Who is supporting Bitcoin ecosystem developers?

When we talk about the development of Bitcoin, the first person that comes to mind is Satoshi Nakamoto, who published the Bitcoin white paper in 2018: "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System", and the Bitcoin protocol was born.

As with most software implementations, regular maintenance and upgrades to the Bitcoin protocol are essential. Since Bitcoin is not controlled by a single entity, development and maintenance must be achieved through consensus among network participants. In essence, there is no single individual or company that manages the development of the Bitcoin project, but rather it is initiated by individuals or teams around the world.

As Bitcoin resources and ecosystem scale continue to grow, various organizations continue to emerge and contribute to the development of the Bitcoin protocol. This is why Bitcoin has matured healthily from a niche open source software to an important digital infrastructure that millions of people can rely on.

In this article, we have sorted out some of the main organizations and individuals that fund the open source Bitcoin protocol and ecosystem.

Bitcoin Core: The core contribution team behind Bitcoin

Bitcoin has been around for more than 15 years, and the creator of Bitcoin has long disappeared from the Internet, but there are teams that have been maintaining and updating Bitcoin technology. The most famous team is the Bitcoin Core team.

Bitcoin Core is a software client that participants use to create nodes, store coins, conduct transactions, and perform other operations on the Bitcoin network. Think of it as an interface or gateway that determines how users interact with the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin Core functions similarly to how Google Chrome provides users with the functionality they need to connect to and browse the internet.

Just as there are multiple internet browsers besides Chrome, there are multiple Bitcoin software clients besides Bitcoin Core. However, none of these other clients are as widely used or influential as the Bitcoin Core implementation, which is still considered the Bitcoin software client that best preserves the ideology promoted by Satoshi Nakamoto. In addition, Bitcoin Core continues to benefit from the efforts of a large development team spread across the globe. As a result, it often sets the standard for other Bitcoin software clients.

The Bitcoin Core development team is large, so it is somewhat difficult to keep track of all contributors. Note that there are no special requirements to become a Bitcoin developer. Anyone can join, leave, or choose an area of ​​development they wish to focus on. Developers do not even have to disclose their identity to be eligible to contribute to the development of Bitcoin Core.

Bitcoin Core Contributions

As the original and primary software implementation of the Bitcoin protocol, Bitcoin Core sets the standard for other clients and ensures the continued operation of the network.

• Decentralization: By running Bitcoin Core, anyone can operate a full node and contribute to the decentralization of the network. This distribution of power prevents any single entity from controlling Bitcoin.

• Security: Bitcoin Core's strict transaction verification and complete blockchain records contribute to the security of the network. Any attempt to change past transactions will be detected by the full node, preventing fraudulent changes.

• Development and maintenance: The open source nature of Bitcoin Core allows developers around the world to continuously improve it. This collective effort ensures that Bitcoin can adapt to new challenges and changing circumstances. In August 2017, the Segregated Witness solution led by Bitcoin Core was activated. This solution increased the block capacity of Bitcoin and also solved the scalability of transactions. One of the solutions is the proposed Lightning Network.

Bitcoin Core is more than just software, it is the driving force behind the Bitcoin network. It ensures the operation of the system, maintains its decentralized structure, and ensures that the blockchain is protected from fraudulent activities.

Institutions dedicated to supporting the Bitcoin ecosystem

In the first few years, the development of Bitcoin was mainly maintained and supported by Satoshi Nakamoto and some other volunteers. As Bitcoin gradually became popular and formed a market, developers could obtain Bitcoin, which gradually attracted external developers.

Bitcoin Foundation

The Bitcoin Foundation was founded in 2012 by Bitcoin core developers Gavin Andresen and Jon Matonis. As a non-profit organization, the foundation mainly funds some developers. The organization aims to promote the development and promotion of Bitcoin, and communicate and coordinate with governments, enterprises and other parties on behalf of the Bitcoin community. Its mission is to standardize, protect and promote the use of Bitcoin cryptocurrency for global users. The foundation is committed to promoting the development and innovation of Bitcoin technology and plays an important role in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

One of the main sources of funding for the Bitcoin Foundation is membership fees, but by the beginning of 2015, the Foundation had almost exhausted its financial reserves. Despite this, the Foundation has made great contributions to the development of Bitcoin technology and the promotion of Bitcoin's popularity and application around the world.

