Building PoWBoT

How AI Unlocks Grassroots Innovation

(or how I accidentally came to be a full-stack developer)

Glenn Jooste | Bitcoin Ubuntu

Bitcoin Circular Economies Summit | January 29, 2026

The Challenge

The Existing System

Late 2025

Manual verification and data capture
Manual sourcing of payment details
Manual tracking and auditing
Manual project registration
3-month cycles

It worked... but couldn't scale.

The Exploration

Just trying to make life easier

Looking for ways to consolidate existing data and make admin tasks more manageable.

Working with Grok
Learning Python basics
Google Sheets basics

Then the pivotal idea...

"Help me write a basic Telegram bot"

November 30, 2025

That changed everything.

The Problems We Faced

Verification

Manual checking
Time-consuming
Human error
Bottlenecks

Payments

Address limitations
Wrong information
Coordination delays
Frustrated users

Rewards

3-month wait
Unknown amounts
Demotivating
Can't scale

The Idea

                MERCHANT accepts Bitcoin payment

                ↓

                PROJECT creates video content

                ↓

                REVIEWER verifies quality

                ↓

                PAYMENTS sent automatically

                ↓

                DATA tracked accurately & transparently

Fast. Accurate. Fair.

The Partnership

Me

Domain knowledge
Problem understanding
Creative thinking
User perspective

+

Claude

Technical expertise
Code generation
Debugging
Best practices

Day 1 – The First Attempt

November 30, 2025

The Build

Python script
Checked X post format
Used xAI API (Grok)
Basic validation

The Outcome

Cost: Testing budget on API calls
Result: Too many false positives

But it proved the concept.

Day 2 – The Breakthrough

December 1, 2025

The Build

Switched approach completely
Removed AI validation
Direct content retrieval
Pattern matching and format checks

The Outcome

Cost: $0
Result: Dramatically improved speed and accuracy

"The best version costs nothing and runs much faster"

60 Days of Evolution

November 30 → January 27

Core Systems

✓ Payment integration
✓ Reviewer workflow
✓ Nostr integration
✓ Public dashboard
✓ Stats generation
✓ SQLite backup

8

Major Features

8,000+

Lines of Code

0

Prior Experience

Enhancements

✓ Telegram dashboard
✓ Improved messaging
✓ Difficulty adjustment
✓ Public tracker
✓ Error logging
✓ Demo mode

The System Today

Bot

Python
python-telegram-bot

Storage

Google Sheets
SQLite backup

Stats

Public dashboard
Real-time updates

Social

Telegram
Nostr SDK
Auto-reposts and likes

Payments

Blink API
Lightning Network
Receipts for users

Hosting

Local (for now)
GitHub Pages
24/7 uptime

What is PoWBoT?
An automated proof-of-work verification and payments system.

How It Works: Content & Submission

                📹 Film merchant transaction

                ↓

                📱 Post to X + Nostr

                ↓

                💬 Submit URL to Telegram

                ↓

                🤖 PoWBoT validates & logs to tracker

                ↓

                👁️ Queued for human review

Real people. Real transactions. Real adoption.

Under The Hood: Validation Process

Data Extraction

Fetch from X/Nostr APIs
Expand shortened URLs
Extract Lightning address
Extract BTC Map link
Extract project identifier
Extract country/location
Identify Lightning provider

Validation & Enrichment

Check for duplicates
Validate required elements
Query BTC Map API
Fetch merchant name
Send test payment to merchant
Like and repost on Nostr
Log structured data

All automated, near instant and before any human review.

How It Works: Review & Reward

                📺 Reviewer watches video

                ↓

                👍 Approves or 👎 Rejects

                ↓

                ⚡ Instant Lightning payments

                Approved: Reviewer + Project + Merchant

                Rejected: Reviewer still paid

Human judgment. Everyone's time is valued.

How It Works: Record & Display

                💾 Every payment logged

                ↓

                🧾 Receipt sent to project and reviewer

                ↓

                📊 Stats generated

                ↓

                🌐 Public dashboard updates

                ↓

                👀 World watches adoption happen

Accountable. Visible. Verifiable.

Real Conversations

                    GLENN: "Blink payments sometimes fail"

                    CLAUDE: [Adds retry logic with exponential backoff]

                    GLENN: "Duplicates getting through"

                    CLAUDE: [Creates early duplicate detection]

                    GLENN: "What if Sheets goes down?"

