Daniel Mwihoti · Engineer & builder

I build open systems, automate work, and ship in public.

I'm a full-stack engineer in Nairobi. Most days I'm building on Bitcoin, Cardano and Avalanche, wiring up AI automations, or sending small pull requests to open-source projects I rely on. I like hard problems and plain explanations.

Open to remote roles & freelance work

Book a discovery call See what I've built

15 minutes, no pitch. We figure out whether I can actually help.

that's me ↓ say hi at a Nairobi meetup

daniel@nairobi: ~

$ whoami

Daniel Mwihoti

> Full-stack engineer
> Bitcoin builder (Rust)
> Cardano builder & contributor
> Avalanche builder · Team1
> Midnight explorer
> AI automation tinkerer

$ git log --merged --upstream

✓ payjoin/rust-payjoin
✓ IntersectMBO/lsm-tree #818
✓ cardano-foundation/cardano-org

Case studies

Things I've built, and why.

A few projects I'm proudest of, across Bitcoin, Cardano, Avalanche and AI. Each one starts with the problem, because that's where I start too.

Bitcoin
Cardano
Avalanche
Midnight

Why build in public?

It keeps me accountable, makes the work easy to review, and helps other people learn. Issues, ideas and pull requests are welcome on any of my repos.

StackMate

Builder marketplace on Bitcoin L2

Bitcoin · Stacks

The problem: Stacks builders and founders need a trusted way to find co-builders, with partnerships verifiable on-chain rather than just word-of-mouth.
What I built: Builder-partner marketplace on Bitcoin L2 (Stacks). Project owners post partner requests; builders browse, apply with a pitch, and get accepted — every key action (registration, application, acceptance, mutual endorsement) is anchored on-chain via four Clarity smart contracts on Stacks mainnet (Nakamoto epoch 3.4). Off-chain Postgres handles search and metadata; on-chain principals form the verifiable reputation trail.

Next.js 16
React 19
TypeScript
Clarity
Stacks
@stacks/connect
Neon Postgres
Drizzle ORM
Tailwind v4

Live site GitHub

Open Wallet Standard

Multi-chain wallet for AI agents

AI · Multi-chain

The problem: AI agents need to sign blockchain transactions without ever exposing raw private keys.
What I built: Multi-chain AI agent wallet supporting 9 chains (EVM, Solana, Bitcoin, Cosmos, XRPL+). Policy-gated signing tokens — AI agents never hold raw keys. Includes Solana + EVM signature verification and live testnet transactions.

TypeScript
Rust
React
Solana
EVM
Bitcoin
Cosmos
XRPL

Live site GitHub

Bitcoin Wallet Lab

Bitcoin from first principles, in Rust

Bitcoin

The problem: Show exactly how Bitcoin works at every layer — from key generation to signed, broadcast transactions on testnet.
What I built: Educational Bitcoin wallet on testnet4 built on what I learned from Bitcoin Dojo. Generate all three address types (P2PKH, Nested SegWit, Native SegWit) from a single key, receive testnet coins, build and sign a real transaction, then broadcast and watch it confirm on-chain. secp256k1 + ECDSA + RFC 6979 implemented from scratch in a vendored bitcoin_dojo crate. Includes signature malleability demo.

Rust
Axum
Tokio
secp256k1
ECDSA
Docker

Live site GitHub

All projects

Public projects. Open source first.

Everything I've shipped in the open, from hackathon builds to bots I use every day. Search it, filter it, poke at the code.

11 of 11

StackMate

Building

Builder marketplace on Bitcoin L2

Stacks builders and founders need a trusted way to find co-builders, with partnerships verifiable on-chain rather than just word-of-mouth.

Full case study above

Code Live

Open Wallet Standard

OWS Hackathon

Multi-chain wallet for AI agents

AI agents need to sign blockchain transactions without ever exposing raw private keys.

Full case study above

Code Live

Bitcoin Wallet Lab

Bitcoin from first principles, in Rust

Show exactly how Bitcoin works at every layer — from key generation to signed, broadcast transactions on testnet.

Full case study above

Code Live

OmniCaption AI

AMD Hackathon

Multi-agent video intelligence

Most captioning systems only transcribe speech — accessibility and content teams need to know what actually happened in a video.

› How it works

Multi-agent video intelligence system built for the AMD Developer Hackathon ACT II. 13 specialised AI agents (scene detection, Whisper ASR, VLM vision understanding, emotion analysis, self-verification) collaborate to turn one video into captions in 4 styles, rich accessibility descriptions for blind users, an emotion timeline, highlights, memes, and platform-ready social posts.

