I've been working on open source full time since 2016. For the first year I was working a 9-5 office job, and then getting home and doing 7+ hours of open source work in the evening. That wasn't sustainable so in 2017 I quit my job and focused only on open source.
Ever since then I've been living off savings and keeping my living costs as low as possible to stretch out my money. I do the occasional paid freelance work when funds are running low to keep myself afloat.
If you or a company you work for value my open source work, if it makes your lives easier, saves you time, or you actively make profit from it, consider showing your thanks in the form of a sponsorship. It would mean the world to me and helps me focus on open source without having to worry about money.
I currently help maintain 91 packages on npm which have collectively been downloaded over 7 billion times! I also maintain some Docker images on Docker Hub which have downloads in the millions.
I'm also very interested in Bitcoin, that's where I've been focusing most of my efforts over the last few years. I've been contributing to the @browserify and @bitcoinjs projects to bring the latest Bitcoin features to JavaScript. I've published some libraries and educational sites related to Bitcoin and have added new features to wallets such as Electrum and BlueWallet.
Security research is something that I do a lot of too. I help keep open source software secure by responsibly disclosing any vulnerabilities I find without any expectation of payment. Here's an example of one of my disclosures of a critical vulnerability in an open source password manager: https://github.com/buttercup/buttercup-browser-extension/issues/92.
And finally, I'm very passionate about privacy and censorship resistance. I've been running a Tor relay to support the network since 2013. I also run a Bitcoin full node with a public Electrum server available over clearnet (bitcoin.lukechilds.co) or as a Tor hidden service (lukebtc46ko5kgsp.onion).
Going forward, more security research, tooling, libraries, and educational material related to Bitcoin will be my main goals.
I'm also working hard on @getumbrel, however please note that we’re planning on ways to monetise it at some point so I don’t feel comfortable accepting donations for that.
You can find out more about me at lukechilds.co.
If you prefer Bitcoin you can donate on-chain at:
1LukeQU5jwebXbMLDVydeH4vFSobRV9rkj
3Luke2qRn5iLj4NiFrvLBu2jaEj7JeMR6w
bc1qlukeyq0c69v97uss68fet26kjkcsrymd2kv6d4
Or via the Lightning Network at:
https://tippin.me/@lukechilds?refurl=github.com/sponsors/lukechilds
(You can DM me on Twitter if you want a one time BTC address)
36 sponsors are funding lukechilds’s work.
Featured work
-
getumbrel/umbrel
A beautiful personal server OS for a Raspberry Pi or any Linux machine
Shell 936 -
spesmilo/electrum
Electrum Bitcoin Wallet
Python 5,089 -
lukechilds/howmanyconfs.com
How many confirmations are equivalent to 6 Bitcoin confirmations?
JavaScript 51 -
lukechilds/dockerpi
A Virtualised Raspberry Pi inside a Docker image
Dockerfile 1,174 -
lukechilds/keyv
Simple key-value storage with support for multiple backends
JavaScript 1,545 -
lukechilds/reverse-shell
Reverse Shell as a Service
JavaScript 1,359