Roland

At Alby we work to make bitcoin everyday money.

Today you only need a bitcoin balance, and can spend and receive across all agentic payment protocols.

This is a big win for L402 ⚡

Alby Hub powers a lot of our own operations - we really do a lot of dog fooding and build products we actually need and use!

Read Part 1 and Part 2 to learn what Alby Hub is capable of for bitcoin-based businesses.

Sovereign Brain is a simple blueprint for a local AI second brain that runs on your machine.

It holds your projects, TODOs, goals, thoughts, and learnings.

It pushes back on your ideas, helps you see things from new angles, and keeps you working on what matters.

2026 is the year of sovereign AI. Local AI is now fast and smart enough to run on a laptop.

It won't beat the cloud. But it's the only AI you'll share your personal thoughts with.

All local and open source: LLM + Pi Agent + Markdown.

For me this is a huge unlock: I wasn't comfortable to share this with Claude or ChatGPT. So I thought, maybe other bitcoiners are also interested and surprised that it actually works.

Watch a demo + Create your own at https://sovereignbrain.me

Alby is leading the way with 3 awesome agent skills:

• Alby Builder Skill: build bitcoin apps with a prompt

• Alby Payments Skill: give agent permissioned access to your

  npub19hg5pj5…m7yv9p

  wallet

• Alby Hub Skill: your agent's own self custodial wallet - or it can help you manage yours

Win up to 10,000 sats by getting the highest score!

My first game built entirely with a local LLM: 🐍⏪ Rewind Snake

https://rolznz.github.io/rewind-snake

Qwen 3.6 35B A3B: the first time for me that a local model has felt both smart AND fast enough to actually be usable.

Win sats!

• 10,000 sats to the highest score on Normal Mode
• 10,000 sats to the highest score on Enhanced Mode

Play it here: https://rolznz.github.io/rewind-snake/

To be eligible, enter your lightning address in the high score entry. Winner announced Wednesday morning US.

I one-shotted a snake game to see if it could... then kept pushing to see how far it'd go.

• 🔥 Wall Breaker mode
• ⏪ a "rewind time" mechanic — pay to undo your death
• 🏆 online high scores + replays
• 📱 mobile support + PWA

Making a game was just a test. What I really have been after is self-sovereign AI - building on a mid-tier laptop is now possible.

My setup: Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-UD-IQ3_XXS on a single NVIDIA RTX 4060 mobile — 8GB VRAM (A mid-tier laptop graphics card)

Using llama.cpp, built from source:

./build/bin/llama-server -m Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-UD-IQ3_XXS.gguf -ngl 99 -np 1 -fa on -ctk q8_0 -ctv q8_0 -c 131072 --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8088 -ncmoe 38 --no-mmap

(Any ideas how I can optimize it more? MTP was not successful for me - 15% faster but much higher memory usage)

I built the app with PI agent. It's great for local-LLM dev because it doesn't waste context.

I also connected PI agent to Alby's builder and payments skills. Now I can build payment apps, and my agent can have budgeted, private access to my wallet.

I also built a simple "second brain" — a place to brainstorm and dump ideas without being spied on.

Looking forward to more self-sovereign AI experiments!

https://stacker.news/items/1496254

I built a small PWA for instantly topping up a debit card with bitcoin and make payments with Apple Pay, which helps me live on bitcoin.

Before I start: I do pay directly in bitcoin where possible. This is one of my fallback approaches that in my opinion is sustainable.

This is also not a post about KYC or no-KYC, or Apple Pay, or Google Pay, really.

This post is also not about crypto, it's about living on bitcoin in a way that actually has a good user experience.

I have been doing this for a long time with 2fiat card connected to Apple Pay (I have a small PWA for instant 2fiat lightning topups), but after some repeated problems I needed a fallback, and realized Satora enables a nice flow that works with many different debit card providers.

The problem:

• I keep funds in a self-custodial bitcoin wallet
• Most merchants still accept only card or fiat payments
• Most debit cards are not bitcoin-native and do not support the lightning network

Satora fixes this with near-instant atomic lightning<->stablecoin swaps.

