 100x devs do now feels like something I can be a part of. And that shift? That’s priceless.
What’s Next? The Real Fun Begins
Now that the selection is done, it’s time to get to work.
This summer, I’ll be building something I truly believe in with the Angor team. I’ve got some exciting milestones lined up—tight integration with the Liquid Network, improving user experience around confidential transactions, and diving deep into Taproot scripting. Wild stuff.
Also planning to:
- Stay consistent with weekly check-ins, code-reveiews and community meetings
- Get feedback early and often
- Keep contributing even after the program ends (because open-source doesn’t stop with a stipend)
I want to make the most of this opportunity not just to build something cool, but to grow as a developer and hopefully, inspire a few others to take the leap too.
I’ve gone into waaay more detail (like step-by-step walkthrough level) about the whole SoB’25 process in my video . So if you’re serious about cracking next year’s cohort, definitely give it a watch 🎯 But hey, if you’re just here to vibe and get a feel of the experience, this blog should do the trick just fine too 😄
さようなら、良い一日を
Ciao till the next blog !! 👋