Blockstream Alumnus Mike Schmidt Backed Brink Raises $150,000

Brink, a non-profit organization aiming to fund and support open-source Bitcoin protocol development was launched today with the backing of former Blockstream alumnus Mike Schmidt and former Chaincode Labs developer John Newbery. Dave Harding, a well renowned Bitcoin technical writer would act as the independent director for the non-profit organization.

The organization aims to raise funds and issue grants using those funds to bitcoin developers working on the bitcoin open-source protocol development. The official Twitter account for the organization also revealed that they would be launching a fellowship program to invest in the future of bitcoin development, where the organization would train future contributors on how to become an impactful bitcoin developer in near future.

Hello world!

Today we launch Brink, a totally independent nonprofit organization to fund and support open source Bitcoin protocol development. pic.twitter.com/vDLSiavaUP

— Brink (@bitcoinbrink) November 24, 2020

Brink Receives Support From Crypto Community

Brink is using a fairly experimental model of funding to offer grants and fellowship to developers. The non-profit organization has received its first donation from popular cryptocurrency exchange Kraken worth $150,000.  The official Twitter account thanked for their first donations and said,

@krakenfx have provided funding for our first grant. That’ll be enough to support an experienced protocol developer to work for a year. The devs we fund will review, test, and fix bugs, improving the security of Bitcoin for all users. You rock,@krakenfx

!

???? Kraken is proud to be supporting great open-source #Bitcoin development.

That's why we're donating $150,000 to @bitcoinbrink, a new developer training center launching today.

Find out more ????https://t.co/rmghgjllHY pic.twitter.com/rD8rdkoLZ1

— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) November 24, 2020

Apart from Kraken, The Human Rights Foundation and Chaincode would offer grants directly to developers from their central funding pool where these organizations have promised to offer funds to Brink’s first two fellows. The official announcement thanked the investors for supporting their cause and said,

Our first fellowship position will be funded by grants from @HRF and @sqcrypto They’ve provided enough funding to pay the fellow’s salary and all associated costs. Thank you for your belief in the value of mentoring and your support of Bitcoin’s future!

Your devs. Our devs. The devs we found in that cave. We’ll support any dev helping build a stronger bitcoin. https://t.co/h3ieNDJN1e

— Square Crypto (@sqcrypto) November 24, 2020

As Bitcoin charters into the mainstream with its ongoing bull rally, the developer community should be stronger than ever to help bitcoin easily expand its audition without any technical hiccups. Grants from crypto exchanges have been common towards Bitcoin open-source development, but now with the emergence of a non-profit organization like Brink, investors and organizations can directly pay their donations to the platform which would utilize these funds in training the future contributors.