                    CLAUDE: [Builds SQLite backup system]

                    GLENN: "Need low balance warning"

                    CLAUDE: [Adds balance monitoring and burnrate]

This is how development actually happens.

The Results

January 2026

7

Countries

23

Projects

120

Merchants

📈

Increased Participation

24/7

Uptime

📈

Increased Accuracy

Development Cost

Actual

Initial testing
From $20/month for Claude
$0 developer

Accessible to anyone

VS

Traditional

$5k–15k developer
2–3 months timeline
$$$ maintenance

$$$$$

How I Learned

Traditional Path

Traditional coding courses
Computer science degree
Studying textbooks
Programming bootcamp

My Approach

Learning by doing
Immediate feedback
Solving real problems
Contextual understanding

Problems We Solved Together

Problem: No ledger failsafe

→

Solution: SQLite backup system

Problem: Manual stat generation

→

Solution: Automated export

Problem: Shortened URL validation

→

Solution: URL expansion with retries

Problem: Low balance risk

→

Solution: Automated warnings

Problem: Unknown project tracking

→

Solution: Dynamic project mapping

I Didn't Need These First

Python fundamentals
JavaScript from scratch
CSS specificity
Git workflows
API patterns
Database design

I learned by building what I needed.

The Mindset Shift

Traditional Path

Learn → Build → Deploy → Maintain

6–12 months

AI-Assisted Path

Build + Learn → Deploy + Iterate

Days/Weeks

What You Still Need

Domain Knowledge – Understand the problem
Critical Thinking – Evaluate solutions
Persistence – Iterate when stuck
Communication – Explain what you want
User Empathy – Build for real people

Technical skill is accessible. Your vision is essential.

AI Is Great For...

AI Excels

Syntax & structure
Bug fixing
Refactoring
Best practices
Documentation
Rapid prototyping

+

You Bring

Architecture
UX design
Security review
Innovative ideas
Business logic
Edge cases

The Bigger Opportunity

Circular Economies

Custom tools
Build immediately
Your problems
Your pace

Bitcoin Adoption

Edge innovation
Grassroots solutions
Local solutions
Rapid iteration

Communities

Real problems
No permission
Share learnings
Build together

What Could YOU Build?

Merchant onboarding bot
Education progress tracker
Community directory
Custom reward systems
Impact dashboard
Translation bot
Event coordination
Payment automation

All buildable by non-programmers now.

Your Journey Starts Here

                    1. Identify a real problem

                    What slows your project down?

                    2. Describe the solution

                    How should it work?

                    3. Start a conversation

                    "Help me build..."

                    4. Iterate and learn

                    Build → Test → Improve

                    5. Ship it

                    Real users, real feedback

                    YOU: "Track merchant onboarding progress"

                    CLAUDE: [Builds signup flow tracker]

                    YOU: "Send Bitcoin tips to students"

                    CLAUDE: [Creates reward distribution system]

                    YOU: "Calculate our runway and burn rate"

                    CLAUDE: [Builds financial projections]

Our Stack (All Free/Low-Cost)

Development

Claude Opus/Sonnet
VSCode
Python
HTML/JavaScript
python-telegram-bot

Cost

~$20/mo

(Just Claude)

Services

Blink API
Google Sheets
Nostr SDK
GitHub Pages
SQLite

Why We Share Our Journey

Share Learnings – What worked, what didn't
Open Approach – How we think about problems
Community Support – Help others get started
Inspire Action – Show what's possible

Your success helps everyone.

You Don't Need Permission.
You Don't Need A Developer.
You Just Need To Start.

What's Next For PoWBoT

Dedicated server
Better error handling
Analytics v2
Dashboard improvements
Weekly/monthly reports
Additional platform support

Scaling for other projects
Additional integrations
Enhanced user features
Performance optimizations
Algorithmic difficulty adjustments
Further automation

Keep building and learning with Claude, one conversation at a time.

Let's Build Together

Try It

Start building today

Share It

What can you solve?

Connect

Help others start

GitHub: BitcoinUbuntu

X: @BitcoinUbuntu

Dashboard: bitcoinubuntu.github.io/powbot-stats