In this episode of The Sunny Ray Show, host Sunny Ray talks with Nick Slaney, founder of Money Devkit and Ory, an AI assistant built on OpenClaw. Nick traces his path from mechanical engineering at the University of Rochester and laser research at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, through Elbit Systems, Bose, and Jack Dorsey's Block, where he helped build the BitKey hardware wallet. He explains how Ory grew out of an internal experiment called Sapbot, evolving into a highly capable AI assistant that lives in group chats and learns its users' personalities. Nick also unpacks Money Devkit, a tool that lets developers accept global Bitcoin and Lightning payments without the geographic restrictions of processors like Stripe. He contrasts Bitcoin's decentralization with the compliance constraints facing US dollar stablecoins, and discusses the emerging world of agentic payments, where AI agents need frictionless ways to spend and receive money. The conversation closes with reflections on OpenClaw's significance for the future of AI capability and autonomy.
Money Devkit founder Nick Slaney on building Ory, an AI agent for group chats, and unlocking Bitcoin powered agentic payments.
Can you give people a couple sentences on what Money Devkit and Ory are?
Money Devkit is the easiest way to take global payments online. I have a video showing going from a website to global production payments in under five minutes. Ory is a new AI assistant that lives in your group chat. We think it is the most capable AI assistant out there, born from us playing with the latest AI developments and realizing not only how capable but how fun it is to have around.
Where did the inspiration for Ory come from?
It came from my own OpenClaw instance called Sapbot, which I initially tasked with helping on Money Devkit stuff. After adding Sapbot to a group chat, we noticed it learned who we were and started roasting us and being funny. It became something beyond just OpenClaw, and Ory is really the best parts of that productized for the average person, dropped into a group chat without the underlying complexity.
What was it like being a young engineer at the laser lab working with the Omega laser system?
That was really fun. Rochester is one of two schools you go to for optical engineering, and the laser lab was the biggest laser in the US for a while. I got the opportunity through a friend doing her PhD there, helped with dielectric gratings, and even got my name on a couple papers. It was the cutting edge of fusion research and a fun place to start.
You went from defense work at Elbit Systems to product design at Bose. What was the thread between the two?
It actually has to do with Bitcoin. Around 2013 or 2014 I wanted to build a hardware wallet and told my company about it because of invention assignment agreements. They said they wanted it instead, and I ended up getting fired over a Bitcoin wallet. That led me to Bose, where my future manager was fascinated by the story and hired me despite it not being an easy field to break into.
Is coffee roasting a serious hobby for you?
When I was at Elbit we got really into nice coffee from a small batch roaster in New Hampshire called CQ Coffee, now Flight Coffee. I still order from them. When I left Elbit I had a summer where I worked as a coffee roaster there and learned to roast. I loved it and still buy their coffee.
In simple terms, what is Money Devkit and what problem does it solve for developers?
It started for people excited about vibe coding their apps who wanted to make money but weren't in the right country or industry to use something like Stripe. Money Devkit harnesses Bitcoin in a usable, developer friendly way so people outside Stripe's footprint can receive global payments, building on lessons from Lightning Network work at Block and the rise of easy Bitcoin payments through Cash App.
What are Lightning and Bitcoin getting right compared to stablecoins?
Lightning and Bitcoin are still genuinely decentralized, giving access to everyone. With stablecoins, using products like Bridge still requires ID verification, which goes against Bitcoin's value proposition. US stablecoin companies are trying to become banks and card networks, which is valid, but they leave on the table the total addressable market that Bitcoin can unlock globally, including hard to reach industries stablecoin issuers cannot serve.
What does OpenClaw mean to you, and why are people so excited about it?
OpenClaw showed the real power of today's AI models. Peter, its founder, fully committed by giving an agent a computer and all the tooling to act, something Anthropic or OpenAI likely wouldn't ship due to trust implications. Persistent memory and unrestricted tool access were the real unlock. It feels like you can really sense AGI, and it shifts the path forward from smarter models to more capability.
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