ZBD Kart offers a glimpse of how Bitcoin can seamlessly blend into gameplay. Built on the Lightning Network, the game rewards players with real sats as they race, spend, and strategize on the track.
What started as a small internal project at ZBD has evolved into an open-source experiment that’s energizing Bitcoin communities worldwide.
In this interview, we dive into how ZBD Kart came to life, why it’s being shared freely, and how anyone can host their own Bitcoin-powered races.
What inspired the creation of ZBD Kart?
Firstly, I just thought it would be fun. I’ve always loved classic kart racers, and we were experimenting with ways to bring real Bitcoin rewards into games in a way that actually feels natural. So we thought: what if you could literally race for sats?
ZBD Kart started as a bit of a side experiment inside the team, something we could spin up quickly and have people play together at industry events. Once we saw how much people loved collecting and spending sats mid-race, it clicked. It’s playful, it’s competitive, and it introduces people to Bitcoin in a way that doesn’t feel technical at all.
What powers the game behind the scenes?
It’s a proper arcade racer at heart. We wanted it to be fast and chaotic, but underneath it’s powered by the Lightning Network. Every coin you pick up on the track is real Bitcoin. You can spend it to boost or blast your mates, or hang onto it and cash out at the end.
On the backend, organisers can choose how they want to handle payouts. Some use ZBD’s own developer tools, others use open-source tech like LNBits. It’s flexible by design. We wanted anyone to be able to run it, from a big conference down to a local Bitcoin meetup.
Why release it as an open-source project now?
We’d been running ZBD Kart ourselves at events for a while, and every time people would ask, “Can I get this for my meetup?” or “Could we run it at our café?” So we decided, let’s just give it to the community.
It’s not a product, it’s more like a gift. We’re not trying to commercialise it or push monetisation. The idea is to see what happens when we let people host their own Bitcoin-powered races. That’s much more interesting to us – seeing how others use it, remix it, and make it part of their own events.
How does ZBD Kart bring Bitcoin into gameplay in a meaningful way?
The key thing is that Bitcoin is baked into the gameplay. It is the game. You’re constantly deciding: do I spend sats to get ahead, or do I save them to withdraw later? That tension is the key. It adds real stakes, even if you’re just racing your mates.
Because it’s all Lightning-based, the rewards are instant and real. You can walk away from the game and have sats in your wallet seconds later. It’s a great, hands-on way to show what Bitcoin can do. Lectures are boring, games are cool.
How has the community responded so far?
It’s been great. We’ve had it running at Tokyo Bitcoin Base and Bitcoin Japan, and the energy in the room was brilliant. People got it straight away – they were laughing, shouting, stacking sats. That’s something worth sharing.
Since then, we’ve had people reaching out wanting to host it. It’s already set up in places like AntidoteBTC in London, and it’ll be popping up at events like BitFest UK later this year. We just want to keep it growing organically.
How can organizers host their own events?
Super simple. There are three ways to do it.
- If you’re a company or want to go a bit deeper, you can use ZBD’s developer platform. Plug straight into our Lightning wallets and APIs.
- If you’re an individual or just want to run it for fun, you can use LNBits. It’s totally open-source, no onboarding.
- Or if you’d rather not worry about the setup, we can host it for you like we did for Tokyo Bitcoin Base.
Once it’s up and funded, you’re good to go. Players race, win sats, withdraw them instantly. We’ll share tutorials and assets to make it as easy as possible.
How does ZBD Kart fit into ZBD’s wider mission in gaming and Bitcoin?
At ZBD, we’re all about showing that Bitcoin can make games more fun and engaging – adding real, instant value to the time you spend playing.
ZBD Kart is part of that bigger picture. It’s a small experiment in open gaming that we want to give to the community. See what happens.
For me, this is the amazing part of working in this space. We’re still discovering what’s possible when you blend real-time Bitcoin with real gameplay.
Co-Founder and Head of Gaming R&D at ZBD
