[25 02 Builder Activation] Wesatoshis Labs

[wesatoshis]

Builder Project Name: Wesatoshis Labs
Submission Date: Feb 5 ,2025
Sector: Native Bitcoin DeFi,Payments
Links: x.com

Description

The Wesatoshis journey began three years ago with a solo founder leveraging 20 years of expertise in reverse engineering and hacking. Later, my good friend Yossi joined the adventure, bringing his deep passion for Bitcoin and helping guide the project forward. Together, we fully embraced our vision in full time . At first, we didn’t have a concrete product idea, but we knew one thing: building an SPV client for embedded chips was essential—a challenging and exciting goal.

While developing the SPV client, we explored various applications, experimenting with ideas like Bitcoin tip boxes, NFT authentication scanners, lottery machines, and blockchain watches. However, none of these fully justified the need for a Bitcoin SPV client.

Then, 2024 arrived, and Bitcoin’s Layer 2 solutions gained significant momentum. We seized the opportunity and chose to integrate with the most secure Layer 2: Rootstock (RSK). We applied for and received a grant, which gave us the resources to purchase 3D printers and dive into designing PCB boards with relentless passion, free from budget worries. More importantly, the grant signified that the Rootstock team believed in the future of our product.

The most difficult challenge? Getting the firmware to work flawlessly on Arduino. After countless hours of focused, nonstop development support from rootstock developers , we achieved a stable beta release—and we were thrilled with the results.

Introducing Wesatoshis

Wesatoshis is the first hybrid hardware wallet that operates entirely independently of mobile or desktop apps. This innovative card enables you to pay Lightning invoices using RBTC without the hassle of channel management or liquidity concerns. Here’s how it works:

• The card locks your RBTC in a smart contract.
• A random Lightning wallet, integrated with NOSTR, monitors the invoice and pays it on your behalf.
• These wallets earn a commission for processing the transaction.

With RBTC, the card’s built-in SPV wallet allows you to seamlessly pay invoices, send and receive BTC, and peg in and out of RBTC.

But it doesn’t stop there—Wesatoshis integrates with Tropekus DeFi and Money On Chain, transforming the card into a personal financial hub. Through these integrations, you can borrow, lend, and swap for stablecoins, creating a complete ecosystem of financial functionality.

In one sentence: Wesatoshis is the first portable, native Bitcoin bank—empowering you to do anything you want with Bitcoin, wherever you are.

And this is just the beginning.

Why We’re Launching Builder Activation

We plan to invest in a fiber laser engraver to offer custom engravings on the card’s metal surface. Supporters of the project will be able to personalize their cards with unique designs. Additionally, 10% of the funds raised will be awarded to the designer of the most popular engraving, as voted by the community.
Mission

Our mission is to build a fully decentralized, no-KYC, portable Bitcoin companion that empowers users to perform any Bitcoin-related operation—without reliance on mobile apps (Google, Apple) or desktop software.

[gemadinatha]

really good project, i think we need to support this builder

[GoldenGatsby]

Awesome project. I was lucky to see one of the first prototypes of this device. Proper cutting edge Bitcoin DeFi wallet w/ Lightning/Rootstock and Bitcoin Core covered. Will definitely support this builder.

[scguaquetam]

Nice project, I would love to see this working IRL

[daikoku]

very impressive, good work guys.

[Kaf_StableLab]

Great to see more builders joining the space!

I’m in favor of this activation because:

• The product has strong potential, offering a novel solution for Bitcoin users.
• The integration with other builders like Tropekus and Money On Chain strengthens Rootstock Collective’s ecosystem.
• The team has already secured a Rootstock grant, showing ecosystem support and validation. While I’m not an expert in embedded hardware, the backing from Rootstock’s developer community reinforces confidence in their execution.

The post is solid, though I think it could benefit from a roadmap to provide more visibility on key milestones and development phases. Following a structure similar to what @sascha.collective suggested here could also help improve clarity for this and future builder activations.

While there’s room for improvement in some areas, I will vote YES to the proposal, as I believe Wesatoshis Labs contributes positively to the Rootstock ecosystem.

[wesatoshis]

Hey, thanks for the feedback and your support! Regarding the upcoming roadmap, since the firmware is complete, the main focus now is ramping up card production, distributing them to the Rootstock community, gathering feedback, and iterating continuously until we’re confident and ready to go public.
For anyone who wants to join the journey and get a card for testing , please join our Telegram group!

