[Top Builder 2024]: John (Clams_R2)

[johngribbin]

🏗️ Top Builder 2024 Application Form to track progress through Round 1 - 3 ~ Currently in Round 1

📝 Instructions

1. Only complete this form if you have been chosen for Top Builder, by PlebLab.
2. Provide detailed information to assist the judges in evaluating your project.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 The Team

• Team Name: Clams
• Number of Founders: Two
• Team Background: Aaron and John are both software engineers. They formed Clams late 2022 with the goal of building on Bitcoin.
• Bitcoin & Lightning Involvement: The Clams team build and maintain Remote- an interface for Core Lightning nodes that establishes a secure and encrypted connection directly through the Lightning Network. In support of the app they contributed open-source tools that have been utilized by other projects such as Zeus and Alby: rune-decoder (decodes auth tokens required for commando node connections), ln-ws-proxy (make web socket connection with a node over HTTP) and ln-message (allows web apps to ‘speak lightning’ and communicate with nodes via an encrypted connection). Clams is the first team to release a full UI for BOLT12 offers, offering a proof of concept for others. The Remote app has been widely employed during educational workshops facilitated by Niftynei and D++ throughout 2023, including Lightning Larp events at various conferences.
• Origin Story: In version 1 of the Remote app, we featured a dashboard enabling CLN node runners to export their income events as a CSV, formatted for applications such as Koinly and QuickBooks. However, upon importing these files into various third-party apps, we found the user experience to be suboptimal. We made the decision to build a privacy-focused solution that eliminates the dependency on these third-party apps and we believe that we can do much better with a focus on Bitcoin only.

💡 The Idea

• Project Overview: We're going to develop an MVP to address the accounting challenges faced by Bitcoiners, with an initial emphasis on Core Lightning node runners. This stems from our firsthand experiences as node runners and our development of Remote—an interface for CLN. Our objective is to provide Bitcoin users with a privacy-focused, locally hosted solution that performs essential accounting tasks like cost basis calculations and the generation of documents such as profit and loss statements. Think Bitcoin-only Quickbooks.
• Website: TBD
• GitHub: TBD
• Project Stage: We are currently scoping the MVP
• Supplementary Materials: TBD

📚 Additional Information

• Additional Links/Info: TBD

📌 Submission Type

• [X] Initial Project Creation

🚀 Current Project Progress

• Progress Made: We are currently scoping the MVP
• Challenges Faced: Trying to understand exactly what data is required for accounting, and how to obtain said data from both CLN and LND nodes.
• Future Roadmap of what's next: Establishing the foundational codebase, incorporating a localized database for enhanced privacy and facilitating fast, efficient queries. Implementing connection logic for CLN nodes. Developing robust algorithms for cost basis and capital gains calculations. Introducing manual data import functionality to accommodate more data from more wallets/exchanges. Expanding connections to various sources, including LND, XPubs and exchanges.

⏳ Round 1 Milestone

• Keep in mind that completion will need to be by February 10th, 2024.
• First-round milestone the team has set for themselves: We aim to have the work-in-progress app hosted as a subdomain of https://clams.tech. User will have a UI where they can connect their Core Lightning node, and sync all income events to a localized DB. Specifically, these income events will include- forwards, onchain transactions and lightning invoices.

📝 Submission Complete

• All required information has been provided above.

📅 Top Builder Program Structure

Registration Opens: Monday, December 18, 2023

• Application: Interested teams apply for Top Builder.
• Selection: Teams will be chosen based on their application. See FAQ for details.

Round 1: January 13 - February 10, 2024

• Workshops: PlebLab weekly workshops start, available live and online.
• Chat Access: Selected teams join the PlebLab internal chat.
• Mentorship: Begins for teams.
• Project Milestones: First-round milestones assessment.

Round 2: February 10 - 25, 2024

• Team Reduction: Half of the teams continue.
• Project Milestones: Second-round milestones assessment.
• Workshops: Continued weekly workshops.
• Mentorship: Continues.

Round 3: Starting February 26, 2024

• Team Reduction: Narrowed down to 6 teams.
• Final Milestones: Set for the last round.
• Preparation: For pitch in Austin.

Final Round at Startup Day: March 14, 2024

• Preparation: Final pitch preparations at PlebLab.
• Presentations: Before judges on Startup Day.
• Deliberation: Judges decide during a happy hour.
• Announcement: Winner announced at Austin BitDevs.
• Celebration: After-party for Top Builder.

[johngribbin]

WEEK 1

We decided to build the Abacus app and marketing site in parallel, with Aaron focusing on the app and John on the marketing site.

