Coinbase will support two Bitcoin developers

Coinbase will support at least two Bitcoin developers who contribute to the development of Bitcoin Core. The exchange has announced this by showing a strong interest in the evolution of the Bitcoin network.

As Manish Gupta, Executive Vice President of Engineering, explains, the Crypto Community Fund will be used to build an inclusive financial world in which the crypto industry can also improve, making it safer and more accessible to all. 

He also adds, should the Bitcoin project be successful, it could be extended to other crypto communities.

Why will Coinbase support the development of Bitcoin?

Unlike other projects, Bitcoin was born without a fundraiser or an ICO, but it helped kick start an entire sector. It was the community that guaranteed development, supporting itself with donations. Coinbase wants to contribute:

“Our goal is to similarly support developers who are committed to growing and maintaining the Bitcoin ecosystem”. 

Coinbase has therefore initiated the application process by asking developers to submit their projects, or to indicate the most interesting ones. Among them, Coinbase expects proposals relating, for example, to code improvement, bug fixing, or tool implementation.

The funding, at least in the initial intentions, will last one year, but Coinbase also invites to submit shorter projects.

The projects and applications submitted will be evaluated by a jury of experts in the field. The final decision will be taken by Coinbase. 

The reactions

The news was enthusiastically received by the crypto community. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, commented briefly:

“This is great”.

It is a curious reaction as just a few weeks ago, Jack Dorsey himself had strongly contested Coinbase over CEO Brian Armstrong’s decision to ban political activism among the company’s employees. A decision that led to as many as 60 workers leaving the exchange. 

However, the decision is not surprising: Coinbase has every interest in supporting Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies because that’s where its business is. Even in Brian Armstrong’s letter banning political activism, the CEO was clear: the focus had to be on the mission of building a different economic ecosystem. And to do that, that ecosystem must be implemented, improved and made available to all. 

In this sense, the decision to fund the projects of Bitcoin developers is one of the best ways to do this.