[Avantgarde]

Thank you @wesatoshis for this proposal, overall a very exciting one!

The idea of a hardware wallet card that functions independently of phones/desktops addresses a real need towards improving accessibility and self-sovereignty in Bitcoin utilisation. Also really like the “portable Bitcoin bank” tagline, think it neatly captures the essence of this product and its value prop.

The team’s technical background seems sound and further corroborated by Rootstock’s developer community and the grant it has already received.

Some questions and thoughts:

1. While the proposal mentions locking RBTC in a smart contract and using a random Lightning wallet, the precise mechanics of how this works are unclear. Could you elaborate on what the security implications are of using a “random” wallet? Likewise, the proposal mentions “pegging in and out of RBTC”, could you explain this please?
2. How is the card secure and private keys managed?
3. Would you be able to share something on the UX? How easy is it to use the card and what is the user interface like? If you have mockups that’d be cool to see.
4. Any concerns around scalability or handling a large number of users?
5. What will the card cost?

Again, great to see builder bringing real use-cases!

[wesatoshis]

Thank you for the questions! Please feel free to keep them coming. Below are the answers:

Answer #1

1.Cardholder Action: When a cardholder scans a BOLT11 Lightning invoice (which is a standard format for Lightning Network payments), the card locks the payment amount plus a commission percentage in a smart contract on the RSK Block-chain. Once this happens, the card is done with its job — there is no more communication or action required from the card.

2.Lightning Node/Wallets: On the other side of the transaction, there are Lightning nodes or wallets that are running an app designed to monitor the RSK Block-chain. These wallets are always checking to see when a card locks an invoice amount into the smart contract. When the wallets detect that an invoice has been locked, they will check if they can unlock it and claim the funds.

3.Unlocking the Invoice: To unlock the funds, the Lightning node or wallet needs to pay the invoice using a protocol called NOSTR NWC. This protocol is a method for transferring payments across the Lightning Network. When the payment is successfully made, the wallet gets back an image hash — which is a cryptographic identifier — that serves as one of the “keys” needed to unlock the RBTC (RSK Bitcoin). The image hash allows the wallet to access and retrieve the funds locked in the smart contract.

4.Decentralized Network: Because anyone can monitor the RSK Block-chain and run a Lightning node, the system is decentralized. This means there’s no central authority, and anyone can participate. As a result, any Lightning wallet can pay any other wallet, and the whole process is open, transparent, and permission less.

5.The cardholder receives a notification via NOSTR or the RSK Block-chain that the payment has been successfully completed.

Regarding the mention of “pegging in and out of RBTC,” could you please clarify? Since we’re using a native SPV wallet on the card, we can freely perform Peg-in and Peg-out transactions between RBTC and BTC.

Answer #2
How is the card secure and private keys managed? The card uses a secure element to generate the seed, which is then encrypted and stored on the SD card. If the SD card is removed, the card will cease to function and will be considered off.

Answer #3
Sure
here you can see how we just press a button to scan lightning invoice and press OK to confirm .

wesatoshis (@we_satoshis) on X

I’d be happy to share more images of the UX and card options. we will upload them shortly!

Answer #4

Any concerns about scalability or handling a large number of users? Great question! We’ve never relied on central servers for any card operations—that’s our top priority. As long as the RSK and Bitcoin blockchains can support the transactions and loads, we don’t have scalability concerns. For example, take our approach to handling Lightning payments.
and we even fetching prices and fees directly from the smart contract, we follow the rule of no third-party APIs and no third-party servers.

Answer #5

The price will depend on demand/volume and manufacturing costs, but our goal is to keep it under 100 euros for a premium metal card/engraved card.

[gemadinatha]

1. Is the private key stored in a way that only the card can read it, or can it be extracted if someone finds the SD card?
2. If someone steals both the card and the SD card, is there any security mechanism that prevents them from accessing the funds?

[wesatoshis]

Thanks for the Questions see below answers:

Answer #1
Since the private key is encrypted on the SD card, an attacker would need access to the card itself to extract it. (to extract the encryption key which is different for every card )
Answer #2

The only mechanism in this case is a PIN code. Entering the wrong PIN three times will format the SD card.