Coinbase has awarded its first-ever Bitcoin Core developer grants to digital currency exchange, and among the recipients is a familiar name.
Earlier this week, the winners were chosen by João Barbosa and 0xB10C, the alias of a pseudonymous developer. Although the funding amounts have not been announced, Coinbase said both developers would “be funded to work on Bitcoin for all of 2021” in amounts payable via BTC or USD.
As Coinbase states: “Both candidates demonstrated a consistent history of contributing to Bitcoin Core, and provided the Fund’s advisory board […] with a clear, actionable outline of the projects they intend to work on.”
Barbosa’s development work had previously been funded by the crypto mining company Bitmain before being unexpectedly cut off along with fellow developer Jonas Schnelli. The development work of Barbosa is focused on optimizing the user experience of Bitcoin Core on Android and iOS mobile devices. Focused on the Qt Fast framework, he plans to use the grant money to develop a Bitcoin Core GUI.
In October, Coinbase first announced its Crypto Community Fund as a way for Bitcoin Core to sponsor codebase development. Coinbase plans to extend the program to other kinds of crypto projects in the future, based on the popularity of the first grants.In early 2009, Bitcoin was released without a fundraiser or grant from developers. Early developers supported in paving the way for the new monetary ecosystems. There are currently more than 8,100 cryptocurrencies competing for acceptance spanning many sectors, cases of use, and geographical locations.