Hey everyone!
I’m Rohan Chandra Sen , and I’m beyond thrilled to share something that still feels surreal, I got selected for Summer of Bitcoin 2025 , and I’m working on a mind-blowing project with Braidpool!

🧑‍💻 How It All Started

Back in January 2025, I was deep into a bunch of side projects. I’d been exploring Web3 , building decentralized apps , working with Rust microservices , and playing around with AI tools. But I felt like I was missing something, a place where I could merge open-source contribution, Bitcoin, and cutting-edge AI in a meaningful way.

Here comes Summer of Bitcoin.

I’d heard about it from some seniors and random posts on LinkedIn. The moment I saw the SoB website, I knew I had to try. The idea of working with Bitcoin core infrastructure , learning from the OGs, and contributing to real-world impact? Count me in! 😤

📚 The Assignments: The Journey Begins

SoB doesn’t just hand you the opportunity, you earn it.

I started with the Week 1 assignments, and let me tell you — it wasn’t just your average Leetcode grind. From mining a block ⛏️ to diving deep into how Bitcoin transactions work, each week made me feel more and more like I was unlocking a new level of the blockchain universe.

Week 3, the toughest one, pushed me to optimize a P2Pool client. Debugging, documenting, and pulling all-nighters was now part of the routine. But weirdly enough, I was loving it. Like, actually enjoying being sleep- deprived because I was learning something crazy cool 😅

📝 The Proposal: My Big Brain Moment

Once I cleared all the assignments, came the big boss fight: the proposal round.

This is where I discovered Braidpool, a decentralized mining pool using Bitcoin’s smart contracts. But what really got me hooked was their idea for an AI-assisted coding tool for Bitcoin development.

“What if I could build something like GitHub Copilot, but specifically trained on Bitcoin code, conversations, and culture?”

I had already worked on similar RAG-based AI tools. So I poured every ounce of energy, research, and caffeine I had into crafting a solid proposal.

✅ Build a project-specific RAG
✅ Train on IRC, BitcoinTalk, Dev Mailings
✅ Add FIM (Fill-In-Middle) AI tooling
✅ Hook into compilers and linters like YouCompleteMe
✅ Make it _local-first _with LLMs like DeepSeek, QwQ, Phi4
✅ Even add a VSCode extension

You can see my actual proposal here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LJEsaaw8rgpXovFipHoiZhFU6C8TlKdhmC08M1ISpXY

🎉 The Selection: A Dream Come True

Fast forward to May.
One sleepy Monday afternoon, I casually opened my inbox and there it was…

📩 “Congratulations, you’ve been selected!”

It was official, I was going to be working with Braidpool for SoB 2025!

🤔 What I’m Working On

My project is titled Bitcoin AI-Assisted Coding Tools under the mentorship of Bob McElrath. The goal?
Make Bitcoin development easier, smarter, and less error-prone by building a suite of AI tools trained specifically on Bitcoin knowledge.

Here’s what I’ve been cooking up this summer:

🔎 1. Project-Specific RAG and Agentic AI

Ingest entire Bitcoin codebases, docs, and dependencies, and enable smart semantic retrieval.

💬 2. Chatbot RAG

Trained on real Bitcoin discussions — IRC, mailing lists, bitcointalk. Think of it as “Bitcoin GPT with a soul”.

✍️ 3. Code FIM Tool

Suggests middle parts of code using context-aware AI, tightly integrated with compilers and linters.

🤖 4. Multi-Shot Code Generation

Use multiple local LLMs to brainstorm, refine, and finalize code snippets using “architect” mode like Aider.

🧩 5. VSCode Extension

Package everything into a dev-friendly extension to make Bitcoin coding seamless.

The best part? It’s all happening offline-first using local LLMs + Ollama — keeping it private, cost-efficient, and hackable.

🧠 Why It’s Exciting (and Scary)

This project has me genuinely hyped. I’m not just building another tool — I’m building something that bridges AI with the most decentralized financial technology ever created.

And yeah, it’s scary too.

The stakes are high. Bitcoin devs are serious people — you can’t just throw half-baked AI code suggestions and expect it to fly. That’s why I’m rigorously testing everything: retrieval precision, hallucination scores, code correctness, and more.

But that pressure? That’s what keeps me going.

💭 Reflecting on the Journey So Far

Honestly, getting into SoB wasn’t just about the title or the stipend. It was about validation. Validation that all those hours spent building obscure side projects, attending open-source calls, helping others debug — it meant something.

Working on Bitcoin AI dev tools has made me a better programmer, researcher, and (unexpectedly) a better writer too.

And more than anything, it’s reminded me that I don’t have to wait to “graduate” to do meaningful work.

See You soon! Sayonara 👋

**Rohan Sen
** LFX’25 @OMP | SoB’25 @Braidpool | C4GT DMP’25 @SocialCalc | 5x hackathon winner || 3⭐ @Codechef | Pupil @Codeforces || 🚀 Blockchain & Cloud Developer | 🧊 3d modeling @Maya+Blender || CSE @ IIITDMJ’27

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