At 11:03 PM, as my phone's navigation indicated 'Arrived at pickup point,' I was riding my electric bike turning into the alley behind the university town. The evening breeze dissipated the daytime heat and lifted the crooked cartoon stickers on my delivery box — those were put on by my girlfriend last week, saying, 'This will make it more cheerful while making deliveries.'

Just after delivering my last order to the international student dorm, my phone vibrated with a notification from a cryptocurrency market app. Glancing at the screen, my fingers paused on Bitlayer's candlestick chart. It's been exactly two years since I first got involved with this project, starting from that similarly hot summer night in 2023.

At that time, I was still worrying about gathering enough for my girlfriend's birthday gift, running deliveries until 2 AM, and while biting into a rice ball outside a convenience store, I stumbled upon the news that Bitlayer's mainnet was officially online. 'Bitcoin Layer 2' and 'EVM compatible' — these words hooked me like a bait. I had been hesitating between Bitcoin and Ethereum with the living expenses I had saved up for three months, feeling that the former was safe but lacked some 'fun,' while the latter was flexible but made me, as a newbie, feel uneasy about its security.

Later, as I followed the community documentation and gradually tackled the technical details, I understood where Bitlayer's brilliance lies. It acts like a precise converter, seamlessly connecting the decade-validated security mechanisms of Bitcoin with the thousands of smart contract tools in the Ethereum ecosystem. I remember the first time I made a cross-chain transaction on Bitlayer's testnet; watching the assets steadily 'jump' from the Bitcoin network to the Bitlayer chain, I excitedly slammed my hand on the table in my dorm, waking up my roommate on the top bunk.

In the past two years, I watched it evolve from a niche project to gradually attract more and more developers. At the end of last year, it launched the 'decentralized storage protocol,' and I spent three days in the library gathering information, managing to put together a simple DApp demo in my spare time. Although it was rough, it received a thumbs up from the community administrator — that day, I showed the screenshot to my girlfriend, and she smiled while holding her milk tea, saying, 'Although I don't understand, you seem so impressive.'

Now, on the market app, Bitlayer's market value has quietly climbed into the top 20. But more than the price numbers, what I care about is a screenshot saved on my phone: last month it announced the completion of a new round of financing, with the leading investor being the blockchain company where I interned last year. My mentor at that time wrote on social media: 'Bitlayer proves that the Bitcoin ecosystem offers not just 'digital gold' but also infinite possibilities.'

Locking my electric bike and heading back to the dorm, I passed by the print shop and caught sight of the poster on the glass door: 'Countdown to Job Search for the Class of 2025.' My phone vibrated again; it was a message from my girlfriend: 'I just saw your step count stuck at 23,000. Don't stay up late watching the market; you have class at 8 AM tomorrow.'

I replied with a smile, saying 'Coming back soon,' swiping my fingers across the screen to set Bitlayer's market page as my wallpaper. The moonlight spilled over the camphor tree below the dormitory, reminiscent of that night two years ago, but now I understand better — the confidence I've built in the code, in the candlesticks, and in every moment of grit will eventually become the chips for her future.@BitlayerLabs #Bitlayer