We had a nice project intro session about Arké yesterday, covering the origin story, ambitions, UX and design details, and lots more. Check it out.
Christoph Ono
gbks@nosta.me
npub1kuc7...0eyw
Designer & developer. Helping improve bitcoin design with many others at https://bitcoin.design . I write a weekly update at https://gbks.substack.com . ✌️
Coming up soon (probably): 
Arké
Pay with bitcoin. In stylé.
Arké is self-custodial. The app relies on iCloud and Keychain, which iOS users already trust. An Esplora server helps with bitcoin network data, and an Ark server helps with payments. So far there's no need for any other server infrastructure and I am looking to keep it that way if possible.
Arké
Pay with bitcoin. In stylé.
Arké is heading toward TestFlight alpha testing. It's an Ark wallet, based on the implementation by Second, and on signet at the moment. If you'd like to give it a whirl, there's a waitlist signup on the website:
Time to mess around and break things.
Arké
Pay with bitcoin. In stylé.
If bitcoin is good for data storage, anyone know how I can sync my iCloud to it? Would be nice to have an extra backup.
When you hide your balance in Arké, you see a nice scenic view of a Tuscan landscape instead. I find it feels quite nice. A masked balance ("*****") still makes you think about the balance. A nice landscape is more relaxing.
Arké is coming along nicely. I like this phase where you do a ton of small iteration and tweaking and you can feel the overall experience becoming more polished and smooth.
And I am sure a whole bunch of my decisions will prove to be wrong in user testing. But that’s no reason not go out with opinionated UX.
Have a good weekend. And let’s be kind to one another.
Took a brief look at QR code styling (difference in density comes from different error correction settings).
Ah, time to unfollow some people spreading replacement theory conspiracy theories. Astounding that anyone actually believes this stuff.
Super messy Arké update, but here we go. Unilateral exit, fee summary, activity & console. Like insurance, unilateral exit is one of those things that you really never want to use, but still want to have just in case. So if the Ark server goes away, you can still recover your funds. Still need to wrangle a lot of tech into submissions and polish the UI to glory.
I always take a ton of screenshots when I build something, and annotate them thoroughly. That, and tons of testing, is pretty much the only way to be sure it's all smooth and polished.
Working through the unilateral exit in Arké. I think it can be pretty simple in the end, but there's a lot of complexity under the hood to work through. It's an essential part, as this is what lets you recover your bitcoin even if the server that facilitates your payments goes away (or turns into a diamond-covered skull, I heard that could happen).
Wrote something about the goals for Arké. Feedback appreciated. 
Arké
Ark, eh?
Nice to get an update from our electric utility provider that electricity prices will be 8.8% lower next year. More of that, please.
And one more Arké update, all about the mobile UI. Take a peek. Would you use this?
Sharing some super half-baked screenshots of the Arké iOS app. I am porting the desktop screens to work across both MacOS and iOS, with almost all logic and components being shared. Just piecing things together roughly with lots of visual and interactive tweaks and polish to come. That's going to be fun and it's where the real UX finessing is. 
AI sucks at time estimation, maybe in an opposite way that people do. Says 11-14 hours, and is done in 10 minutes 🤷.
Arké now has a (very rough) mobile app that is best friends forever with its desktop companion. Thanks to new @Second Bark FFI Swift bindings. Here's a shaky setup-and-link demo:
What do you think?
Another Arké update? How will we pick servers during wallet setup? That, and fees, is what I am investigating here. Curious to hear any thoughts, as always.
Second Community
Arké MacOS prototype
Neil, I am so appreciative that you approach things that way. This week I realized that Bark supports BOLT-12 offers and Lightning Addresses out of...
This is an example with a rich BIP-21 URI (like what you might get from clicking a link at a checkout)). Instantly parsed and evaluated. Payment meta data is easy to see. Payment options (addresses) are matched against existing contacts, networks verified, balances checked, fees evaluated, and the best option highlighted. Just hit send and done. What do you make of that?
