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.

Today, Alby announced the release of Alby Go, a mobile application available for iOS and Android that allows users to make self-custodial payments via their Lightning node.

Users can connect the app to Lightning nodes and wallets including Alby Hub, Umbrel, Start9, LifPay and CoinOS to enable self-custodial Lightning payments. The app most easily integrates with Alby Hub, an open-source wallet that Alby recently released that makes Lightning nodes easy to access and use from multiple devices. Alby Go also provides a straightforward wallet interface to Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC)-enabled Lightning wallets.

“Alby Go is our next step in making bitcoin accessible everywhere, now bringing it to users’ pockets,” said Alby co-founder Alby Michael Bumann in a press release. “By utilizing the NWC messaging protocol, we facilitate seamless use of multiple nodes and wallets in a lightweight app.”

Other features of Alby Go include a contact list, which lets users store Lightning addresses of frequent contacts for quick and convenient transactions; currency conversion and dark/light theme settings.

Alby Go is currently in version 1.5 and Alby encourages users to contact the Alby team with suggestions on how to improve the app. The app’s code is open-source and ready for reviews and contributions.

For more information on Alby, see our Founders piece on Alby co-founder Michael Bumann.

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) has enabled its U.S. business account holders to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency supported on its platform, such as Bitcoin, directly from their PayPal accounts. While this service is available nationwide, it will not be available in New York State at launch, PayPal stated.

JUST IN: PayPal now enables business accounts to buy, hold and sell #Bitcoin and crypto. pic.twitter.com/mIujzhrtiF

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) September 25, 2024

“Since we launched the ability for PayPal and Venmo consumers to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency in their wallets, we have learned a lot about how they want to use their cryptocurrency,” said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Currencies at PayPal. “Business owners have increasingly expressed a desire for the same cryptocurrency capabilities available to consumers. We’re excited to meet that demand by delivering this new offering, empowering them to engage with digital currencies effortlessly.”

In addition to buying and selling, U.S. merchants can now externally transfer cryptocurrency to third-party wallets. This new functionality further increases the flexibility of crypto transactions for businesses.

PayPal’s expansion into offering businesses the ability to buy and hold Bitcoin and crypto on its platform builds on its growing digital currency initiatives. This includes the launch of consumer crypto services in 2020 and the introduction of its U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), in 2023.