Spiral Blockchain Engineer

Block; Paris (KY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Block is building the Lightning Development Kit (LDK) and seeking engineers to help grow the open-source project that powers fast, scalable bitcoin apps. You will write and review code, improve tests, and collaborate with teams and external users.

Ideal candidates have 8+ years of software experience, hands-on bitcoin and Lightning Network knowledge, and strong Rust/C/C++ skills. This role values curiosity and a passion for open-source contribution.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software development experience.
• Hands-on experience with bitcoin and the Lightning Network.
• Proficient in Rust, C, or C++.
• Ability to thrive in ambiguity and build creative solutions.
• Appreciation for bitcoin.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to LDK by writing and reviewing code, improving testing infrastructure, and assisting projects and companies that use LDK
• Help add and maintain features such as language bindings (Java/Kotlin, C#, JavaScript/WASM, Swift), splicing, Taproot, and server version
• When you’re not coding, you’ll help improve bitcoin through passion projects of your choosing.

Skills

Lightning Network

Rust

C

C++

8+ years experience

Bitcoin enthusiasm

Job description

Spiral (formerly Square Crypto) builds and funds free, open-source projects that advance the use of bitcoin as a tool for economic empowerment. The core team is mainly focused on contributing to the Lightning Development Kit (LDK), a tool that simplifies how developers add the Lightning Network – fast, cheap, global bitcoin payments – to applications. In addition, Spiral’s wildly successful grant program supplies funding to dozens of FOSS (free and open-source) bitcoin developers, designers, PMs, and educators all around the world. .

The Role

We’re looking to grow the six-person engineering team that exclusively works on developing the Lightning Development Kit (LDK).

LDK is a comprehensive open-source project that lets developers efficiently build Lightning applications. It includes a full implementation of the Lightning Network protocol written in Rust, APIs, language bindings, demo apps, and more. LDK is used by dozens of projects worldwide, including Lightspark, Cash App, Alby, and BitKit.

The LDK engineers who work for Spiral spend significant time writing code, reviewing code, answering questions, writing documentation, and accepting sensible patches and pull requests from other contributors. LDK aims to build a sustainable open-source project that is welcoming to newcomers, beneficial to users, and ultimately not reliant on a single funding source. The development roadmap is transparent, and corporate priorities do not come first; users do.

You Will

• Contribute to LDK by writing and reviewing code, improving testing infrastructure, and assisting projects and companies that use LDK
• Help add and maintain features such as the following:
  • Language bindings, including Java/Kotlin, C#, JavaScript/WASM/browser extensions, and Swift
  • Support for splicing and dual-funded channels
  • Support for Taproot, including musig, PTLCs, multi-sig scripts, and custom scripts
  • Improve the performance, scalability, and robustness of LDK
  • BOLT 12, VSS, and anchor outputs
  • A server version of LDK
• When you’re not doing all of that, you’ll improve bitcoin through passion projects of your choosing. Almost anything goes.

You Have

• 8+ years of professional experience
• Hands-on experience with bitcoin and the Lightning Network
• Experience programming with Rust, C, or C++
• Ability to thrive in ambiguity and build creative solutions to complex problems
• Appreciation for bitcoin

We’re working to build a more inclusive economy where our customers have equal access to opportunity, and we strive to live by these same values in building our workplace. Block is a proud equal opportunity employer. We work hard to evaluate all employees and job applicants consistently, based solely on the core competencies required of the role at hand, and without regard to any legally protected class.
We believe in being fair, and are committed to an inclusive interview experience, including providing reasonable accommodations to disabled applicants throughout the recruitment process. We encourage applicants to share any needed accommodations with their recruiter, who will treat these requests as confidentially as possible.