GCN opened Bitcoin mining to everyone. People contributed computing resources, managed their participation, and tracked rewards from a web dashboard.
Mining was for people with hardware, power contracts, and patience. GCN's pitch was scheduled rewards without any of that, and the interface had to make a complicated backend feel that simple.
Timeline
January 2022
Frontend lead
Took on the client-side architecture for a platform that let people take part in Bitcoin mining without buying hardware: a dashboard for participation and rewards, onboarding, and payments.
May 2022
The public site
Built the marketing site in five days: Bitcoin mining for everyone, a rocket, a starfield, and the pitch for rewards that arrive on a schedule whatever the price does.
June 2022
Live data and payments
Wired GraphQL subscriptions through AWS AppSync so dashboards updated without a refresh. Structured the data around DynamoDB for flexible schemas, and integrated Braintree for secure onboarding and payments.
- Real-time reward activity through GraphQL subscriptions
- Secure onboarding and checkout with Braintree
- Serverless backend on AWS
- Responsive Next.js and TypeScript front end
March 2025
Wind down
The platform ran through March 2025. The site stays up as the record of it, rebuilt on the App Router in 2026 with the Greenpaper and roadmap.
Impact
- A production platform that let people participate in Bitcoin mining infrastructure.
- A scalable front end integrating real-time GraphQL APIs.
- Secure payment workflows supporting user onboarding.
My role
Frontend Lead responsible for the client-side architecture, the AppSync GraphQL integration, and the payment and onboarding flows.
- Next.js
- GraphQL
- AWS AppSync
- AWS DynamoDB
- Braintree
- CloudFormation