BitPadel
Prototype — not yet tested with real money or real doors.
An open "Bitcoin padel club in a box" kit. Playbooks, templates and checklists for anyone starting a Bitcoin-friendly padel (and pickleball) club, from a single pilot court to a flagship venue.
Status: early draft (v0.1). Playbooks and templates, plus a self-hosted reference app for Lightning booking, LNURL-auth and NFC entry, check-in, and optional read-only Playtomic sync in reference/club-box. Door-hardware notes are in that app's compatible door hardware section. See the roadmap for what is still ahead.
Nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice. Read the DISCLAIMER.
The idea
Padel is a racquet sport played on an enclosed court, and many cities still have few or no courts. A BitPadel club puts padel and Bitcoin in the same room: one person shows a friend, then a group, then a whole community.
Mission: a different way to "mine" Bitcoin
Bitcoin miners turn energy into blocks. A BitPadel club turns a different kind of energy, the energy of a sport and its community, into Bitcoin adoption: players, local businesses and neighbors who learn about Bitcoin, pay with Lightning, and come back for meetups and events.
This is a metaphor for the mission, not a mining claim. A BitPadel club does not mine Bitcoin, and joining, playing at or sponsoring a club does not earn anyone Bitcoin or any financial return.
What's in the kit
| Path | What it covers |
|---|
docs/01-concept-and-phases.md | The model and how a club grows: pilot court → small club → flagship |
docs/02-pilot-checklist.md | Court, site, portable clubhouse, permits, insurance, staffing |
docs/03-bitcoin-hub-playbook.md | Small-business Bitcoin conference curriculum, meetups, event rental, pro-shop Bitcoin corner |
docs/04-lightning-integrations.md | Lightning court booking, LNURL-auth member access with a door controller, Lightning at the shop |
docs/05-tournaments-and-leagues.md | Socials, ladders, leagues, tournaments, prize rules |
docs/06-community-growth.md | Waitlist, founding members, Reddit, Instagram, local partners |
docs/07-sponsorship-playbook.md | Sponsorship (not investment) packages and how to sell them |
docs/08-treasury-policy-considerations.md | Questions to settle with a CPA and attorney before a business holds Bitcoin |
|
Quick start
- Read
docs/01-concept-and-phases.md and decide which phase you're starting with (most clubs should start with one pilot court).
- Fill in
templates/financial-model.csv with your own local quotes. Every input starts at zero on purpose: the kit has no prices, because yours depend on your city, site and costs.
- Work through
docs/02-pilot-checklist.md with your landlord or host site, your local permitting office and an insurance broker.
- Pick a Lightning stack from
docs/04-lightning-integrations.md. You can run the reference booking and entry app locally with its mock backend (reference/club-box), then test a real node with small payments before opening.
- Start the community before the court: a waitlist, a founding-member interest page (
templates/founding-member-page.html) and a first Bitcoin meetup or small-business workshop (docs/03-bitcoin-hub-playbook.md).
- Talk to professionals before you take money from the public or hold Bitcoin as a business: a local attorney, a CPA and an insurance broker.
First club using the kit
Gainesville Padel Club in Gainesville, Florida is the first club building on these playbooks: https://gainesvillepadel.club. BitPadel is generalized from its planning work. Nothing in this repo is that club's pricing, plans or terms.
Contributing
Club founders, coaches, Bitcoin educators and Lightning developers are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md and the Code of Conduct.
License
Commercial or other dual licensing is available on request. This page does not list prices.
