#452: Alex Gladstein on Funding Bitcoin Development
12/15/2020 · 55 min · transcript via mlx
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Key topics
— The Human Rights Foundation launched the Bitcoin Development Fund to support core developers and privacy-focused builders working on Bitcoin, with five initial grants including projects like CoinSwap, Lightning Network tools, JoinMarket, and mempool upgrades.
— Grant recipients are selected through a combination of public applications and expert consultation, with funding sizes ranging from one Bitcoin to $50,000 USD denominated in Bitcoin, designed to fill a gap left by corporate-only support.
— Nonprofits should play a critical funding role alongside corporations and universities to prevent Bitcoin development from becoming overly centralized or influenced by any single faction, as demonstrated during the 2017 block-size debate.
— Bitcoin's privacy features continue to evolve through technical upgrades like Segwit, Lightning Network, Taproot, and cross-input signature aggregation, making it an increasingly viable tool for financial privacy globally.
— The regulatory tension between Bitcoin's privacy features and corporate compliance demands reflects a fundamental divide: Western investors seek regulatory compliance, while billions living under authoritarian regimes depend on Bitcoin as their only path to financial freedom.
— Technology, not policy, is the ultimate arbiter of Bitcoin's future; the open-source development model proved successful with PGP encryption in the 1990s and will determine whether Bitcoin remains a global tool for financial sovereignty.
Market & price signals
— None discussed.
Actionable insights
— Individuals without capital can still support Bitcoin development by inviting core developers into their organizations for technical talks and educational sessions, increasing visibility and recruitment into what remains a small, underrepresented developer community.
— Donate to the Human Rights Foundation's Bitcoin Development Fund at href.org/dev-fund if you want 95% of your contribution directed to developers working on privacy and usability; consider supporting emerging nonprofits like Brink and OpenSats as alternatives to corporation-only funding models.
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