Anyone! Innovation is created by exploring creatively and this is exactly your place to do that. Feel free to stretch your creative side or explore a design concept that you’ve had.

We'd love to involve anyone that wants to take part, from designers and developers, PM’s and consultants, to total noobs. Everyone is welcome!

The Bitcoin Designathon takes place online between May 4 to 18, 2025.

All communications, project setup, news, updates, schedules, mentorship, and everything else happens in the Bitcoin Design Discord, for anyone to hop in and say hi 👋 to other makers, start forming project teams, and discuss ideas. This website is updated as the event progresses.

Workshops and talks are streamed on the Bitcoin Design Youtube Channel, so you can join us live or catch up in your own time!

The first few days are dedicated to ensuring all makers are matched up with projects. You can also choose to work on your project alone, totally up to you! The remainder of the event is free and open for you to explore your project.

Next to that, there are live workshops you can join, such as an intro to Open Design and the Bitcoin UI Kit, research, as well as some technical topics. If you want to host a call or workshop, you can reach out in the #designathon Discord channel.

On the final day makers submit their projects for review and have a chance to present them live to the community.

Our first few days of the Designathon are dedicated to providing makers with some amazing workshops. We also provide guidance in terms of online tutorials and resources you can use to enjoy your design journey. We also put together a brief how-to document with tips for participation.

This provides some good tools and resources for you to start designing and most importantly having fun! Next to that, our Discord channel is always open for you to post your question and we gladly direct you to any additional help you may need.

Looking for a project to join? You could jump into our Discord and introduce yourself in our #designathon channel. You can let other makers know who you are, where you were from, what skills, resources, and time you could offer, plus what you are excited to design!

Teams organise amongst themselves. We suggest including a variety of backgrounds and skill sets, which typically creates better results. Some participants can be more design focused, others more technical, or artists, it totally depended on what you are working on.

Individual tracks have their own criteria, defined by each respective sponsor. The best projects overall are evaluated on the following criteria:

• 🌈 Innovation
  The design should be something new and interesting. This can be a brand new concept, or a fresh take on something we already know.

• ⚡ Bitcoin Integration
  The design should make intelligent use of bitcoin (and/or surrounding technologies like lightning).

• 👀 Open design
  The design community is all about working and collaborating in public. Has the project been transparent throughout the design journey?

• ✅ Execution
  Designers should focus on attention to detail. How well has the project executed? How strong was the design process?

• 🍒 UX/UI Design
  The design is user-centered, follows good design principles and is well-crafted.

• 🔥 Je ne sais quoi
  The design should have an extra level of pizazz, personality, creativity, or coolness.

Please note that only project work done during the Designathon counts.

The bitcoin designation is open to anything your mind can imagine. If you have an idea in mind and are wondering if it would be a great fit for the Designathon, ask in Discord. Below you’ll find a list of idea categories which may help!

Also keep in mind that you don't necessarily need a new idea, you can also help improve existing projects.

• Future tech - how will we use bitcoin a few years from now when lightning, ecash, nostr and other advancements are broadly adopted?

• Adoption - how can we as a community get the current tech to more people in new, interesting, and useful ways?

• Inclusion - explore how bitcoin reach more people by improving aspects like accessibility and localization

• Finance - how can bitcoin be used in finance beyond payments and savings?

• How can bitcoin wallets enable decentralised identities (see Sign in with bitcoin)

• Solve design problems or think of new experiences around lightning

• Explore designs and interaction models around hardware wallets

• Use cases in your personal context (for your kids, people in your community, inheritance)

• Art - this one is up to you to define

• Education - how can we make bitcoin easier to understand and start using for more people around the world?

• Games - what are some unique playful experiences that can only be built on bitcoin?

If your idea doesn’t fit in these categories, no worries, you can just go for it. As long as it is related to bitcoin in some way, it is all in good order.