Subject: [bitcoin-dev] Spiral is Hiring Bitcoin Wizards

From: Steve Lee <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2023 13:24:46 -0700

Note: I checked with the moderators prior to posting this as normally job
postings to this list would be frowned upon. I felt like it was appropriate
in this case since (a) Spiral is 100% non-commercial FOSS bitcoin (b) many
on this list would either be interested in this opportunity or know people
who would be.

Spiral is hiring bitcoin “wizards,” though we will settle for bitcoin
mages, sorcerers and sorceresses, witches, warlocks, and druids.

About Spiral
Spiral is the first free and open-source, internal, non-profit bitcoin
organization within a major tech company. We contribute to bitcoin by
writing code, funding projects and individuals, educating, entertaining,
and testing the limits of what a tiny team can do to impact the future of
money. Although many see bitcoin only as digital gold, via the Lightning
Network, Spiral envisions bitcoin fulfilling its promise and potential as
the global standard for peer-to-peer payments.

To date, Spiral’s full-time engineering team has focused exclusively on
developing LDK, a kit that simplifies how developers add the Lightning
Network to apps and wallets. This year, we plan to build an R&D team within
Spiral that will focus on improving bitcoin’s security, decentralization,
privacy, scaling, and expressivity beyond LDK. The projects might include
applying novel cryptography, developing existing protocol proposals, and
creating new innovative protocol proposals. The possibilities aren’t
endless, per se, but they are numerous.

Job Responsibilities
* Identify and drive forward multiple projects in collaboration with the
Spiral team and the greater bitcoin development community.
* Develop a project plan for each active project.
* For a given project, do whatever it takes to make progress toward the
goal, including:
   * Building prototypes
   * Writing tests
   * Developing production code
   * Developing performance benchmarks
   * Creating simulations
   * Being thoughtful about how to gain consensus on changes
   * Recruiting other FOSS devs to help
   * Writing bitcoin-dev email posts
   * Participating in podcasts and speaking at conferences
* Regularly review bitcoin-dev and lightning-dev email lists, relevant
“wizards” channels, Bitcoin Optech, relevant research papers, and R&D from
other cryptocurrency projects. When possible, engage and provide
constructive feedback.
* Propose new protocol designs building on what others have done or wholly
new ideas.

Qualifications
Applicants should have a deep technical understanding of bitcoin and be
comfortable engaging on bitcoin topics and on bitcoin channels such as
bitcoin-dev or lightning-dev email lists, local bitdevs, or in a “wizards”
channel such as IRC #bitcoin-wizards.

Applicants should also know which projects they’d like to work on. At a
minimum, they should be able to identify three projects worth your time,
why they benefit bitcoin, and how your involvement would improve them.

Finally, strong people skills are a must. Many projects will require
attaining developer consensus, including the bitcoin consensus protocol,
bitcoin p2p policy, and the LN protocol. To successfully navigate this
requires more than just coding talent. Applicants should be ego-free,
willing to detach themselves from a particular proposal, and be prepared to
conclude a proposal if something learned has made it untenable. Applicants
should also seek collaborators and co-authors, be patient yet persistent,
and incorporate peer feedback. We undeniably expect a lot from whoever
fills these roles. But there’s no other job like them in bitcoin or
elsewhere.

Example Projects
Here is a list of project examples Spiral would find valuable. Again, we
expect candidates to drive the process of which projects they will work on,
so this list is merely a tool to help a candidate calibrate the scope and
depth of future projects.

Scaling innovation
* New methods to share UTXOs among users as trustless and efficiently as
possible
* Lightning efficiency innovation
* Cross-input signature aggregation

Security innovation
* BIP324
* Mining pool decentralization
* Threshold signatures for LN
* Mempool/bitcoin p2p security for L2
* Evaluate security risks to bitcoin stemming from MEV, tokens,
stablecoins, etc and provide recommendations

Privacy innovation
* Applied ZKP for LN gossip to hide UTXO funding

Bitcoin expressivity innovation
* Bitcoin script opcode innovation, tradeoff evaluation, and driving (CTV,
CSFS, TLUV, OP_VAULT, etc.)

The Position
This full-time role includes full-time worker benefits. Spiral supports you
working anywhere, but you need a home base in a country whose talent pool
Block can legally hire from. If you’re not sure whether we can hire from
where you live, just reach out and ask. We’ll check.

How to Apply
Sound good? Not too confused? Great. You’ve cleared the first hurdle. Shoot
us an email with the top 3 project ideas you want to work on along with
supporting evidence that you’ll successfully complete them: [email-masked]