Devs love a challenge, and there\u2019s a mountain of opportunity in Bitcoin and blockchain. One of the fastest growing areas<\/a> of blockchain development is Bitcoin sidechain, the Lightning Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n To learn more about the possibilities that the Lightning Network offers, Hard Fork spoke to someone deep in the trenches: a developer who\u2019s set himself the challenge<\/a> to make 12 Lightning apps in 12 months.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not in the know, the Lightning Network is a payment channel that allows individuals to exchange Bitcoin directly without having to wait for the main blockchain to confirm the transactions, as that\u2019s done off-chain<\/em>. It\u2019s a great tool for developers<\/a>, as it allows them to integrate cryptocurrency payments into apps without needing a third-party provider.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen all kinds of weird, zany, and probably pointless things done with the Lightning Network, like feeding chickens<\/a>, dispensing Coke<\/a>, and playing Pok\u00e9mon<\/a>. There seems to be no end to what devs will come up with, but what\u2019s the point? Why develop these apps anyway?<\/p>\n Hard Fork caught up with Guillaume Verbal<\/a>\u00a0to find out why.<\/p>\n So far, Verbal\u2019s made four apps; a carnivore meetup where diners pay in Bitcoin<\/a>, Lightning scratchcards<\/a> where users pay to reveal pixels of a message, the Lightning Throne<\/a> where users pay to lay claim to a virtual throne, and Lightning Connect Four<\/a> where players pay to play and the winner takes all. Of course, in all these cases users pay in Bitcoin using the Lightning Network.<\/p>\n Known on the internet as Doweig<\/a>, Verbal describes himself as a Bitcoin entrepreneur, libertarian \u2013 and meat eater. He\u2019s a French expat living in Thailand.<\/p>\n He became hooked with cryptocurrencies after investing in Bitcoin and Ethereum. He graduated from French technology school, EPITECH in 2013, well versed in Javascript. After which, he began looking for opportunities to marry his love of Bitcoin with his professional training.<\/p>\n Verbal found a job at Clavestone.io, a software company specializing in multi-signature Bitcoin wallets, but it didnt\u2019t go as well as he hoped. Clavestone launched after months of development, but unfortunately no one actually wanted to pay for its product.<\/p>\n \u201cWe spent months working on this [and] nobody wanted to pay for the product,\u201d Verbal told Hard Fork. \u201cWe spent so much time doing what we thought clients would want, [but we didn\u2019t know what] they actually wanted,\u201d Verbal told Hard Fork.<\/p>\n Now, with experience and the power of hindsight, Verbal wants to do the opposite, and he\u2019s set himself the challenge of developing 12 Lightning apps in 12 months<\/a> to learn how.<\/p>\n He\u2019s using his 12 apps in 12 months as an experiment. He wants to understand how he can make users part of the development process and ask them for feedback before launching. It\u2019s not just about him developing apps, though, it\u2019s about him and his community working together.<\/p>\n He launches small, and launches often. One app a month, there\u2019s no time to dwell if it\u2019s failing and feedback is poor. \u201cKill it quick and move on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The French developer isn\u2019t the first to come up with the 12 in 12 months format. He was initially inspired by Pieter Levels, an entrepreneur who started 12 businesses in 12 months<\/a> \u2013 and managed to make two of them profitable. Levels\u2019 idea was based on Jennifer Dewalt\u2019s 180 websites in 180 days<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are other platforms besides the Lightning Network. Ethereum, for example, is often touted for its dapp capabilities, as are EOS and Tron. But, according to Verbal, the Lightning Network was the only sensible option.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Lightning Network is currently the best option for micro-payments, Ethereum on-chain fees [are] lower than Bitcoin\u2019s but are still above $1, [it\u2019s] not suitable for the use cases I\u2019m working on,\u201d he said. \u201cPlus you also have to wait for confirmations, [it\u2019s] not a good user experience.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued, \u201cWe need something that confirms in less than 5 seconds and only layer two solutions can offer that. The only one that\u2019s working: Lightning Network.\u201d<\/p>\n The base level technology is there, but Verbal still needs to be creative. Interestingly, he said coming up with ideas isn\u2019t the hard part, sifting through the list and deciding which will be appealing to users is a bit more difficult.<\/p>\n So far, Verbal says that it\u2019s been a great learning experience. The first Lightning app he made, The Bitcoin Meat Club<\/em>, was too \u201cnarrow and most people were not interested.\u201d However, his second app, the Lightning Scratchcard \u2013 which Hard Fork covered back in March<\/a> \u2013 proved far more popular.<\/p>\n \u201c[Number 2] got really good buzz at launch and lots of people tried it,\u201d Verbal told us. \u201cThe problem [was] that most users never came back.\u201d<\/p>\n Not every plan goes perfectly, though. Verbal is falling behind schedule, having only released four apps so far, with his latest \u2013 Lightning Connect Four<\/a> \u2013 being released earlier this week. In Lightning Connect Four, players stake 100 sats (about 1 cent) to play, and the winner takes all.<\/p>\n Verbal says he\u2019ll probably stick to his deadline and call time on the experiment after 12 months, but won\u2019t worry about making all 12 apps. For Verbal, it\u2019s more important to learn from the development process than it is to stick religiously to an arbitrary target.<\/p>\n Indeed, even though he\u2019s a little under halfway, Verbal told Hard Fork that he\u2019s already learned three key things.<\/p>\n Firstly, developers should work on a product they want to use. \u201cDon\u2019t solve other people\u2018s problems, solve your own,\u201d he said. Secondly, make something people will want to use again and again, \u201cOne time use products are no good.\u201d And finally, devs should ask themselves, is it new, unique, and fun enough that people and the media will be interested? If not, move on.<\/p>\n By following these lessons, Verbal thinks he\u2019s close to \u201chitting gold\u201d with his next few apps.<\/p>\n Follow along on with Verbal\u2019s journey by visiting his site<\/a>, and join him on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n Published July 4, 2019 \u2014 11:56 UTC\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nMeet the developer<\/h2>\n
![\"Dev,](\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2019\/07\/7a7mE72T_400x400.png\")
Why 12 Lightning apps in 12 months?<\/h2>\n
![\"bitcoin1212.me,](\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2019\/07\/Screenshot-2019-07-01-at-11.58.50.png\")
But why the Lightning Network?<\/h2>\n
Lessons to be learned<\/h2>\n