Python
TypeScript
React
FFmpeg
Whisper
Fireworks AI
ROCm
Docker

Code Live

Certified Chain

Credential issuance on Cardano

Give institutions a tamper-proof way to issue, verify, and revoke credentials without a centralised authority.

› How it works

Blockchain credential-issuance platform on Cardano: certificate NFTs minted via Mesh SDK and Blockfrost, an Aiken on-chain revocation contract, and a zero-knowledge privacy layer (Midnight Network) so only hashes touch the chain. Certificate metadata is pinned to IPFS via Pinata; employers verify instantly via on-chain transaction hash.

Next.js
TypeScript
Cardano
Mesh SDK
Aiken
Midnight Network
IPFS
Neon Postgres

Code Live

BobOpenSource

AI guide for first-time contributors

New contributors face unfamiliar repos with no map — which files matter, what could break, where to start.

› How it works

AI developer tool that analyzes a GitHub repo and issue, maps dependencies, and generates an implementation roadmap with code guidance and risk notes — plus an interactive "Ask Bob" Q&A over the analysis.

Next.js
React
Node.js
GitHub API
Neon Postgres
Clerk

Live

Memorabilia

Telegram Mini App

On-chain memory game on Starknet

Build a fully on-chain game for the Dojo Game Night hackathon, accessible via Telegram without crypto knowledge.

› How it works

Fully on-chain memory card matching game on Starknet, built for the Dojo Game Night hackathon. Playable as a Telegram Mini App (@enter_memorabilia_musem_bot) — no wallet or gas fees to start. Features Account Abstraction, gasless transactions, 3 eras, 15 levels, daily challenges, and NFT minting via Cartridge.

TypeScript
Starknet
Dojo Engine
Cairo
Telegram Mini App

Code Live Open in Telegram

Daily Habit Hub

Fitness accountability on Avalanche

Build exercise habits through daily accountability, community support, and on-chain proof of progress on Avalanche.

› How it works

Modern fitness tracking app combining social accountability with Web3 rewards. Daily check-ins across gym, running, cycling, yoga and more. Visual streak tracking, community feed, professional coaching connections, and $HABIT token rewards + "Proof of Progress" NFT minting on the Avalanche network.

Next.js
Supabase
Avalanche
Wagmi
RainbowKit
TanStack Query
shadcn/ui

Code Live

Computer Vision — Traffic & Attendance

Edge inference in Python and Rust

Real-time vehicle speed, traffic jam detection, and person tracking at the edge with zero cloud latency.

› How it works

Edge-native CV system for real-time traffic sensing and multi-class object counting. Dual-stack architecture: Python (Ultralytics + DeepFace for gender analysis) for prototyping, and Rust (ort/ONNX Runtime + OpenCV) for high-performance edge inference. Homography-based pixel-to-meter calibration for science-grade speed data. Designed to run on NVIDIA Jetson.

Python
Rust
YOLO
ONNX Runtime
OpenCV
DeepFace

Code

Bitcoin OSS Triage

Live bot

Daily open-source digest on Telegram

Finding high-signal open-source contribution opportunities means trawling issue trackers by hand every day.

› How it works

Autonomous agent that scans GitHub repositories daily for good-first-issue, help-wanted, and bug labels, analyzes each with an LLM, and delivers a prioritized digest via Telegram. Built with Node.js, Gemini/Groq/Ollama, Airtable, and cron scheduling.

Telegram Bot API
Node.js
LLM
Airtable
Cron

Code Open in Telegram

Second Brain

Live bot

Personal AI memory on Telegram

Capture ideas, links, and notes the moment they hit — recall them later in plain language.

› How it works

Personal AI second-brain on Telegram. Forward links, drop voice notes, jot ideas; ask questions in natural language and the bot retrieves with context. Built around an LLM + vector store so semantic search beats keyword grep.

Telegram Bot API
LLM
Vector DB
Python

Open in Telegram

>_ There's more on GitHub: experiments, forks, half-finished ideas.

Browse repos

Ecosystems & engineering focus

Where I spend my time.

I'd rather tell you where I'm deep and where I'm still learning than hand you a wall of logos.

