Blog/Research/Who Funds Bitcoin Development?

Who Funds Bitcoin Development?

28 3月 2020

Abstract: We compile a list of the main organisations and individuals funding open source Bitcoin and Lightning development. Based on the data we have compiled, Blockstream and Lightning Labs are the largest contributors to open source development in the space, while as far as contributors to Bitcoin Core goes, Chaincode Labs is currently the largest financial supporter of development. We conclude that the situation is more healthy than it has been in the past, with respect to the availability of finance, transparency, and the degree of distribution among financial backers.

Data on developer funding

Based on publicly available information and speaking to certain individuals, who were happy with their details being made public, we have produced the following charts and tables, which we believe provides the most comprehensive picture of open source Bitcoin developer funding produced to date.

Our first chart was produced in a top down way. We identified the largest organisations directly funding open source Bitcoin development. It reveals that Blockstream and Lightning Labs employ the largest number of developers working on open source Bitcoin or Lightning related projects.

Current funding of open source developers working on Bitcoin or Lightning – number of developers

(Source: BitMEX Research)

(Note: Data includes only those who have a source of funding)

The second chart uses more of a bottom up methodology. We looked at the Bitcoin Core project and identified the top 33 contributors by all time number of commits and then attempted to establish the current funding source for each developer. This chart shows that Chaincode Labs is the most prolific financial supporter of Bitcoin development.

Current funding of top 33 Bitcoin Core contributors by number of commits - number of developers

(Source: BitMEX Research, GitHub)

The two tables below show the source data for the above charts.

Key companies funding open source Bitcoin development

Company	Commercial Entity	Location	Funding Source	Developers
Chaincode Labs	No	New York	Financed by the two founders, Alex Morcos and Suhas Daftuar	The company has 6 dedicated Bitcoin developers (Alex Morcos, Suhas Daftuar, John Newbury, Russ Yanofsky, Marco Falke & Carl Dong) - Source: https://chaincode.com/#team
MIT DCI	No	Boston	Donations	MIT has 2 dedicated Bitcoin developers (Wladimir van der Laan & Cory Field) and 4 or 5 researchers - Source: https://dci.mit.edu/team
DG Lab	Yes	Tokyo	Listed Japanese investment company	The company has 2 to 4 Bitcoin developers
Square Crypto	No	San Francisco	Financed by listed American payment company Square Inc	4 developers all building Rust Lightning. The company also gives 3 Bitcoin developer grants
Blockstream	Yes	Victoria (Canada)	VC backed	The company has 2 dedicated Bitcoin developers (Pieter Wuille & Andrew Chow), 3 dedicated Lightning developers (Rusty Russel, Christian Decker & Lisa Neigut) (C-Lightning) and 3 cryptographers (Andrew Poelstra, Tim Ruffing & Jonas Nick)
Lightning Labs	Yes	San Francisco	VC backed	The company has at least 8 developers working on the open source Lightning software (LND and Loopd) (Olaoluwa Osuntokun, Conner Fromknecht, Alex Bosworth, Johan Halseth, Joost Jager, Wilmer Paulino, Carla Kirk-Cohen & Oliver Gugger) - Source: https://lightning.engineering/team
Purse	Yes	San Fran		The company has 6 Bitcoin developers (potentially part time), working on projects like Bcoin – Source: https://twitter.com/MatthewZipkin/status/1243895873626611714
Acinq	Yes	Paris	VC backed	The company has at least 4 open source Bitcoin/Lightning developers
Bitfinex	Yes		Retained earnings	The company funds 3 developers working on RGB (A tool to issue tokens on Lightning)
Xapo	Yes	San Francisco	VC backed	The company has 2 dedicated Bitcoin developers
OKCoin	Yes	San Fran	Retained earnings	Currently provides one Bitcoin developer a grant
Bull Bitcoin	Yes	Canada		Currently funds one Bitcoin developer building Cyphernode
BitMEX	Yes	Seychelles	Retained earnings	Currently provides one Bitcoin developer a grant & has one part time contractor who contributes to Bitcoin Core
Crypto Advance	Yes	Munich	Private donor	Funds the open source development work of Stepan Snigirev
Hardcore Fund	No		Donations	Provides small grants to 2 Bitcoin developers
Bitmain	Yes	China	Retained earnings	Organisation does not appear to be actively funding development. In the past Bitmain supported at least 2 developers.
Blockchain.info	Yes	London	VC backed	Organisation does not appear to be actively funding development. In the past Blockchain.info supported at least 1 developer
Bitcoin Foundation	No	London	Donations	Organisation does not appear to be actively funding development. In the past this was one of the only organisations funding development
BTCC	Yes	China	Retained earnings	Organisation does not appear to be actively funding development
BitPay	Yes	US	VC backed	Organisation does not appear to be actively funding development. In the past Jeff Garzik was sponsored to work on Bitcoin development

