Introduction

Greetings everyone! My name is Tarek Elsayed, and I am a third-year computer engineering student from Egypt. I am thrilled to share my incredible experience as an intern at Summer of Bitcoin, a global online summer internship program focused on introducing university students to Bitcoin open- source development. Throughout this blog post, I will take you on a journey through my time at Summer of Bitcoin, specifically my work at CLN Toolkit’s coffee, a plugin manager for Core Lightning. Let’s dive in!

The Project and My Role

My primary focus during the Summer of Bitcoin was on CLN Toolkit’s coffee, the plugin manager for Core Lightning. coffee handles all the configuration and installation of plugins for your Core Lightning node. I was entrusted with the responsibility of adding new commands to the command-line interface (CLI) and designing an interface to enable web applications or other platforms to run coffee as a server. Additionally, I actively addressed various mid-way issues that arose, contributing to the overall improvement and stability of the project.

Pre-Summer of Bitcoin Readiness:

Before the official start of Summer of Bitcoin, I had some excellent preparation. Vincenzo had set up a bunch of tasks to make it easier for us to begin with the project. These tasks were incredibly helpful, especially since I wasn’t very familiar with Rust at that time. With Vincenzo’s guidance, these early challenges helped me get comfortable with Rust and allowed me to start making contributions through pull requests from the beginning. This thoughtful approach laid the foundation for my successful journey with coffee and Summer of Bitcoin.

Milestones Achieved

Since the program commenced on May 15th, I have consistently driven my project towards its successful completion. Here is an overview of the significant milestones and accomplishments that have marked this journey:

• Support for Multiple Commands : I added support for various commands in the CLI, allowing users to perform various actions. I successfully integrated several new commands into the CLI. These include commands such as list for displaying installed plugins, list remotes (later replaced by remote list) for showcasing remote repository plugins, remove remote for eliminating remote repositories, show for accessing plugin README file, remove for uninstalling plugins, and the upgrade command.
• Implementing Endpoints to the HTTPD Crate : To enhance coffee’s functionality, I implemented endpoints that provide access to a wide array of coffee CLI commands through the HTTPD crate.

These additions to the HTTPD crate allow users to interact with coffee through HTTP requests. This integration opens up exciting possibilities for integrating coffee into various web applications, expanding its accessibility and usability. By providing endpoints for these commands, coffee becomes more versatile and empowers developers to incorporate its functionality seamlessly into their own projects.

You can find all my PRs and open issues here

Meeting Vincenzo: My Mentor

From the very beginning, I was fortunate to be paired with Vincenzo, who has been an incredible mentor throughout this internship. Vincenzo’s guidance and responsiveness have played a significant role in my progress and understanding of the project. Having a supportive mentor is crucial, and I am grateful to have worked alongside someone as experienced and helpful as Vincenzo.

Contributing to the Lightning Ecosystem:

My time with coffee and Summer of Bitcoin has made me more interested in contributing to the broader Lightning Network projects and specifications. Exploring the ins and outs of the Lightning Network and its protocol has sparked my curiosity to be a part of it.

Notably, my recent work has given me some hints about how we can improve the larger Core Lightning project. I’ve been focusing on an issue where Core Lightning encounters problems when there are missing imports. I am determined to investigate this issue in depth. My plan involves not only opening an issue on GitHub but also exploring the possibility of creating a patch if feasible.

Challenges and Growth

My journey during the Summer of Bitcoin has been full of rewards and learning experiences, along with a fair share of challenges. While working on various coding tasks and fixing issues, I encountered moments that took me out of my comfort zone. These challenges have helped me grow both personally and professionally. Notable achievements include:

Embracing Rust : As I continue to learn Rust, the programming language used for coffee’s development, I’ve gained a better understanding and feel more confident using it. This has expanded my skills and opened doors for future projects.

Insights into Bitcoin Development: My involvement with coffee has given me valuable insights into Bitcoin and how software development works. I’ve come to appreciate the importance of security, the decentralized nature of projects, and how the open-source community collaborates to create impactful software.

These successes despite challenges showcase my Summer of Bitcoin experience, where every difficulty has turned into a way for me to learn more and become more connected with the world of Bitcoin open-source development.

Conclusion

My time at Summer of Bitcoin has been amazing. Working on CLN Toolkit’s coffee and contributing to the Bitcoin open-source development community has been a valuable experience for me. I’m thankful to have had Vincenzo as my mentor, helping me through the project and creating a friendly environment.

If anyone is interested in Bitcoin development, I can wholeheartedly recommend Summer of Bitcoin as a great opportunity to learn and grow.