App

Progress:

• A solid foundation for the app has been built, including a local DB where user data will be stored.
• We have a landing page (with sidebar nav) where users will soon be able to make their first wallet connection (CLN node) and sync transaction data.
• We were able to port over some of the code we already built for the Remote app, which has expedited the process.

Next steps:

• Complete the logic to sync all transaction data from a connected CLN node to the local DB.

Marketing site

Progress:

So far, we have built out the following sections (with copy still a work-in-progress):

1. Hero with a "Get Started" button that links to the app and a "video" button that will play a short explainer video (TBD). Right now, I think the video should live inside a modal so that users stay on the page and are not directed to YouTube or somewhere else.
2. A "problem statement" section that breaks down the accounting problem that Bitcoiners face.
3. A Features section that includes a screenshot of the app, but may also offers users the option to download an example of a cap gains/losses report.
4. A pricing section. As this will be the first paid offering from Clams, we are taking a lot of time to think about how to charge for Abacus from day one.
5. A call to action, welcoming users to join our Discord if they have questions or want to see a particular wallet added to the list of "integrated wallets" (only CLN for MVP).
6. An FAQ.

Next steps:

• Implement many rounds of copy changes.
• Ideate and experiment with pricing, especially on the messaging.

[johngribbin]

WEEK 2

App (Aaron)

Progress:

• Work to sync and list all relevant transaction data from Core lightning node to local DB and a UI list is complete.

Next steps:

• Historical pricing server
• Deciding on LIFO vs FIFO for the default algorithm for calculating cap gains.

Marketing site (John)

Progress:

• Did a rework of marketing copy to focus more specifically on the "why", i.e. this tool is mostly useful if you are using Bitcoin and want to report your cap gains / losses for tax purposes.

Next steps:

• More copy tweaks, especially around story telling. Who is the app for? why should someone use it? etc
• Planning how to build in public via nostr and twitter
• Share a staging version of the site with Top Builder mentors.
• Styling updates to make the page more in line with the rest of the marketing site, eg the global nav and footer, and the light/dark mode option.

[johngribbin]

WEEK 3

App (Aaron)

Progress:

• staging app now hosted at https://www.staging.accounting.clams.tech/
• CLN node runner can now sync all of their relevant transaction data to a local DB in the browser.
• Added Table component to render all transactions, each with a cost basis calculated using Bitcoin historical prices API.

Next steps:

• Re-thinking data structures to ensure that the app can visualize sats flow across all of the users wallets AND generate reports like cap gains.
• Examining how ledger cli works to ensure that we architect the app in a way that allows us to expand out from MVP into the whole range of accountancy features https://ledger-cli.org/
• May start on a CLN payments service that will eventually host the Clams node.

Marketing site (John)

Progress:

• Worked on story telling with addition of a new component that attempts to explain who the app is for
• Had check in with Car to discuss marketing site progress and our messaging. Car liked the idea of having one app to track his sats flow. We had thought about this in our messaging initially, so we think we will re-introduce this.
• Finished up css for theme, so now have light/dark mode.

Next steps:

• Will re-work the design & messaging of marketing site to be less about paying taxes, and more about visualizing sats flow. We are feeling less bullish on the name Abacus. So for now, we are thinking that Clams Accounting will be the name of this app. So we have Clams Remote & Clams Accounting. Both apps can live under the brand Clams, just like how Stripe have multiple finance tools under their one brand - https://stripe.com
• Create lean canvas for Clams Accounting https://leanstack.com/lean-canvas/
• Finish up privacy policy and other legal docs.
• Research new and alternative advertising models like https://footstr.com/zapvertise/

[johngribbin]

ROUND 1 MILESTONE DEMO

https://github.com/PlebLab/Top-Builder/assets/30157175/adb2445d-4195-4f1a-a3df-ef77373e5dcf

[johngribbin]

WEEK 4

App Development (Aaron)

Progress:

• Conducted extensive research on structuring data for accounting applications.
• Taking inspiration from the widely used open-source tool ledger cli, updated approximately 90% of the data structures in the app to facilitate double entry bookkeeping.

Next steps:

• Finalize the restructuring of the onchain data structure to support double entry bookkeeping across all transaction types.
• Implement a cost basis widget for the sats flow dashboard.
• Explore chart libraries compatible with Svelte and commence work on chart concepts for the sats flow dashboard.

