The organization that supports Bitcoin open source developers, Brink, currently maintains 11 Bitcoin and Lightning Network developers.
Brink is an American non-profit organization and research center that was created in 2020 to Supporting Bitcoin Developers and New Contributors Core, who work on developing and maintaining the protocol code and the blockchain network.
This organization provides Bitcoin Core developers and contributors with funding, mentorship, and education to conduct research and fund the development of new improvements and features, ensuring the advancement and growth of the Bitcoin network and protocol.
Brink, driving the development of Bitcoin
Currently, this organization is funding 11 Bitcoin developers and Lightning Network, the second layer solution focused on the scalability of this blockchain.
Square Crypto, Block's cryptocurrency division, and the Human Rights Foundation have supported Brink since its inception. However, other companies and organizations have also joined Brink as contributors.
In recent months, the organization has welcomed other projects such as Vinteum and Silvergate Bank, which pledged a monthly donation of $25.000 in support of the network's developers.
The organization has also received funding from individuals and raised funds through various events, such as the TabConf 2022 conference, where a portion of ticket sales went to funding Bitcoin developers.
Subsidizing Bitcoin developers
Gloria Zhao, the first “core maintainer” in the history of Bitcoin, Stéphan Vuylsteke, Bitcoin Core contributor and Tadge Dryja, individual contributors to the network, are some of the developers who are being subsidized through Brink.
Also, the anonymous Bitcoin developer «0xB10C» and open source software developer, Vincent Palace, have joined the Brink teams to continue their work on the blockchain network. “0xB10C” said in April this year that the grant provided by Brink will fund the development of new network monitoring and anomaly detection tools, which will allow for improved robustness of the blockchain.
Palazzo is working on several improvements to the Lightning Network, including developing new features for the lightweight C-Lightning implementation.
Michael Ford, Bitcoin Core maintainer since 2019, has joined Brink's London office to continue his full-time work on Bitcoin.
According to Bitcoin Magazine, Brink also funded the Bitcoin Core developers meetup held in London in Q1 and is publishing a newsletter, titled the Bitcoin Optech Newsletter, to keep the crypto community up to date with new developments and improvements to the network.
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