Chaincode Labs

In 2014, Alex Morcos and Suhas Daftuar founded Chaincode Labs, a New York-based digital currency research organization that has contributed to the advancement of the Bitcoin network and is an important non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Bitcoin. Chaincode focuses on the development, auditing, testing, and maintenance of Bitcoin software, and in addition to Bitcoin developers in its permanent team, the platform also provides funding to independent Bitcoin developers. Some of the famous Bitcoin core developers funded by the organization include Pieter Wuille, Alex Morcos, Suhas Daftuar, John Newbury, Russ Yanofsky, Marco Falke, and Carl Dong.

MIT Digital Currency Initiative (MIT DCI)

MIT's Digital Currency Initiative is another cryptocurrency development research organization that provides funding to external developers as well as its own dedicated Bitcoin Core development team. However, unlike most Bitcoin development sponsors, MIT DCI relies on donations to raise funds. Bitcoin Core developers associated with the organization include Wladimir van der Laan and Cory Field. Since April 2015, developers working under the DCI's auspices have contributed 14% of Bitcoin Core code. In 2016, they also announced the launch of a $900,000 Bitcoin Development Fund, which attracted donations from several large exchanges.

Blockstream

Blockstream is a venture-backed blockchain technology company founded in 2014 by Bitcoin Core developers including Gregory Maxwell, Jorge Timón, Matt Corallo, Pieter Wuille and Mark Friedenbach. In its early days, Blockstream received $21 million in Series A funding.

As a company, its main goal is to build a sidechain for Bitcoin that allows interoperable transactions and strengthen the expansion of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Blockstream has made many significant contributions to Bitcoin, from a large number of improved protocols (BIPs) and research on segregated witnesses to confidential transactions, cryptographic code bases, and lightning networks. Currently, its products mainly include lightning networks, sidechains, multi-signature wallets, etc.

New Developments in Bitcoin Funding Institutions

In addition to the examples mentioned above, many other organizations are directly or indirectly supporting the development and maintenance of Bitcoin, as funding diversity has significantly improved. Cryptocurrency exchanges and some other businesses and organizations have begun to support open source Bitcoin developers.

Image source: BitMex research

BitMEX is an exchange that contributes to the development of Bitcoin Core by providing resources to developers. The program was launched in July 2019 and is the first trading platform to provide grants to Bitcoin developers. A total of $1.7 million has been provided (including $500,000 to MIT DCI), providing open source, no-strings-attached funding contracts for highly transparent projects. There are currently five members of the BitMEX Grants team, including Gleb Naumenko, Sjors Provoots, Rene Pickhardt, Chris Coverdale, and Calvin Kim.

Square Crypto is an independent research team created by Square to improve Bitcoin's open source software. In line with the team's mission, Square Crypto has funded several developers who work on proposing and implementing Bitcoin Core upgrades. Square crypto-sponsored Bitcoin Core developers include John Atack, Vasil Dimo, and Gloria Zhu. Matt Carlo, on the other hand, is a permanent member of the Square Crypto team.

Brink was founded in 2020 by John Newbery and Mike Schmidt. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the Bitcoin protocol. It focuses on the development of the Bitcoin protocol and aims to strengthen the Bitcoin protocol and network through basic research and development, and support the Bitcoin developer community through funding, education and guidance. 100% of its funds come from donations from individuals and organizations who want to support the open source Bitcoin network and protocol. Two rounds of funding have been released. In June of this year, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and his public fund Start Small pledged to donate $5 million to Brink. Brink will receive $1 million in funding each year for the next five years.

Opensats is a non-profit organization focused on projects such as Bitcoin, which aims to fund free and open source projects related to Bitcoin and related education and research programs. OpenSats provides a platform that does not charge any fees and transfers 100% of donations to projects and general funds through our platform. It is committed to funding Bitcoin and these peripheral technologies, including the development of new Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related software, the improvement of existing free and open source software, education and publicity about Bitcoin, and research on Bitcoin-related topics. In May of this year, OpenSats announced that it had received a donation of $10 million from Jack Dorsey's charitable program #startsmall, which will be used to support free and open source software and project development focusing on Bitcoin, decentralized social protocol Nostr and related technologies.

summary

Since the birth of Bitcoin, various institutions, companies and organizations have made technical or financial contributions to the development of the Bitcoin protocol to varying degrees. As the market value of Bitcoin continues to grow, the ecosystem based on the public chain of Bitcoin will gradually expand, especially the second-layer applications of Bitcoin such as the Lightning Network and side chains. In the future, developers, companies and organizations will also develop broader businesses around this type of infrastructure.