Marketing Site Enhancements (John)

Progress:

• Revamped the design and messaging of the website to emphasize visualizing sats flow rather than focusing solely on tax implications.
• Elevated the Clams brand in the site hero section, with a reduced emphasis on "Accounting," aligning with the branding strategy similar to Stripe's approach.
• Designed and implemented a Pricing component detailing features available in the free version of the app. Also prepared a similar tile for the Pro version with additional features, which will display a "Coming Soon" message for the MVP. The plan is to launch a freemium MVP as a standalone product initially, with paid features released once fully developed and rigorously tested.

Next steps:

• Begin development on a How it works component to be placed under the Hero section, involving an illustration/diagram, currently in the ideation phase.
• Refine the FAQ section to address broader accounting queries rather than specific tax-related questions.
• Draft the initial Lean Canvas - Lean Canvas
• Study and internalize the content of this resource: GTMT Strategy multiple times for strategic insights.

[johngribbin]

⏳ Round 2 Milestone

• Keep in mind that completion will need to be by February 24th, 2024.
• Second-round milestone the team has set for themselves:

App Development (Aaron)

• Revise data structures to accommodate double entry accounting principles.
• Enhance the Sats flow dashboard by:
  • Displaying cost basis for the total balance.
  • Incorporating a chart to visualize balance changes over time.

Marketing / Business Development (John)

• Finalize the How it works section, incorporating diagrams or illustrations to clearly convey the value proposition.
• Complete the Lean Canvas using the tool available at Lean Canvas.

[johngribbin]

Week 5 Update

App Development (Aaron)

Progress:

• Completed the restructuring of all data structures to support double entry bookkeeping across various transaction types. Validation was performed by comparing the total balance on a CLN node, with the balance in the Accounting app. As demonstrated by the screenshots, the app balance precisely mirrors the node's balance, but was derived solely from the list of debits and credits. This milestone serves as validation for the robustness of our accounting logic.

  Remote App Balance (provided by CLN):

  Accounting App Balance (derived from debits and credits):

• Implemented a graphical representation for the sats flow dashboard, illustrating balance trends over time:

  

Next Steps:

• Develop a cost basis widget for the sats flow dashboard.
• Research which wallets to integrate next as connections.
• Add at least one more wallet connection.

Marketing Site Enhancements (John)

Progress:

• Created a Lean Canvas for the app:

  Lean Canvas

• Sketched a mockup inspired by Shape Up for the How it works section on the site. The aim is to accentuate the value proposition by illustrating user flow and features within a problem-solving framework. We believe that employing the four headings of Sync, Enhance, Visualize, and Reports across both the marketing site and the app will provide a consistent and coherent way to explain the core functionality of the app.

  Shaping

Next Steps:

• Commence coding of the How it works section.
• Enhance the FAQ segment to cover broader accounting inquiries rather than solely tax-related questions.
• Finish up the legal docs
• Study and assimilate insights from the GTMT Strategy resource multiple times for strategic alignment.

User research (John / Aaron)

Progress:

We interviewed Joe Wood, Satoshi Pacioli Accounting Services. Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Joe was unconvinced that clients would like to grant him access to their nodes. Right now he mostly deals with CSV files that they provide to him. So in his opinion he thinks this is not a tool for accountants, more so it should be bitcoin holders using it, and then generating reports that he can use to help them file their taxes.
• Bitcoin companies running nodes could be the primary driver.
• He did not think many accountants will need it initially, but maybe in future.
• He does not pay for Quickbooks. The clients pay for it, then provide access to him. This is the flow that accountants and clients are familiar with, and could work for our app.
• His flow is usually this: Receive CSV, calculate cost basis, then convert to a journal
• We should consider a UI that allows user to drilling down into layers. Think top line vs detail. Don't show them too much at first on the dashboard.
• Joe runs a weekly twitter spaces and would love to have us on to discuss the app when time is right.

Next steps:

• We feel confident that we can rule out Accountants as our primary user, at least for MVP.
• Reach out to some founders of Bitcoin companies to determine how they are handling their accountancy needs.

[johngribbin]

ROUND 2 MILESTONE DEMO & POW

https://github.com/PlebLab/Top-Builder/assets/30157175/390ecbd6-8dc2-4d67-99ca-74f24198a9c7

App Development (Aaron)

• [X] Revise data structures to accommodate double entry accounting principles.
• [X] Enhance the Sats flow dashboard by:
  • Displaying cost basis for the total balance.
  • Incorporating a chart to visualize balance changes over time.

Marketing / Business Development (John)

• [X] Finalize the How it works section, incorporating diagrams or illustrations to clearly convey the value proposition. View progress on the marketing site here
• [x] Complete the Lean Canvas using the tool available at Lean Canvas.

How it Works component

Clams Accounting Lean Canvas