Bitcoin
Learning & contributing
Rust tooling, wallets from scratch, Lightning, and Code Orange meetups.
Cardano
Building
DApps with Plutus, Aiken and Mesh SDK; merged PRs to IntersectMBO and the Foundation.
Avalanche
Building
Public apps on Avalanche and a Team1 Africa collaborator.
Midnight
Exploring
Zero-knowledge privacy layers for credentials and data.
AI automation
Building
Agents, bots and workflows. Also studying technical AI safety.
Full-stack
Daily
End-to-end products: web, APIs, databases and admin tools.
Developer tools
Building
Tools that make open-source contribution less intimidating.
Working in one of these?
Let's talk

How I can help

Payments: Stripe, M-Pesa, PayPal or on-chain payments, wired into your product end to end.
AI features: Chatbots, semantic search and RAG pipelines on OpenAI, Groq, Gemini or LLaMA.
Blockchain integration: Wallets, signing and transactions across Bitcoin, Cardano, EVM, Solana and Starknet.
Smart contracts: Solidity, Plutus, Aiken, Cairo and Clarity: written, tested and deployed with care.
Agentic automation: AI agents, scheduled jobs and bot infrastructure that keep running after the demo.
Working in your repo: I contribute to Bitcoin and Cardano codebases, so I'm used to shipping inside someone else's code.

Tools I reach for

Picked for the job and the team, not to fill a badge wall.

Interfaces: TypeScriptJavaScriptReactNext.jsTailwindHTML & CSS
Backend: Node.jsExpressNestJSPythonPostgreSQLMongoDBRedis
Systems: RustHaskellC++Elixir (learning)
Chains: Bitcoin & LightningCardano (Plutus, Aiken, Mesh)Stacks (Clarity)Starknet (Cairo, Dojo)EVM (Solidity)Solana
Delivery: DockerLinuxNginxGitCI/CDVim

About

The person behind the commits.

I'm Daniel, a Nairobi-based engineer who likes doing hard things. I started out as a curious IT student and kept pulling the thread: full-stack web systems first, then smart contracts, then AI automation and blockchain products.

Most of my work now happens in the open. I build with Bitcoin, Cardano, Rust, Python, React and Next.js, and I send pull requests to the projects I depend on. Away from the editor you'll find me at Code Orange and local developer meetups, or helping out with Team1 Africa.

If you have a product to ship or a feature that's stuck, I'd like to hear about it. Say hello

Now

Building: A personal AI agent for research and task delegation
Reading: Mastering the Lightning Network
Community: Team1 Africa (Avalanche), Code Orange and local developer meetups

A short hello, in my own words.

Products shipped: 20+Products shipped
Open-source PRs merged: 5+Open-source PRs merged
Blockchain communities: 5Blockchain communities

What I've been up to

Work, open source and community, most recent first.

July 2026 – Present
Community
Team1 Collaborator — Avalanche
Team1 Africa · Avalanche ecosystem
- Accepted as a Team1 Collaborator — a global network of builders, developers, and creators growing the Avalanche ecosystem.
- Contributing through Team1 Africa: community calls, ecosystem building across the region, and the Mini Hack Cohort 2 build program.
May 2026
Community
Author — Claude Code Setup Guide
Open source · Self-published
- Wrote and published an open-source guide showing developers how to use Claude Code for free.
- Shared on LinkedIn for the broader developer community.
github.com/mwihoti/claudecodesetup
2026 – Present
Community
Personal AI Agent — danpersonalagent
Personal Project
- Building a personal AI agent for autonomous task delegation, research, and workflow automation.
github.com/mwihoti/danpersonalagent
2026
Open source
Open Source Contributor
rust-payjoin — Payjoin Protocol (BIP 77 / BIP 78)
- Contributed to rust-payjoin, the reference Rust implementation of Payjoin — privacy-preserving Bitcoin payment batching.
- Pull request reviewed and merged into the upstream project.

GitHub activity

Writing & notes

Notes from the workbench.

Guides and build logs. Mostly written so I remember how I did something, then shared in case it helps you too.

All writing

May 2026

How to Use Claude Code for Free

A practical guide showing developers how to set up and use Claude Code without paying for it. Covers installation, configuration, and the workflows I use day-to-day.

Read on GitHub

Let's build something useful.

Tell me what you're building and where it's stuck. A rough idea is fine, and so is a half-broken repo. Messages come straight to my inbox.

GitHub LinkedIn

Based in Nairobi, Kenya (EAT, UTC+3). Happy to work across time zones.

15 minutes to talk through your idea. No pitch, no obligation.

Calendar not loading? Open it on cal.com.

Things I've built, and why.

StackMate

Open Wallet Standard

Bitcoin Wallet Lab

Public projects. Open source first.

StackMate

Open Wallet Standard

Bitcoin Wallet Lab

OmniCaption AI

Certified Chain

BobOpenSource

Memorabilia

Daily Habit Hub

Computer Vision — Traffic & Attendance

Bitcoin OSS Triage

Second Brain

Where I spend my time.

How I can help

Tools I reach for

The person behind the commits.

What I've been up to

Team1 Collaborator — Avalanche

Author — Claude Code Setup Guide

Personal AI Agent — danpersonalagent

Open Source Contributor

GitHub activity

Notes from the workbench.

How to Use Claude Code for Free

Let's build something useful.