Who Funds Bitcoin Core Developers? Here Are The Facts
Even superheroes like the Bitcoin Core Developers have to eat. One of the most mind-blowing facts about Bitcoin is that a group of volunteers maintain and keep developing the code. Private companies, NGOs, and wealthy Bitcoiners support them via grants and donations. This is all done over the counter, with as much transparency as possible. […]
Related News
There is a misconception in the bitcoin community that the roadmap for how bitcoin should scale is based almost entirely on the technical judgment of the Bitcoin Core developers. While the Bitcoin Core roadmap does draw heavily on the substantial technical expertise of the Core developers, there are many non-technical factors that influence the Core roadmap. Many people agree with Core on all of the technical issues, yet still disagree with their roadmap. That's because the roadmap is based on assumptions about economics, group psychology, ethics and many other things which we have no....
A decision on the part of Core developers to use the same BIP ID number for their “compact blocks” proposal as its counterpart, “Xthin,” has ignited a controversy as some are now questioning the competency of Core developers. Xthin & Compact Blocks, One BIP. There has been an ongoing debate among the Bitcoin community regarding the decision of Core....
Funding Bitcoin development seems to have always been problematic. While the Bitcoin industry collectively has raised more than a billion dollars worth of investment over the past years, development of the Free and Open Source Software the industry largely relies on has always had trouble gathering sufficient funds and manpower for development. Several arrangements to raise funds have been tried over the years – but with varying degrees of success and longevity. Bitcoin Core, considered by many to be Bitcoin's “reference client,” therefore, announced a “Sponsorship Programme” earlier this....
The latest version of Bitcoin Core was released yesterday, with key changes that address the declining number of nodes, how transaction fees are set for the Bitcoin Core wallet and simplifying the process for developers to get involved with bitcoin projects. It's perhaps the latter point that will have the biggest impact on how developers work with Bitcoin Core. The latest version of it includes a consensus library, which gives programmers easy access to the rules governing consensus on the bitcoin network, without having to run a full node. "We're splitting it out into a standalone....
Many people are keeping a close eye on the block size debate for very different reasons. Solving the Bitcoin block size problem has been a top priority for developers over the past few months. Multiple solutions have been proposed, although only two of them are in actual “contention” right now. Bitcoin Core developers have begun development of a third solution that would shift the block size to 2MB. It is always good to have options on the table. Even though Segregated Witness has not been denied by the mining community yet, it is due time to consider alternatives. Bitcoin Core developers....