Bitcoin developer

Brink Donates Over $1 Million To Bitcoin Developers Last Year

Published

2 months ago

September 25, 2024

Brink, a non-profit focused on funding open source Bitcoin development published its annual report detailing over $1 million in donations to Bitcoin developers in 2023. It was founded in 2020 by renowned Bitcoin developers John Newbery and Mike Schmidt, aims to provide financial support and mentorship to promising developers working on open-source Bitcoin development.

In the report published on its 4th anniversary, Brink disclosed it received approximately $2.4 million in donations last year from over 500 contributors, with Jack Dorsey’s StartSmall initiative as a major donor.

Brink’s expenses totalled around $1.6 million in 2023. Over $1.2 million went directly to developer salaries and grants, enabling them to focus on Bitcoin protocol improvements.

As Bitcoin’s code is maintained voluntarily by open-source developers, organizations like Brink help ensure adequate funding for critical work on the protocol. Proponents believe having more full-time developers improving Bitcoin results in a stronger network.

The report highlighted major achievements from Brink-sponsored developers in areas like code review, security enhancements, testing infrastructure, and upgrade research.

The annual report provided transparency into how Brink is directing funding to support Bitcoin’s developer community. Its disclosure of expenses and engineering progress helps validate the non-profit’s role in sustaining Bitcoin as a decentralized open source project.

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Arthur Hayes

Arthur Hayes's Family Office Funds Another Bitcoin Core Developer

Published

2 months ago

September 26, 2024

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Maelstrom, the family office of former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes, has awarded Jon Atack a one-year Bitcoin developer grant. He is the second recipient of Maelstrom’s grant program supporting open-source Bitcoin developers.

Jon is an experienced contributor to Bitcoin Core, having started in 2019. He was also recently made a maintainer of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs).

In a statement, Arthur Hayes said, “We hope this financial support allows Jon to focus on his work on Bitcoin without worrying about income.” He emphasized the grant’s no-strings-attached nature, giving Atack freedom to work independently.

Bitcoin’s open-source codebase depends on voluntary developers, so grants help enable more contributors to work full-time. Proponents believe having more funded developers benefits Bitcoin’s ecosystem.

Jon said, “I’m concerned about human freedom, decentralization of power, individual empowerment, privacy and self-sovereignty. Bitcoin and open source software play a key part in striving for these causes.”

He plans to spend the year reviewing proposals and changes to improve Bitcoin Core and BIPs. Jon stated, “Bitcoin isn’t perfect. It needs further decentralization, continued vigilance, review, bug-fixing, updates, maintenance, and improved robustness, performance, privacy, scaling, documentation and user experience.”

Maelstrom aims to strengthen Bitcoin through no-strings grants to developers like Atack. Simultaneously, he is also receiving funding from another organization, OpenSats.

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