Bitshala Fellowship
Launchpad for serious Bitcoin contributors in India & Global South.
Work on critical open-source projects or lead education initiatives.
About the Fellowship
What is it?
The Bitshala Fellowship is where your Bitcoin career actually begins. Whether you're a developer, designer, or an educator - this is a unique opportunity for you to work on real Bitcoin open-source projects, under real mentors, within real outcomes. No bounties. No fluff. Just purely focused, collaborative, high-impact work that will help you become a serious contributor to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Fellows can contribute part-time or full-time to projects that make an impact - with support, guidance, and a vibrant community behind them. You'll learn by doing, build under mentorship, and gradually become a peer to the very people building Bitcoin's future.
Who is it for?
This is for you if:
- You're a developer, designer, or educator who already understands the basics of Bitcoin
- You've dabbled with open-source or self-driven work — and want to take the next serious step
- You're motivated to contribute to Bitcoin because you care about it, not because it's "buzzing"
- You're looking to work under mentorship, build credibility, and grow into a full-time FOSS career
- You're based in India (or South-East Asia), and want to be part of a growing ecosystem with aligned people
Fellows we've worked with have gone on to lead educational clubs, join full-time FOSS projects, or even become core members of the Bitshala team.
What will you get out of it?
As a fellow, you'll have the support and structure to grow into a recognized contributor with:
- $500/month stipend to focus on your work
- 1-on-1 mentorship from experienced contributors to Bitcoin Core, BDK, Silent Payments, BTCPay Server, and more
- A real project with real stakes and impact
- Access to the wider Bitcoin FOSS ecosystem, plus support with grants if you choose to go independent
- Deep connections with aligned peers across India and beyond
- Credibility: your work will be recognized as proof-of-contribution in the Bitcoin community
What does a fellow actually do?
You'll either:
- Join an existing project — and get matched with a mentor based on your skillset
- Or propose your own initiative — and we'll help you shape it into something real
Your week-to-week work will involve:
- Regular calls with your mentor or team
- Monthly log submissions & reviews
- Contributing design, code, or content depending on your track
- Collaborating in the open, through GitHub, Figma, or other public workflows
The fellowships are typically 6 months long, with the possibility to extend to 12 months based on performance.
Each fellow receives a $500/month stipend to support their work.
Explore Dev Projects
Are you ready to build? Here are some of the projects where Bitshala Fellows have contributed before and where new contributors are always welcome.
Silent-Payment Library
A Typescript wallet library implementing all the silent-payment primitives.
Language:
Typescript Silent Payment Indexer
A Typescript project to build various mechanisms of fetching the SP indexes.
Language:
Typescript Coinseletion
A rust library bringing the Bitcoin Core's coinselection algorithms to the wallet development world.A crucial missing piece of Bitcoin wallet infrastructure.
Language:
Rust
Coinswap
Functioning, minimal-viable binaries and libraries to perform a trustless, p2p Maxwell-Belcher Coinswap Protocol
Language:
Rust
Bitcoin Core
The reference implementation of the bitcoin protocol
Language:
C++
Lightning Development Kit
A complete lightning implementation packaged as an SDK
Language:
Rust
Lightning Network Daemon
A Golang implementation and the most widely run full node on the lightning network
Language:
Go
Core Lightning
A lightweight, highly customizable and standard compliant implementation of the lightning protocol written in C
Language:
C
Eclair
A scala implementation of the lightning network, focusing on the mobile use case
Language:
Scala
Bitcoin Development Kit
Seamlessly build cross platform wallets
Language:
Rust
Libsecp256k1
Optimized C library for elliptic curve operations on secp256k1
Language:
C
Validating Lightning Signer
Improve your lightning node security by protecting your keys separately
Language:
Rust
BTCPayserver
Free, open-source and self-hosted, bitcoin payment processor
Language:
C#
Fedimint
A modular protocol to custody and transact bitcoin in a community context
Language:
Rust
Stratum V2
The next generation protocol for pooled mining
Language:
Rust
Rust Bitcoin Library
A series of projects to implement various bitcoin protocols in Rust
Language:
Rust
Have a entirely different project you’d like to
contribute to?
Explore Our Education Initiatives
Want to guide people in cohorts? Start a club? Build resources that make Bitcoin easier to learn? The Education Fellowship is for people who love simplifying complex ideas, and want to grow the Bitcoin learning movement in India..
You can propose your own initiative, or join an existing one. Below are the initiatives taken up by past Fellows. If you’ve ever thought, “more people should understand this” — well, this is your path to make it happen.
