Jack Dorsey is setting up a fund for the legal defence of Bitcoin developers. It’s called the “Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund”.
Summary
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund: free defense for developers
The announcement came via email to Bitcoin developers stating that the Bitcoin developer community is being litigated on multiple fronts. This has led to those involved stepping aside due to the lack of legal support.
Many of them are independent individuals and do not have the means to defend themselves. Against this, the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund was born, a response defined as:
“coordinated and formalized to help defend developers”.
The email explains that:
“The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund is a nonprofit entity that aims to minimize legal headaches that discourage software developers from actively developing Bitcoin and related projects such as the Lightning Network, Bitcoin privacy protocols, and the like.
The main purpose of this Fund is to defend developers from lawsuits regarding their activities in the Bitcoin ecosystem, including finding and retaining defense counsel, developing litigation strategy, and paying legal bills”
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund will be a free and voluntary option for Bitcoin developers to take advantage of. They will be assisted by volunteer, part-time lawyers.
Threats to Bitcoin devs
Threats to Bitcoin devs have led some to abandon the project. This is the case of Jonas Schnelli who announced his farewell to Bitcoin Core explaining that the legal risks are no longer bearable.
That is why he advised new developers to join Bitcoin anonymously.
The first activities of the fund against Craig Wright
There is already the first case the Bitcoin Legal Defence Fund will deal with, which concerns the “Tulip Trading” case against some Bitcoin developers accused of breaching a fiduciary relationship.
The case is related to Craig Wright and concerns the lawsuit he filed against Bitcoin developers.
In February 2020, the Australian entrepreneur’s computer was hacked and cryptocurrencies belonging to Tulip Trading Limited, owned by Craig Wright, were stolen. The entrepreneur is now demanding that the same devs allow Tulip Trading to regain access to the cryptocurrencies. They would basically have to find a way to reverse the transactions, which on Bitcoin’s blockchain is impossible.
More on the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund has not been specified. What is known is that it will have a board of directors of which Jack Dorsey is a member, along with Alex Morcos (Chaincode Labs) and Martin White.
Jack Dorsey involved in Bitcoin
The involvement of the former CEO of Twitter in Bitcoin is also increasingly evident from this. Since leaving the social network, Jack Dorsey has been fully involved in Bitcoin development with Block (formerly Square). The latest project is to develop environmentally friendly Bitcoin mining tools. This would solve one of Bitcoin’s biggest problems: its high energy consumption.
