• 🔥 Founder’s Note — Building in the Open
• ⚡ A New V4V Tool in Development
• 🍳 Recipe Experiment — Greek Bounty Update
  • 🛠 What We Shipped This Week
  • 🍽 Closing

§🔥 Founder’s Note — Building in the Open

I believe in open source. That’s why Zap Cooking is open source.

Open systems create better environments. They’re more meritocratic. They create feedback loops. If something doesn’t work, it gets fixed. If something works, it spreads.

That’s what I love about Nostr and building Zap Cooking.

You ship things.
You try new ideas.
Some work. Some don’t.

But every step teaches you something. Every step is a lesson in how to improve. Kaizen.

This past week we started experimenting with sponsors on Zap Cooking.

For some people this is a bit taboo. Nobody is really doing ads on Nostr.

But we’re looking at it differently.

Instead of the traditional ad model, we’re trying to build something that adds value to the ecosystem and keeps it inside the community.

Zap Cooking is Lightning native. Transparent. Open.

The sponsors we want to work with are the same kinds of builders that are already here.

Small artisans.
Food makers.
Bitcoin builders.
Independent businesses that believe in open systems and food culture.

The idea is simple.

If Zap Cooking helps people discover recipes, vendors, techniques, and deeper connection with food, then it makes sense to align with businesses that believe in the same thing.

No tracking.
No cookies.
No selling data.

Just signal.

We’re still early in this experiment and would love feedback.

You can see the sponsor page here:
https://zap.cooking/sponsors

If you run a food business, sell a product you believe in, or just want to support the project, reach out.

We’re learning as we go.

— Seth

§⚡ A New V4V Tool in Development

Behind the scenes we’ve also been working on something new.

A Value-for-Value tool that connects users directly P2P for transactions.

The idea is simple.

Bitcoin and Lightning make this possible.

We’re experimenting with ways to make those interactions easier inside Zap Cooking.

Still early. Still testing.

But the direction is clear.

Food culture + open money + peer to peer connection.

More soon.

§🍳 Recipe Experiment — Greek Bounty Update

Last week we launched a small experiment.

⚡ 5,000 sats for the best Greek recipe posted on Zap Cooking.

And the honest update?

Nobody entered.

Part of that is on me.

I didn’t market it enough.

When you run your own platform, there isn’t an algorithm doing the distribution for you. Sometimes you have to manually push the signal.

But that’s part of building this.

We try things.
We learn.
We adjust.

The idea behind the bounty still stands.

Food culture grows when people share recipes and stories.

So if you’ve got a great Greek recipe sitting in your kitchen notebook, post it this week and tag it #GreekOnZap.

Let’s get some Mediterranean signal flowing.

One of my favorite posts this week came from @ejnc…xc5z.

A recipe inspired by a medieval dessert from the Maestrazgo region of Valencia.

Cyphermunks’ Cake — a rustic orange and almond cake adapted from the historical torta del Maestrazgo. Originally plant-based because almond trees were abundant and dairy wasn’t common in the region.

The result?

A sticky, citrus-forward cake layered with candied oranges, toasted almonds, olive oil, and almond yogurt. Sweet, fragrant, and deeply rooted in Mediterranean food culture.

Exactly the kind of recipe that makes the Zap Cooking network interesting.

Real food.
Real history.
Real people sharing what they love to cook.

You can see the full recipe here:

https://zap.cooking/note1ztvwmneq8gl05slx887gk2c0rqjk30g3kv5xlqry4r9szf0m7j7qaka053

Posts like this are why we built Zap Cooking in the first place. Food culture travels through stories.

§🛠 What We Shipped This Week

The kitchen stayed busy this week. Here’s what went live.

Kitchen Sponsors + Recipe Boosts

We launched two new ways for builders and food businesses to support the network.

Kitchen Sponsors allow aligned businesses to support Zap Cooking with sponsor placements on the site.
Recipe Boosts allow creators to promote their recipes across the network.

Both are Lightning-native and transparent. No tracking. No data harvesting. Just signal.

Sponsor Transparency + Compliance

We added new disclosure and sponsor terms pages, updated the privacy policy, and improved the sponsor flow so disclosures appear clearly before payment. Transparency matters, especially when building on open systems.

Storefront Foundations

Behind the scenes we’ve been laying the groundwork for something new.

We’re experimenting with creator storefronts inside Zap Cooking. The early infrastructure is now in place to support store pages and creator-managed shops.

Under the hood, this is being built using Trusted Assertions (NIP-85) and NIP-15 marketplace stalls, which allows vendors to publish products and reputation signals directly through Nostr.

The goal is simple: enable peer-to-peer commerce around food culture, built on open protocols instead of closed platforms.

Still early. Still building.

§🍽 Closing

Zap Cooking is still early, but the direction keeps getting clearer.

People sharing recipes.
Builders supporting builders.
Food culture living in open systems.

We ship. We learn. We improve.

Food. Friends. Freedom.

— Seth