I started building a Bitcoin portfolio tracker because I was tired of the existing options. This is what I learned.

I know there are trackers out there. I used most of them. The problem I kept running into was either they wanted custody, they were clunky, or they mixed crypto into a general portfolio in a way that felt off for someone who thinks about Bitcoin differently than the rest of the market. Also, when you see things through a fiat lens you don't really value it. For example, spending $5 on coffee every day doesn't seem like a lot, until you realize how much money that is in Bitcoin that you spent.

I wanted something that:

- Works with your xpub so it's read-only OR just enter manual amount

- Shows fiat equivalent in your local currency

- Doesn't require KYC or an account on some exchange

- Changes the psychology of how you see daily money

- Looks decent on mobile

The xpub piece took longer than I expected. Deriving addresses, querying the mempool, handling different derivation paths for different wallet types... it's more nuance than it looks from the outside.

Three things I learned building this:

1. Most people don't understand what an xpub is or why it matters. The education gap is real.
2. Privacy-conscious users will test you. I had people ask good technical questions before they'd even try the app.
3. "Simple" is really hard. Every feature I added, I asked myself if a new Bitcoiner could understand it in 30 seconds.

If you want to see what I ended up with, it's called Compass. Not trying to sell anything, just sharing the build story. Feedback from this sub would actually be useful. Link in comments