Sphinx
Bold interface for decentralized communication
Where conversation carries value
Sphinx was one of the first consumer products to treat the Bitcoin Lightning Network as more than payment infrastructure.
Private messages could carry sats. Podcasts could stream value. Communities could unlock through payment. Media, access, identity, and work payouts moved through the same product surface.
The challenge was not adding financial features to chat. It was turning a highly experimental network into a coherent product experience, where Lightning felt native, trusted, and quiet inside everyday communication.
Platforms
iOS • macOS • Android • Windows • Linux
Services
Branding • Product Design • Ongoing Support
Sector
Bitcoin Lightning Network
Year
MVP—2018 • Redesign—2025
Patterns ahead of their time
01.
One of the first communication products built around Lightning
02.
03.
Reimagined chat bubbles as containers for value
04.
One product system across five platforms
The Challenge
Making Lightning feel native
Sphinx combined behaviors most users had never used together. Chat, payments, podcasts, communities, and work payouts all moved through the same interface.
Lightning had to create trust without slowing the flow of conversation, listening, and participation.
That balance shaped every decision.
01.
Payments stay inside conversation, not behind a separate wallet flow.
02.
Protocol detail appears only when it changes what the user can do.
03.
Payment, privacy, and access states stay visible where decisions happen.
04.
Casual users, workers, and creators share one product logic.
01 — Home
One home for daily context
We centered the app around the moments users returned to every day. Balance, conversations, and now playing. The home screen became the orientation layer for everything else.
02 — Chat Payments
Payments are just another message type
Users could request, send, and confirm value without leaving the thread. Payment requests, gift payments, paid media, and receipt states followed the logic of chat.
03 — Tribes
Communities with value built in
Tribes brought paid access into the feed. Locked content is clear. Pricing is visible. Unlock feedback is immediate.
Boost became a media gesture
One tap to send sats and appreciation.
Support became instant, visible, and emotional, a small interaction that helped value feel native to listening.
04 — Podcasts
Value for value, built into listening
The player kept core actions consistent across episodes. Streaming sats and sending Boosts felt like part of listening, not a separate payment flow.
05 — Wallet
Trust in the basics
Balance, history, QR codes, and payment states followed familiar wallet patterns. The new model could feel different because the basics felt predictable.
Six-year product partnership
Across iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and Linux, we helped evolve Sphinx from an early Lightning-native MVP into a cross-platform product system for chat, payments, podcasts, Tribes, paid media, and work payouts.
It also became the wallet and payment layer behind related products like Bounties, Stakwork Microtasks, and Second Brain.
Outcomes
01.
Turned Lightning payments into everyday product behavior
02.
Helped shape early Boost and sats-per-minute podcast patterns
03.
Unified chat, wallet, media, communities, and work payouts
04.
Built paid access and spam resistance into community behavior
05.
Became the wallet and identity layer for a wider Lightning ecosystem
Prototype for a new network
Sphinx reinforced a simple rule. When money becomes a native interaction, the interface must feel social first and financial second. Communication, payments, media, and access had to feel like one system.