List of Bitcoin Developers & their funders

Developer	Description	Funding
Bitcoin Core Maintainers
Wladimir van der Laan	Bitcoin Core maintainer	MIT DCI
Pieter Wuille	Bitcoin Core maintainer	Blockstream
Marco Falke	Bitcoin Core maintainer	Chaincode
Michael Ford	Bitcoin Core maintainer	BitMEX
Jonas Schnelli	Bitcoin Core maintainer	Formerly Bitmain
Samuel Dobson	Bitcoin Core maintainer	John Pfeffer
Developers ranked by number of commits to Bitcoin Core (All time)
Matt Corallo	Bitcoin developer (now working on Rust Lightning)	Square Crypto (formerly Chaincode and Blockstream)
Cory Fields	Bitcoin developer	MIT DCI
Practical Swift	Bitcoin developer
John Newbery	Bitcoin developer	Chaincode
Gavin Andresen	Bitcoin developer	Formerly the Bitcoin Foundation and MIT DCI
Luke-Jr	Bitcoin developer	Hardcore Fund
Russell Yanofsky	Bitcoin developer	Chaincode
Andrew Chow	Bitcoin developer	Blockstream
João Barbosa	Bitcoin developer	Formerly Bitmain
Suhas Daftuar	Bitcoin developer	Chaincode
Alex Morcos	Bitcoin developer	Chaincode
Hennadii Stepanov	Bitcoin developer	Cardcoin & Payvant
Jorge Timon	Bitcoin developer	Formerly Blockstream
Gregory Maxwell	Bitcoin developer	Formerly Blocksteam
Gregory Sanders	Bitcoin developer	Blockstream
Karl-Johan Alm	Bitcoin developer	DG Lab
Ben Woosley	Bitcoin developer	Hardcore Fund
Peter Todd	Bitcoin developer	Has previously received funding from BTCC, Bitfinex & Chaincode
James O'Beirne	Bitcoin developer	Currently moving from Chaincode to DG Lab
Sjors Provoost	Bitcoin developer	Formerly funded by blockchain.info, part time on open source projects for BitMEX
Patrick Strateman	Bitcoin developer	Formerly Blockstream
Carl Dong	Bitcoin developer	Chaincode
Jon Atack	Bitcoin developer	Square Crypto grant
Anthony Towns	Bitcoin developer	Xapo
Jeremy Rubin	Bitcoin developer	Formerly MIT DCI & Chaincode
Nicolas Dorier	Bitcoin and BTCPAY developer	DG Lab
David Harding	Bitcoin developer
Others with notable funding sources
Fabian Jahr	Bitcoin developer	OKCoin
Kukks	BTCPAY developer	BTSE
Amiti Uttarwar	Bitcoin developer	Xapo

Disclaimers & weaknesses of the data:

The charts above are meant as a basic guide to illustrate the distribution of funding.
The number of developers is not a perfect indicator of the overall contribution of the funder. It does not reflect the amount of funding, as some developers may be sponsored as a full time employee, while others may receive a small grant for part time work.
The number of commits is a very weak indicator of contribution by developer, it is meant as an indicative proxy.
Ranking developers by number of commits is only there for indicative purposes. Review work is important and not reflected by the number of commitments.
We used an all time ranking for developer commits, however it may also be useful to look at a ranking for the past two years.
We may have missed the funding of certain developers and therefore the data displayed may not reveal a complete picture.

Conclusion

Although the funding situation could improve, in our view the data indicates that the ecosystem is in a reasonably strong situation with respect to developer funding, based on metrics such as the distribution of funders and transparency. Of course, progress can also be made in the distribution of funding and Chaincode Labs is now the clear leader in terms of developer funding for Bitcoin Core. On the other hand, funding is far more distributed than it has been in the past, certainly compared to the 2012 to 2014 period when there was only one significant funder, The Bitcoin Foundation.

Particularly encouraging is the recent emergence of BitMEX, BTSE and OkCoin to the scene. This brings much needed diversity to the group of donors, potentially improving the level of sustainability, in particular these exchanges are a new type of entity and are funding developers out of retained earnings, rather than using donations or venture capital funds.

In our view the biggest challenges going forwards are:

Funding and training for new developers entering the space,
More sustainable developer financing, including a large share of funding coming from retained earnings from businesses with different business models, and
Ensuring developers effectively collaborate while receiving independent funding sources.

Please Note

We believe the data in this report is accurate, however it is likely we have made mistakes. If you are aware of any inaccuracies or omissions, please contact us and let us know and we will be happy to make corrections.

UPDATE 1 - 28 April 2020

We updated the article to reflect the Cardcoin and Payvant joint sponsorship of Hennadii Stepanov.

UPDATE 2 - 20 July 2020

After the publication of the article two lists have emerged with details of recent developer grant activity: