Presidio Bitcoin Design Week
A look back at a week of bitcoin & design in San Francisco.
“…it was the best bitcoin event I’ve ever been to” - Erik
Presidio Bitcoin Design Week brought together over 100 designers, developers, and product people for the first-ever week-long bitcoin design event. The premise was simple: if bitcoin is the future of money, it needs better design. The mission: bridge Silicon Valley design talent with the bitcoin ecosystem to tackle the fundamental challenges keeping bitcoin from broader adoption.
From September 15-19, in San Francisco, participants moved from understanding bitcoin’s design problems to actively prototyping solutions. It was a colorful mix of local designers curious about bitcoin alongside seasoned builders with years of experience in the ecosystem. The format alternated between talks that framed the challenges and hands-on sessions where everyone could contribute ideas and build together.
The People We Build For
September 15
Mo and Christoph opened the week by grounding everyone in the “why.” Starting with a brief history of money, they explored how our current monetary system works for, for better or worse, for billions of people worldwide, including the unbanked, Human Rights Defenders, and those living under unstable currencies.
The evening included hands-on time with bitcoin wallets, letting attendees experience both what works and the gaps that exist in today’s software. This wasn’t theoretical design, it was about understanding the real problems that need solving.
Designing Future Payments: Stablecoins vs Bitcoin
September 16
With the foundation set, Tuesday dove into one of bitcoin’s most contentious debates: stablecoins versus bitcoin for payments.
Nick Slaney made the case for why bitcoin will be the future of payments, while Daniel Nordh argued for stablecoins. Rather than leaving it at presentations, the evening included lively audience discussion and hands-on design exercises exploring both approaches. The goal wasn’t to declare a winner, but to understand the tradeoffs and design implications of each path.
Vibe Coding with Bitcoin
September 17
A key goal for the week was to not only discuss, but actually build. Wednesday shifted into action with vibe-coding sessions—fast prototyping of functional web applications using AI-assisted development.
Mat explored building a fully functional bitcoin tip jar from scratch, while Erik demonstrated integrating bitcoin (via the Ecash protocol Cashu) into the Bitchat app (presentation slides). The sessions were interactive, with attendees coding alongside the presenters and seeing how quickly bitcoin can be integrated into modern web applications.
Bitcoin being digitally native makes it perfect for this kind of rapid prototyping, and participants left with practical insights they could build upon.
Deep Dive: The Grand Challenges of Bitcoin Design
September 18
Thursday was the week’s centerpiece with a deep dive into the fundamental design challenges that make bitcoin unique and difficult.
Christoph opened with a keynote laying out why designing bitcoin is inherently hard: irreversible transactions, complex security models, novel monetary concepts, and the tension between decentralization and ease of use.
Kyle from Cash App followed, sharing lessons from designing bitcoin experiences for millions of mainstream users. He explored the challenges of explaining bitcoin, building trust, and creating brand experiences that feel accessible rather than intimidating.
Participants then split into six workgroups, each tackling a specific design challenge. Click through to see the track intro presentations.
Inspiring merchants to adopt bitcoin (Haley) - How do we make the value proposition clear and adoption frictionless?
The bitcoin brand (Joshua) - Designing an open-source chip for bitcoin credit cards
People, Products & Payment Protocols (Conor) - design payment experiences for specific real-world use cases
Redefining bitcoin’s base unit (Mat) - Redesign how Bitcoin quantities are represented and displayed
Bitchat (Steve) - Integrating payments directly into communication apps
Fees (Christoph) - Making transaction fees understandable and manageable for everyday users
During lunch, we also had the opportunity to hear from several bitcoin startups located in the Presidio Bitcoin space about their projects, and provide design feedback. And we wrapped up the day with each team presenting a summary of their work to the whole group.
Deep Dive: Redesigning Silicon Valley with Bitcoin
September 19
Friday was about imagination. After four days of understanding bitcoin’s challenges, it was time to dream about what mainstream adoption could look like.
A live recording of the PBJ podcast set the stage, with the three hosts discussing the intersection of bitcoin and Silicon Valley.
Mat then issued the challenge: reimagine existing Silicon Valley companies and products with bitcoin integration. What would Uber look like with bitcoin payments? What about Airbnb, social media platforms, or productivity tools?
Ideas filled a board as sticky notes—some practical, some provocative, all thought-provoking. Teams formed around the most compelling concepts and spent the afternoon prototyping and presenting their visions.
Thank you’s
This was the first week-long, local-first, design-focused event organized by the Bitcoin Design Community, and it exceeded expectations.
Enormous thanks to Alex, Haley, and the team at Presidio Bitcoin for providing the space and handling countless organizational details. Their support made everything possible. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Presidio Bitcoin, absolutely take it.
Mo, Mat, Erik, and Christoph were the primary organizers from the Bitcoin Design Community, spending months planning and running the events themselves.
And most importantly, thank you to all the attendees for showing up, participating actively, and spending your time with us. We hope everyone made meaningful connections, learned new perspectives, and left more passionate about building the future of money.
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Want to get involved? Both Presidio Bitcoin and the Bitcoin Design Community regularly organize events. Recent examples include the Presidio Bitcoin Quantum Summit, the Bitcoin Designathon 2025, and the BTC Prague dev/hack/day design track. Follow along on social media to learn about what’s coming next.