While much has changed since bitcoin was first mined in 2009, much has also stayed the same — like Bitcoin being open source, decentralized, and built by developers who aren’t paid for their work.
Okcoin’s Open Source Developer Grants support those who contribute to the Bitcoin network and layer two technology, as part of our mission to make crypto investing and trading accessible to anyone, anywhere. Learn more about our recent program updates here.
Our recent funding announcement
“To date, our investment in sponsoring the developers is close to $1 million… This is a significant amount of money, but when you think of the funding needs of developers, this is a small amount of what’s needed.” —Okcoin CEO Hong Fang
As Hong announced at Bitcoin 2021 last week, in addition to sponsoring individual developers whose work we see as crucial, we’re giving a $100K grant to Brink, which supports the Bitcoin developer community through funding, education, and mentoring. Brink is playing a crucial role in increasing the number of developers working on Bitcoin, while giving them the tools to be more effective. Brink shares Okcoin’s dedication to making bitcoin accessible to everyone in the world with a focus on technological improvements. Partnering with Brink will enable us to extend the reach of our grants and our impact.
“Brink is grateful for the generous contribution from Okcoin to our general program. We have recently closed submissions for our latest round of grants and will be evaluating applications and announcing grants soon. We are excited for this next round of grants and will be funding impactful developers similar to our first round of grants.” — Mike Schmidt, Brink Cofounder
We’re grateful to have partners like Brink to help us allocate funding to the people and projects that need it most.
Investing in education about Bitcoin development
Our work extends beyond the investments we’re making. According to a recent study we shared with our customers, 81% of retail crypto investors didn’t know that Bitcoin developers aren’t guaranteed compensation for their work. Of the pro traders we surveyed, 84% didn’t know this.
Yet despite their awareness of dev funding, 85%said they care about Okcoin helping to fund Bitcoin developers with grants. While it’s clear that there’s a lack of understanding around the voluntary contributions Bitcoin developers make, and as more people and places begin to use bitcoin, more developer support will be needed. In addition to funding, we’ll share education about how development works, how developers are funded, the types of projects they work on, and more. Stay tuned for more on our findings from the survey about bitcoin development perceptions.
Just the beginning
We’ll continue our funding momentum for the next three years, and we’ll continue to advocate for support of those working on Bitcoin. The $1 million we’ve dedicated since the beginning of 2020 is a first step in our commitment and investment in bitcoin’s network, and we encourage all companies in the ecosystem to join us in supporting this crucial work. As Bitcoin scales and there’s more demand placed on the network, we’ll need more open source work.
You can learn more about our Open Source Developer Grant Program on our site or contact us if you have any questions at ops@okcoin.com.