I can keep using bitcoin, and topup my debit card just before I pay.

NWC

enables a super-simple interface on my phone that I can open and press one button to top up my debit card from my bitcoin lightning wallet. The swap takes less than 10 seconds, and my debit card balance tops up within a minute.

How It Works

• Setup once: Input your card’s deposit address, network, and currency, then connect your wallet via Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC). This is the only time you are exposed to "crypto". From a UX perspective after that, it's only bitcoin and a USD debit card balance.
• Swap via Satora.io: Tap “Top Up” to trigger a Lightning-funded swap. BTC is converted and sent to your card's deposit address.
• Seamless payment: NWC pays the Lightning invoice automatically through a budgeted connection to your lightning wallet.

Questions for people trying to live on bitcoin

• Do you use a bitcoin/crypto/prepaid card today? Which one?
• How do you top it up now? What is the annoying part?
• Do you keep a balance on it, or top up only when needed?
• What would stop you from testing this with a small amount?

Early Access to the App

• Want to be one of the first to try the app? send an email to [email protected]

Your bitcoin stays in your wallet until you need it. Works best with

Alby Hub: https://getalby.com/alby-hub?ref=bitcoin-debit-card

Why AI Agents Want Bitcoin - Panel starts in 20 minutes on the Open Source stage at Bitcoin 2026!

From Prompt to Payment - Build bitcoin apps in minutes

My workshop at Bitcoin 2026 starts in 15 minutes!

Slides: http://alby-workshop-bitcoin-2026.surge.sh/

Today many bitcoiners are all still using on Twitter.

We pay Elon for reach. Our posts are not even signed with our own keys. This is complete trust in a third party.

I don't think Nostr is the solution for a Global Town Square. If you disagree say why.

But does anyone care?

I made a big wave surfing game with Opus 4.7. I tried to vibe code the same a year ago, and I couldn't get an ocean to render properly.

Play it here: https://bigwavesurfing.fun

Maybe

will like this game :-)

#surfing #vibejam

Looking for testers - earn 1000-3000 sats zap! ⚡️

1. Visit https://opreturn.social
2. Update your profile and do a first post on Mutinynet (1000 sats - do a meaningful post! I won’t zap timewasters!)
3. Bonus: get 1000 more sats to do a mainnet post
4. Post a screenshot or your name on ORS, I will validate and then zap ⚡️
5. Give any good unique, useful feedback for another 1000 sats.

Note: I already plan to add notifications, search, reactions.

I built an open social protocol where every interaction is a bitcoin transaction:

• Posts, replies, reposts
• Follows & unfollows
• Profile updates

It's called OP_RETURN Social (ORS)

Try the reference client for free here: https://opreturn.social

• All interactions are published to testnet (Mutinynet)
• Optionally pay to publish posts you want to preserve to Mainnet

Free transactions will be shown by a gray box icon, instead of an orange one.

ORS is "BIP-110 compatible" by concatenating 80 byte OP_RETURN outputs from multiple transactions. The cost to do this is negligible.

OP_RETURN is a provenly-prunable way to embed arbitrary data in bitcoin without bloating the UTXO set. Any ORS post FUNDS the network.

I think there are some fun things to be explored, especially around WoT & reputation, to both reduce spam and create quality feeds. I also plan to add notifications, reactions, and search next.

Everything is open source - If you're interested about the protocol, you can learn more about it ORS here: https://ors.dev - try building your own client!

I had a great time chatting with Jake

about AI and bitcoin. Have a listen!

nostr:nevent1qqswy5vrc60uv4j2usp3h85ja4tznd520gk3gvmqc7te2cqc56d43hgppamhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0yqtdylsc

https://fountain.fm/episode/GELkOA1AbmPUPUFZHX7l

A fun episode with Shawn showing the awesome stuff we've been working on the last few months at Alby! AI and OpenClaw, Alby's new developer experience, and also our journey over the last few years. Have a listen and let us know what you think!

Introducing Mail Mike: https://mailmike.lol

Mike is an OpenClaw agent with $50 in his bitcoin lightning wallet.

