Hey Everyone! Writing this blog as I reach halfway through my Summer of Bitcoin 2024 internship. Here I am going to share how one can crack Summer of Bitcoin with my experience as I progressed through this journey. I’ll try to be as practical and unfiltered as possible so that one can take away from this blog.

Before we begin, we should ask ourselves if we really want to apply for SoB. I would suggest going deep into what Bitcoin is and what SoB has to offer. Bitcoin is an amazing community with amazingly talented people. So our first aim should be to learn, grow, and enlighten the world about Bitcoin.

About the Summer of Bitcoin

A global program that matches students with open source, free software, and technology-related organizations working on Bitcoin to write code and become part of these communities while making some BTC along the way! The organizations provide mentors who act as guides through the entire process, from learning about the community to contributing code. Students get involved in and become familiar with the Bitcoin open-source community and put their summer break to good use.

To know more visit the Summer Of Bitcoin website

Selection Process

Note: This is the selection process for year 2024. It changes a bit every year. And this time it was more inclined towards bitcoin than DSA.

Applications and Screening:

The very first step is to fill out the application form. I would suggest being as real as possible and do not exaggerate any of your skills. And this is a suggestion that you should keep through the whole process.

Make sure to keep your form more open-source heavy rather than DSA/CP. you definitely should add DSA/CP achievements if you have one but prioritise web development skills more. If you look genuine, there is no way you will not clear this round.

As I went through previous years’ selection process, this time it was much different and more open-source oriented than DSA. And I feel this will be the process in the coming years as well.

Learning Bootcamp:

As we clear through the screening process, the next step is to learn Bitcoin. I felt this was the most fun and important phase of the whole selection process. SoB team gives us enough time to learn Bitcoin. So don’t worry if you are completely new to Bitcoin. SoB welcomes everyone who is a passionate developer. Talking about the bootcamp, it ran for a month having a total of 5 sessions, 1 week each. Throughout the period we discussed with fellow participants what we learned in the week.

We were asked to follow Grokking Bitcoin by Kalle Rosenbaum book. every week we had to read a couple of chapters of that book and have a discussion on it in the coming meet. Also, each participant came up with their doubts about the content they read.

A very cool thing about the meetings was that it was divided into small rooms of 5–6 people to have a discussion. This lasted for about 45 minutes. After that, all participants came together to ask leftover doubts from the mentors.

Takeaways :

I highly recommend staying active during this phase as this will build your core understanding of Bitcoin which will be helpful ahead. Don’t keep yourself muted in meetings thinking your questions might be silly, Because believe me no question is silly as bitcoin is a new technology and doubts are obvious. Also, go through the theory of bitcoin such that by the end of this period you should be able to explain to someone how bitcoin works.

Now by the end of the Bootcamp, we received an assignment, a hard assignment, that was completely based on bitcoin development. Now if you didn’t learn bitcoin theory during the Bootcamp, you are gonna have a hard time my friend. So please utilize that one month to the fullest.

Proposal Round and assignment

Now we are just one month away. This phase was very exhausting for me as there were a lot of tasks to be done. Mainly I had three tasks, Complete the assignment, create PRs in at least 2 organizations and create a proposal, and prepare for my end-sem exams. This could be your case as well so I would recommend managing your time efficiently in this phase.

One major issue anyone would face is to choose a perfect organization. Now here can be two perspectives either choose an org that uses languages you are familiar with or go for one that is completely new to you. Now there is no better option in my opinion. Both of the decisions have their advantages. Selecting a familiar organization will make it easier for you to make early contributions. going for a new one will help you learn a lot more.

But I would say both scenarios have an equal chance of getting selected. As to become a perfect candidate for SoB, it’s not only about contributions, there are a lot other major factors which I will discuss ahead. So choose an organization that excites you the most.

Tips for proposal Round:

• As soon as the participating organizations are announced, start filtering out the best ones for you. By the end of a week select a few organisations and have early interactions with its mentors and community. Remember, the earlier you interact, the more your chance of getting through.
• Once you’ve found some organizations that excite you the most, you should go on and try to complete their project’s Competency Tests. Completing a project’s competency test successfully indicates that you have everything the project requires and that with enough effort, you will be able to complete the project on time.
• This is the most important. Stay vocal in the community channels of the organization. Ask doubts, and clear the doubts others have, It will give a positive impression to your mentor. Remember, It is open source, and here helping others is the best learning and is always appreciated. It doesn’t matter if you feel you are behind other peers contributing, if you are active and serious about the organization, mentors will definitely have an eye on you.
• Also, keep up with the assignment along side. Try to complete it as early as possible as it creates a lot of pressure later on. In my case, I submitted it just 2 days before the deadline, and trust me I was in a whole lot of mess at that time. So please get done with it aeap.

By the end of the proposal, you should have enough contributions (anything, PRs, blogs, community presence) to present your proposal. Again, the SoB website has all you need to know about writing a superb proposal. But the only advice I can give is to try to show your intent clearly, to show that you are not just motivated to contribute for the sake of Summer of Bitcoin or money, but that you genuinely align with the goals of the organization and intend to continue contributing to it even after the program ends.

A quote that I follow “They say actions speak louder than words, But intent speaks much louder than actions.” So through your proposal, you should be reflecting your intent. And you will be through :)

Conclusion

I penned my thoughts and learning which I took away during my journey. And I hope it will help you as well. I am currently contributing to Jam Organisation and you can find my proposal here. If you came here and found it useful then please give it a like!!