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How to Contribute to the Bitcoin Ecosystem in an Open Source Project?
644 sats \ 3 comments \ @spiderman 14h bitdevs
About Myself
Hardcore Bitcoiner, extremely passionate about it, working at a crypto exchange. I am not a Blockchain/smart contract developer, but a data/machine learning engineer, with extensive experience in MLOps, cloud technologies etc. So I am not a programming noob, but not exactly a C++ (the core's main language) expert, although I have done extensive self-study to understand the principles of blockchain and implemented some toy wallets. My tech stack is heavily python, and data engineering tools focussed (with some experience in Scala, C++ and Rust). If necessary, I can send my CV in private.
Question
Given the above profile, is there any way to make myself useful as an open source contributor/tester to the Bitcoin community? I am prepared to have a ramp up/upgrading of some knowledge as necessary, but needless to say, need a little bit of handholding to figure out how things are done.
So how do I go around with this? Can join any discord server/group, or send my CV to someone to get started? What is the best way?
To make it clear, it does not have to be specifically the bitcoin core, but any open source project around the eco-system (even making, enhancing wallet software, or the lightning network etc.) that can use my skill will be a good place to start.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullcount 3h
Contributing to FOSS isn't a job that you apply for and get approved to work on. Nobody cares what your credentials are. Every pull request you make stands on its own. Your pull request is your "job" application -- Proof of work comes first.
The other contributors that work alongside you are not your co-workers. Nobody is paying them to read your messages, mentor you, or even to give feedback on your pull-requests. You have to become the champion of the features you want to see and be ready to abandon your previous efforts for no reward if the community/maintainers disagree with you.
The best FOSS projects start by a developer scratching their own itch. There's no shame in building something for only yourself in silence. Many devs lack the fortitude and grit to build in silence, so you may find it better to build in public if the social pressure helps to keep you accountable towards your goals.
Occasionally, what you build might be useful to others, if you open source it, others might find it so useful that they'll begin to grow and maintain the project for you.
Not ready to start from scratch? Start with the FOSS tools you already use. Check out their tech stack on github. Try to run the project locally. Having issues running it locally? Make an issue! Found an easier way? Contribute to the documentation, or build tooling.
If you explore enough, you may find a FOSS project with grant funding and a "work-culture" or bounty program that feels familiar to you. It's just not the default mode in FOSS. That said, most FOSS has just one maintainer and they'll usually welcome help and feedback any way you can offer it, they're just too busy to be your boss or manager so expect to be self-led for the most part.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @ajonas 8h
There are resources to get started at The Bitcoin Dev Project with posts from @bitcoin_devs.
Chaincode runs a Start Your Career in Bitcoin Open Source Software (BOSS) program, but the next cohort won't be for some time.
Contributing to BOSS is an amazing way to contribute to the ecosystem. Just a guess but I'd say your skills could be put to work on @0xB10C 's projects. Learn more at: https://b10c.me/
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @realBitcoinDog 13h
You literally can fork Stacker News and help do the open pull requests
@ek and @k00b pay bounties!
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