Maelstrom, the family office of former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes, has awarded Jon Atack a one-year Bitcoin developer grant. He is the second recipient of Maelstrom’s grant program supporting open-source Bitcoin developers.
Jon is an experienced contributor to Bitcoin Core, having started in 2019. He was also recently made a maintainer of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs).
In a statement, Arthur Hayes said, “We hope this financial support allows Jon to focus on his work on Bitcoin without worrying about income.” He emphasized the grant’s no-strings-attached nature, giving Atack freedom to work independently.
Bitcoin’s open-source codebase depends on voluntary developers, so grants help enable more contributors to work full-time. Proponents believe having more funded developers benefits Bitcoin’s ecosystem.
Jon said, “I’m concerned about human freedom, decentralization of power, individual empowerment, privacy and self-sovereignty. Bitcoin and open source software play a key part in striving for these causes.”
He plans to spend the year reviewing proposals and changes to improve Bitcoin Core and BIPs. Jon stated, “Bitcoin isn’t perfect. It needs further decentralization, continued vigilance, review, bug-fixing, updates, maintenance, and improved robustness, performance, privacy, scaling, documentation and user experience.”
Maelstrom aims to strengthen Bitcoin through no-strings grants to developers like Atack. Simultaneously, he is also receiving funding from another organization, OpenSats.