Bikel 🚲⚡

Bikel is an open-source, decentralized mapping and geolocation ecosystem natively built on the Nostr network. It allows cyclists and athletes to passively track rides, overlay photos, organize alleycat races, and distribute lightning-fast Bitcoin micro-payments—all entirely free from traditional proprietary fitness trackers. Because Bikel uses Nostr and NIP-52 Time-Based events, your location data belongs permanently to your cryptographic identity. You are free to take your maps to any client or relay you choose.

---

📸 Visual Overview (v1.5.0)

Mobile Feed (MPH)	POI Map Rewards	Scavenger Hunts	Drafts	Settings

---

🏗️ Architecture

The Bikel platform is divided into four independent components that communicate symbiotically over Nostr websocket relays:

1. apk/ (The Mobile Tracker)

   • Built natively in React Native. Standardized on NIP-1301 for fitness activities.
   • v1.5.0 Upgrade: Migrated to a custom Native Foreground Service (bypassing Google Play Services).
   • De-Googled Support: Fully compatible with LineageOS and GrapheneOS for reliable background auto-detection.
   • Features "Privacy Tail-Trimming," hardware-bound GPS polling, and offline-first drafting.

2. web/ (The Global Dashboard)

   • React + Vite dashboard for map overlays, NWC zapping, and CC0 data exports.
   • Acts as a social hub for RSVPs, scheduling, and ride discussions.

3. relay/ (The Sovereign Backbone)

   • New: A dedicated, high-performance strfry (C++) relay hosted on Hetzner.
   • Features a strict whitelist (filter.js) to block network spam and prioritize cycling data.
   • Powers the ecosystem with 1,000,000+ simultaneous connection support.

4. backend/ (The Escrow Bot)

   • Node.js bot for managing automated prize pools and contest payouts.

---

🚀 Quickstart Guides

1. Dedicated Relay (/relay)

Launch your own sovereign data infrastructure:

cd relay
docker compose up -d

See relay/README.md for host-tuning and DNS instructions.

2. Web Frontend (/web)

cd web
npm install && npm run dev

3. Escrow Node (/backend)

cd backend
npm install && npm run start

4. Compiling the APK (/apk)

To sideload the native .apk straight onto your Android, ensure your phone is on the same WiFi network and USB/wireless debugging is enabled. Then run:

cd apk
./install.sh --release

This script automates the Expo prebuild, Gradle compilation, and APK sideloading.

---

---

🗺️ Nostr Event Kinds

Kind	Role	Description
1301	Primary	Standard Fitness Activity (NIP-1301)
33301	Legacy	Historical Bikel Ride events (Supported for backfill)
33400	Bot	Bot Announcement: Decentralized discovery, fee rates & relay lists
33401	Hunt	Scavenger Hunt / Challenge: Parent container for POI sets
33402	Point	Checkpoint: Sponsored POI with distance-based rewards
31925	RSVP	RSVP: Join events/campaigns to track participation
6	Feed	Reposts / Boosts
5	Admin	Deletion requests
1	Social	Ride comments / Shout-outs

---

🎮 Bikel Game Layer

Bikel has evolved from a simple tracker into a decentralized "Live Game." Sponsors can create Scavenger Hunts and Sponsored POIs that reward physical exertion with automated Bitcoin payouts.

⚡ Mechanics

• 📍 Sponsored POIs (Kind 33402): Individual points on the map. Entering the 50-meter radius triggers an instant sat payout. Verified with high-precision coordinate matching (6 decimal places) to ensure reliability.
• 🧩 Scavenger Hunts (Kind 33401): Parent containers that group multiple POIs into a "Set."
• 💰 Completion Bonuses: Completing a full set (hitting every point in a Kind 33401 hunt) triggers a massive "Set Reward" bonus.
• 🔄 Retroactive Evaluation: The Bikel Bot uses a "Virtual Hit List" to recognize set completions even if you already received individual checkpoint rewards on previous runs.

🧭 Advanced Incentives

• Daily Streaks: Multipliers for visiting a specific POI multiple days in a row (configured via streak_days for duration and streak_reward for bonus sat amount).
• Ordered Routing: Bonuses for following specific paths in order (route_id → route_index).
• Activity Window: Expired events remain visible in the feed and on the map for a 7-day grace period to ensure recent campaign activity is discoverable.

🪙 Platform Economics

The ecosystem is self-sustaining through a markup model where sponsors fund prize pools:

• Sponsors: Pay a small platform fee (default 5%) to maintain the bot infrastructure.
• Riders: Get 100% of the promised reward via Lightning Network.

---

🛠️ Infrastructure & Persistence

For developers running their own Bikel Bot:

• Persistence: Individual payouts are tracked in checkpoint_payouts.json, while completion bonuses are stored in set_payouts.json.
• Coordinate Standard: The bot synchronizes with the mobile app using NIP-33 d-tag coordinates (lat,lng) for robust event linking.
• Relay Backbone: High-frequency updates are managed by a dedicated strfry relay to ensure split-second hit detection. <truncated 501 bytes>

---

📐 Kind 1301 — Fitness Activity (Primary Standard)

Bikel has adopted NIP-1301 as its primary data standard. This ensures compatibility with the broader Nostr fitness ecosystem while maintaining the high-resolution geometry Bikel is known for.

• Storage: Rides are broadcast to wss://relay.bikel.ink (and public relays).
• Format: Uses standard tags for distance, duration, and sport.
• Legacy: kind: 33301 is still fully supported for reading historical data.

---

💡 Philosophy

Bikel ensures structural autonomy by keeping its layers entirely decoupled. By hosting your own dedicated relay, you ensure your data is never pruned by public relays and your community always has a fast, reliable place to call home.

You are highly encouraged to fork, audit, reskin, and deploy your own variations of all four instances for your local cycling clubs. Happy Riding! 🚴