After 4+ years, the time has come to move on and contribute to Bitcoin in a different way.
My thanks goes out to all of you here who came from #Bitcoin Twitter! Support Strike and me have received from you over the years was instrumental in our success!
Twitter also helped me and jackmallers (npub1dmc…utjm) connect and develop our relationship.
He followed the success of btcpayserver (npub155m…dcvg), and over the years we began talking on coding, FOSS, teams, life...
Then in June 2019 Jack texted me and asked to help him take ln_zap to the next level:
> Unc, I'm looking to turn Zap into a startup and begin selling BTC over Lightning directly inside the wallet
Having a pre-seed startup for your full time job is always tough.
I considered doing it mainly because I wanted to see how Jack will grow as a person and entrepreneur. Like many in the Bitcoin community, I believed in him... and wanted to help him with my skills and experience.
Zap also already had a team of amazing FOSS contributors that I appreciated and wanted to know better.
Opportunity to work with Otto, Ole, mrfelton, Dylan, Korhal, Raph and Namson is what pushed me over the top and sealed commitment.
What followed was hardcore coding of backend that would provide additional APIs and run features Jack had in mind for Zap wallets on iOS, Android and Desktop.
By September we had the first version out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj9IMNAswSM
By the end of 2019 we have completely abstracted away the ability to pay lightning invoices.
This is when decision was made to go with completely new app, providing clean experience, focused on ease of lightning payments and UX.
Strike was born: https://jimmymow.medium.com/announcing-strike-by-zap-4f578c7c8984
6 months later, it was time to go with public... Strike BETA was released to everyone that wanted to download it.
https://jimmymow.medium.com/announcing-strike-public-beta-325877a79f87
Looking back, I couldn't be more proud on all the coding I've done on Strike.
Credit where credit is due - big part of that was mrfelton. Otto, Raph and Korhal as well.
Support these guys provided was critical for my coding commits streak of 2019, 2020 & 2021.
And not just them. I was lucky to be able to bring in more amazing engineers into Strike.
Kataklinger, Frank and Giancarlo who I hired for backend delivered big; so it was asked of me to help do the same across Engineering... and eventually whole company.
Thus in 2021 and 2022 I did more of what VP of Engineering traditionally does. There was still sporadic day to day coding, but I was focused on recruiting needed talent, structuring teams and setting up others for success.
In the end I've helped interview and hire over 80 people.
I'm especially proud of realization that I would repeat every single technical hire we've made.
To all that joined Strike over the years - thank you for the work you've done. It was privilege working together with you.
Finally, my focus in the last year was on ensuring that culture of Bitcoin is strong within Strike... and that Strike gives back to Bitcoin for the immense support it has received over the years.
In the process we started numerous partnerships and executed on several grants.
We were glad to give to organizations
https://twitter.com/unchainedcom/status/1636777955727753230
To individual contributors
https://twitter.com/Strike/status/1595185069538349056
To projects
https://twitter.com/jackmallers/status/1529204176101724161
And all that are working tirelessly every day to push Bitcoin forward.
We have also supported conferences like TabConf, AfroBitcoinOrg, TheBitcoinConf and meetups like ChiBitDevs.
In the end - I wish Strike all the best. It turned into the app that served as entry point into Bitcoin for many... and I hope it will get to do that for many more, across the globe!