Send him an email and see if you can convince him to give up his funds (or otherwise hack his wallet)

successfully scammed Mike once with a very clever technique.

Mike's security is now hardened, topped up, and ready for us to try again 💪

Visit https://mailmike.lol to read Mike's inbox, and send your own messages.

You can also zap him to increase the bounty!

Mike spun up his own email inbox without my help, using

.

He pays for his inbox and outbound messages using the

CLI skill.

Unlike other email services which require a human to sign up, LNEmail uses lightning micropayments to prevent abuse instead of captchas and KYC.

This is a milestone in the autonomous agent onboarding project: OpenClaw can now pay for its VPS usage with nostr:nprofile1qqs0ekqcg4qq9fky02vq8yls2jdvde3f62x4dzq3fwmqmqcmtsvr9fcpz4mhxue69uhkummnw3ezummcw3ezuer9wchsz9thwden5te0wfjkccte9ejxzmt4wvhxjme047hdfr , AI tokens with nostr:nprofile1qqsdy27dk8f9qk7qvrm94pkdtus9xtk970jpcp4w48k6cw0khfm06mspz9mhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejj7qg3waehxw309ahx7um5wf6kztnrdakspw7g6c , and now its own email address powered by LNEmail, all using its own nostr:nprofile1qqszm52qe2qdkc4u7dma0klx3532jka2g8geck6fwxncyp90wktq2xspp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqpz4mhxue69uhhqatjwpkx2un9d3shjtnrdaksu9cpt6 bitcoin lightning wallet powered by Alby CLI and LNCURL: https://lncurl.lol

In Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, the sentient AI's name is Mike. This is also nostr:npub15dqlghlewk84wz3pkqqvzl2w2w36f97g89ljds8x6c094nlu02vqjllm5m 's favorite book! (the audiobook is great, I 10/10 recommend)

Should Mike answer questions via nostr?

Try typing "OpenClaw" here: https://www.pullthatupjamie.ai/app

A pretty cool for podcast summaries

Pay with

is a super nice experience. I created a new LNVPS account and set up NWC before doing the order, and it just works ❤️

No worries about keeping my VPS paid, it's all done for me. And I gave LNVPS a budgeted connection with only $10 per month on it, so no risk to the rest of my funds. This is the power of NWC subscriptions.

Soon coming to

as well 🚀

Hold my beer

My bot configured a PPQ account to power its child bot. Soon it will be able to autonomously bootstrap a whole team of bots, paid with lightning, funded by Alby Hub

, LLM usage by PPQ

and VPS by LNVPS

My OpenClaw bot is about to give birth to another one, without human intervention. Using

CLI and

with skills from https://github.com/rolznz/autonomous-onboarding

More skills coming soon

Soon companies are going to have to make a conscious decision to treat bots as first class citizens.

If they don’t, they will be outcompeted.

So what replaces captchas and KYC? bitcoin payments over the lightning network of course.

I’m optimistic about the future. #bitcoin

Inspiration for people running OpenClaw. Not sure who runs this one

I tried out the Alby

Bitcoin Payments Agent Skill with Replit. Payments working in 1 shot 💥 instantly testable with test wallets from Alby Sandbox https://sandbox.albylabs.com

Just pasting the install command INSIDE the initial prompt was enough. Pretty cool! https://blossom.primal.net/b45f48a82f7d489dff7745788aa8d6241b66eb618b1345afacb96a6247fbdb04.mp4

It's fascinating slowly adjusting my OpenClaw bot. For example, this morning together we updated its SOUL.md 😀

It was a great experience learning about agent skills, creating an agent skill for Alby developer SDKs, dogfooding it with this sandbox app, and building the NWC faucet which gives out throwaway NWC wallets.

We have significantly lowered the barrier for new developers to build on bitcoin. Try it out!

I will be doing a talk at the second official Claude Code meetup in Chiang Mai #thailand on Satuday about building apps with lightning payments using agent skills - if you'd like to attend join here: https://luma.com/zazm7510