A donation for a good cause – The protocol Bitcoin has been developed by many developers for years. Thus, the project’s GitHub reports more than 900 different contributors. However, without a Foundation, Bitcoin relies on volunteerism and contributions from certain specialized companies. Fortunately, the fund Brink aims to fund Bitcoin development and research. It has also just received massive new funding from Coinbase.
Brink: the fund to finance Bitcoin
As we have just discussed, the economic reward is not assured for Bitcoin contributors. Thus, in its history, several developers have abandoned their work on the protocol due to lack of resources.
Fortunately, in 2020, the Brink fund was launched in order to “strengthening the Bitcoin protocol and network through fundamental research and development”.
In practice, Brink offers two distinct programs:
- Fellowship program : a one-year program to train and prepare new developers for Bitcoin. In addition to support, those trained will receive a competitive salary and benefit from all the benefits that one would expect from a software engineer position.
- Grants program : a subsidy program for developers already involved in the development of Bitcoin. Both on safety and stability aspects and on research and development.
The project was initially funded by a donation from John Pfeffer and Wances Casares. Since then, many other donations have been made to the fund. For example, last June, Jack Dorsey donated $5 million to the project.
Coinbase donates $3.6 million to Brink
Last December, the giant Coinbase announced the cessation of its GiveCrypto initiativea non-profit organization founded by Brian Armstrong to provide cryptocurrencies to those in need.
“Despite the positive impact it has had, we have not been able to create lasting change through unconditional cash transfers alone. We will donate remaining funds to Brink and GiveDirectly to continue this mission. »
So, Brink received a $3.6 million donation from Coinbase. On February 16, Brink’s teams thanked Coinbase and its CEO Brian Armstrong for the donation via X (Twitter).
For its part, the GiveDirectly initiative also benefited from part of the funds from GiveCrypto. However, the amount was not specified.
More recently, it is VanEck which announced its desire to donate 5% of the profits of its ETF to finance the development of Bitcoin via Brink.