BlockPulse

Hey Indie Hackers 👋

I’ve been building a small SaaS called BlockPulse, focused on one very narrow problem:

“When is it a good moment to broadcast a Bitcoin transaction?”

Most tools rely on:

• public APIs

• mempool charts

• fee estimators

They’re powerful — but they assume users already know how to interpret raw data.

What I noticed

Talking with casual Bitcoin users, the hardest part isn’t choosing a fee.
It’s answering a simpler question first:

“Is this a normal moment on the network, or is something unusual happening?”

That uncertainty alone causes people to:

• overpay fees

• hesitate

• postpone transactions “just in case”

What I tried differently

Instead of another dashboard, I built:

• a physical ESP32 module

• measuring real-time network conditions independently

• producing a simple contextual signal, not charts

No API dependency.
No prediction.
Just: is the network calm, normal, or stressed right now?

Current state

• Working SaaS (React-based)

• 7-day free trial

• Early traction via Reddit discussions (BitcoinBeginners)

• Still validating willingness to pay

My questions for you

• Have you ever replaced complex data with a simpler signal in your product?

• How do you validate monetization when your value is reducing cognitive load rather than adding features?

• Would you start with retail users… or pivot earlier to B2B?

Happy to share lessons (and mistakes) so far.
Thanks for reading 🙏

A few weeks ago, I shared how I built BlockPulse — a Bitcoin network monitoring tool

based on physical hardware (ESP32), not public APIs.

Since then, the most interesting part hasn’t been the tech,

but how people actually use the signal.

Most non-expert users don’t want charts, mempool depth, or fee models.

They just want to know:

“Is now a reasonable moment to send, or should I wait?”

So I started framing the signal like a traffic light:

🟢 Stable → good moment to send

🟡 Unstable → proceed with caution

🔴 Congested → better to wait

That simple framing reduced decision stress way more than raw metrics.

I’m now curious:

• Do you personally prefer raw data or simple signals?

• Have you ever delayed a transaction just because the network felt uncertain?

For those curious, this is the tool I’m referring to:

👉 https://blockpulse.be

I wanted to understand the actual state of the Bitcoin network — not prices, not predictions, just whether the network is calm or congested.

Instead of relying on public APIs, I built a small physical setup using an ESP32 module that directly observes the network.

I turned this into a public tool:
BlockPulse Insight — Real-time Bitcoin network analysis

What the tool shows:

• network stability (simple score)

• qualitative transaction fee conditions

• a clear signal: good moment to send a transaction or better to wait

No price forecasting.
No trading signals.
No third-party APIs.

The goal is not to predict the market, but to read the state of the network itself.

👉 Live tool: https://blockpulse.be/tools/bitcoin-actif

I’m curious to hear feedback from builders:

• Does this kind of infra-first approach make sense to you?

• What network signals would you want to see next?

Hey Indie Hackers 👋

• No public APIs

• No third-party services

• Data comes from a physical ESP32 device connected to the Bitcoin network

• The tool just returns a clear yes / no indicator, nothing more

The goal was:

• no jargon

• no charts overload

• something understandable in 5 seconds

This is part of a larger SaaS, but this page is 100% free and public.

I’d love feedback on:

• usefulness of such a “binary” indicator

• ideas for a V2 (network stability, congestion, etc.)

• whether you’d trust hardware-based data more than APIs

Thanks 🙌
Christophe

Hey everyone 👋

I recently finished a full rebuild of my project, BlockPulse.

BlockPulse measures Bitcoin network data independently, using a physical ESP32 module connected to the Bitcoin network — not upstream APIs.

After the redesign and the first technical feedback, I decided to open a limited 7-day free access to the Pro dashboard for people who want to test it in real conditions.

This is not a marketing offer and there’s no trading promise.
The goal is simply to collect feedback on:

• data stability over time

• usefulness of the metrics

• relevance for technical use cases (monitoring, analysis, bots, research)

Access is:

• time-limited (7 days)

• activated manually

• no credit card

• no automatic renewal

If you’re working with Bitcoin data, infrastructure, or monitoring tools, your feedback would be extremely valuable.

👉 Request access here:
https://blockpulse.be/demande-acces

I’m documenting the project publicly and iterating step by step based on real usage.

Thanks 🙏

Most “real-time” Bitcoin dashboards look different, but under the hood they often rely on the same upstream APIs.

That means shared latency, silent outages, hidden aggregation, and no way to verify where the data actually comes from.

I wanted something different.

So I built BlockPulse: a Bitcoin data feed measured directly from physical hardware (ESP32-based), instead of consuming third-party APIs.

This is not a trading tool.

No signals. No predictions. No financial promises.

It’s built for developers and researchers who care about independent, reproducible Bitcoin data.

If you work with real-time or external data:

where have abstractions failed you recently?

Happy to answer questions about the hardware setup or data pipeline.

— Christophe

https://blockpulse.be

Hey Indie Hackers 👋

I’ve been working on a tool called BlockPulse.

Most Bitcoin “network status” tools rely on:

• third-party APIs

• delayed or aggregated data

• sources you can’t really verify

So I took a different approach.

I built a physical ESP32-based sensor that observes the Bitcoin network in real time and feeds the data directly into the platform — no public API dependency.

The goal is simple:
Help users know when it’s actually a good moment to broadcast a Bitcoin transaction.

What the tool shows:

• real-time network activity

• detected hashrate (from the physical sensor)

• transaction fee pressure (low / medium / high)

• a simple recommendation: good moment / wait

You can see it live here:
👉 https://blockpulse.be/tools/bitcoin-network-status

This is still early, and I’m actively iterating on:

• UX clarity

• how the data is explained to non-technical users

• pricing & onboarding (including a free trial)

I’d love feedback from builders:

• Does the value proposition make sense?

• Is the hardware angle clear enough?

• What would you expect from a tool like this?

Thanks 🙏

Most “real-time” Bitcoin dashboards look different,

but under the hood they usually rely on the same upstream APIs.

I started BlockPulse after running into a few issues while building monitoring tools:

• API latency that spikes unpredictably

• Silent outages or partial data gaps

• No way to verify how timestamps are produced

• No control over the full measurement pipeline

At some point I realized the problem wasn’t the dashboards — it was the abstraction layer.

So I tried a different approach.

Instead of consuming Bitcoin data, I started measuring it.

BlockPulse uses a physical ESP32 device to collect signals locally, timestamp them, and stream them to a real-time pipeline.

No third-party data APIs involved.

What changed immediately:

• predictable latency

• clear ownership of clock drift and gaps

• the ability to reason about data quality instead of trusting it

What did NOT change:

• this is not a trading tool

• no signals, no predictions, no financial promises

This is mainly useful for developers, researchers, and anyone who cares about independent, reproducible Bitcoin data.

For those of you working with real-time or external data:

where have abstractions failed you recently?

Happy to answer questions about the hardware setup or the data pipeline.