Latest in Bitcoin Tech
Weekly Bitcoin Optech deep-dives where bitcoin enthusiasts explore the latest developments and happenings in the Bitcoin tech world
Tell me more →
MB Study Club
General-purpose reading club to help build your non-tech Bitcoin knowledge. Here we dive deep into rabbit holes on philosophy, economics, and more
Tell me more →
Bitcoin PR Review Club
Bi-weekly reviews to get into the weeds of Bitcoin Core. Ideal for aspiring Core Devs to learn hands-on and sharpen their dev skills along the way
Tell me more →
Trad-Fi & Bitcoin
Bi-weekly reviews to get into the weeds of Bitcoin Core. Ideal for aspiring Core Devs to learn hands-on and sharpen their dev skills along the way
Tell me more →
Reading Club
General-purpose reading club to help build your non-tech Bitcoin knowledge. Here we dive deep into rabbit holes on philosophy, economics, and more
Tell me more →
Hands-On Lightning
Bi-weekly reviews to get into the weeds of Bitcoin Core. Ideal for aspiring Core Devs to learn hands-on and sharpen their dev skills along the way
Tell me more →
Got a new idea for an education initiative?
Tell us more about it in your fellowship application...
Apply for the Educator Fellowship →
Our Fellows
These are the people shaping the next chapter of Bitcoin. Some started as students. Some as indie devs. Some as curious believers. Now they’re core builders from India.
Developers
Yuvic
Libbitcoin kernel project, Reviewing Core PRs, Hosting the Bitshala Core Review Club.
Probot
Fuzz testing on various software. Bitcoin Core, LDK etc.
Vanshul
MultiDescriptor wallet support at BDK.
Chaitika
Building Silent Payment demo app.
Dhruvil
Testing and adding new features at Lampo.
Bala
Bitcoin script analysis tool.
Abhijay
Translation of various docs and adding POS features.
Sarthak
Taproot and other protocol improvements at Coinswap.
CodingP110
Adding more database support at BDK.
Designers
Deeksha
UX patterns and interaction design for TwelveCash and Arora.
Nandini
User study and design improvements at Saving Satoshi.
Veronika
Usability research and interface prototypes for federated ecash.
paperpsych
Working with the Bitcoin Design Community.
Educators
Club Hosts:
Bala
Latest in Bitcoin Tech
Facilitating protocol & Optech reading groups; documenting key takeaways.
Vayras
Rust Club
Hosting Rust Club sessions.
Digant
TradFi & Bitcoin
Leading TradFi & Bitcoin discussions.
Cohort TAs (Teaching Assistants):
BTC Noob
Teaching Assistant for cohorts.
Dhruvil
Teaching Assistant for cohorts.
CodingP110
Teaching Assistant for cohorts.
Chaitika
Teaching Assistant for cohorts.
Anmol
Teaching Assistant for cohorts.
Vayras
Teaching Assistant for cohorts.
Amol
Teaching Assistant for cohorts.
Alumni
Faisal
Non-tech guy, cohort top-performer. Now hosts Latest in Bitcoin Tech and the Mastering Bitcoin clubs.
Bitaloo
Left Oracle to work full-time on Bitcoin Open Source. Currently building on Stratum V2.
Rishabh
Bitcoin privacy advocate fully engaged in developing the Coinswap Protocol.
Harsh Mahajan
Straight from college, via the fellowship, became a backend engineer at Bitgo.
Neo
Skilled writer delving deep into multiple rabbit holes, while slinging serious code at Coinswap.
Claddy
Two-time Summer of Bitcoin alum. Via this fellowship is currently working as full-time Rust developer.
Joshua
Talented African developer, started his fellowship with Silent Payment, and moved into full-time position at the Ark Labs.
Tanveer
Early-career dev working on Bitcoin privacy. Worked on Silent Payments.
Whoami
Keeping head down and shipping code at Coinswap and other OSS since day 1.
Sushant
Designing the frontier of Ecash UX at Sovran Wallet.
Sanya
Designing for BTCPay Server. Moving Bitcoin adoption forward, one figma file at a time.
“Once again, what do I get as a Bitshala Fellow?”
Well, here’s what all we have to offer you...
- $500/month (i.e. INR 40,000) stipend for Development and Design Fellowship
- $250/month (i.e. INR 20,000) stipend for Education Fellowship
- 1-on-1 mentorship from experienced Bitcoin builders
- A real project with real stakes
- Access to the wider FOSS ecosystem
- Support with grant applications, if you choose to go independent
- Deep community connections across India and beyond
- Credibility: you become a person to watch in Bitcoin
How to Apply
No form fill-up needed. Just send us your proposal.
Dev/Design Fellowship
Instructions to apply:
- Find a project you are interested in and start contributing there.
- Send a work proposal to fellowship@bitshala.org with subject "Application for Bitshala Fellowship".
The work proposal should include:
- Your background and prior contributions in the project.
- List of tasks targeted for the next 6 months.
- Rough timeline of deliverables.
- One paragraph summarising the impact of the work.
- Testimonial from the maintainer vetting the scope of work.
- Contact details of the maintainer.
Educator Fellowship
Instructions to apply:
- Find your domain of interest: clubs, cohort TA-ship, meetups, or any other educational activities.
- Send a proposal to fellowship@bitshala.org with subject "Application for Bitshala Fellowship".
The proposal should include:
- Your background and prior contributions in Bitcoin education.
- Details of the activities you wanna take up for the next 6 months.
- Rough plan of execution.
- One paragraph summarising the impact of the work.