Jack Dorsey Pledges $5M to Help Bitcoin Core Developers

The funding will come from his charity, Start Small, and will be disbursed $1 million at a time over the next five years.

By Alyssa Hertig

Jack Dorsey talks Bitcoin in Miami. Image: Bitcoin 2021

In yet another donation aimed at fueling the Bitcoin ecosystem, Jack Dorsey is doling out $5 million to Brink, a crucial funder of open source developers in the Bitcoin space.

The $5 million will be given to Brink over the course of five years—$1 million per year.

The funds will be donated through his initiative Start Small, a charity vehicle the tech mogul started in 2020, initially dedicated to relief amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Brink grants make it possible for core developers supporting the world's largest cryptocurrency, like Fabian Jahr, to work on the network full-time.

“A grant from OkCoin allowed me to work full-time on Bitcoin Core during the first half of 2020,” he wrote in a blog post. “Otherwise, my contributions were limited to part-time efforts during nights and weekends.”

Bitcoin wouldn’t work without the global network of developers propping it up and improving it over the years. Brink funds Bitcoin and Lightning developers working to improve the technology, making integral improvements to its privacy and scalability, in the hopes of expanding the digital payment system to a larger audience.

Dorsey has handed out millions over the last few years to beef up underground Bitcoin improvement efforts, including setting up Spiral, a non-profit dedicated to developers. Last month, he donated $10 million to OpenSats, yet another non-profit dedicated to fueling open source Bitcoin development. At the end of last year, he donated at least 14 BTC to fund development of Nostr, a decentralized social media protocol that’s been gaining steam recently.

First started in 2020, Brink has emerged as a top funder of Bitcoin developers. It was launched by former Chaincode Labs developer John Newbery, and Blockstream alumnus Mike Schmidt. At the time, the non-profit had raised a $150,000 donation from cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, and had support for its organizational funding from investor John Pfeffer and Xapo CEO Wences Cesares.

"Brink exists to strengthen the Bitcoin protocol and network through fundamental research and development, and to support the Bitcoin developer community through funding, education, and mentoring," the Brink website explains.