Compass Mining has agreed to fund Bitcoin Core developer Jon Atack for one year through the Human Rights Foundation, which will be administered by the Human Rights Foundation.
In a recent announcement, Compass Mining, a marketplace for Bitcoin mining hardware, stated that it will support Bitcoin Core developer Jon Atack with a one-year payment of $80,000. The grant is being made possible by the Human Rights Foundation of America (HRF).
According to Whit Gibbs, CEO of Compass Mining, “as one of the largest and fastest growing retail-focused Bitcoin mining companies, we believe it is critical for Compass to support the development of the protocol upon which our entire industry is built.”
He went on to suggest that engineers such as Atack are critical to the evolution of Bitcoin, and that the cryptocurrency’s development would “noticeably suffer” if they were not present. “Our team is looking forward to developing a working relationship with Jon and supporting his important work,” he continued.
Previously, according to Atack’s own website, he was invited to join the Bitcoin Core team after contributing for seven months by November 2019. In addition, he was the recipient of a Square Crypto development grant in March 2020, which has now been renewed for another year until 2021.
Compass Mining’s sponsorship of Atack is made possible by the Human Rights Foundation’s Bitcoin Development Fund, which was established in 2020. The fund is intended to provide assistance to software developers who are involved with Bitcoin.
Previously, the fund awarded $25,000 worth of Bitcoin to Jesse Posner (a Bitcoin developer who previously worked for Coinbase). Janine Roem has also received a donation of $10,000 in Bitcoin in the past, which she used to finance her Bitcoin privacy newsletter.
“HRF is thrilled to be collaborating with Compass to support Jon and Bitcoin Core.” “Jon has made significant contributions to the world’s open source money project, and we look forward to assisting him in making his work possible this year,” said Alex Gladstein, the Human Rights Foundation’s chief strategy officer.
Why is it necessary for Bitcoin to have developers?
Bitcoin’s tiny staff of lead maintainers analyses code that is frequently contributed by a much broader community of developers in order to keep the Bitcoin codebase up to date.
The code is authorised and becomes a part of the Bitcoin source if it passes the testing process.
A new position for Bitcoin developers is introduced as a result of this approval process: that of arbitrators. When assessing code suggestions, these developers make certain that no new code will harm or endanger the integrity of the Bitcoin network, which is a top priority.
As a result of the protocol’s development being done carelessly, quantum computing, government interference, and 51 percent attacks are all listed as potential attack vectors.
Despite the enormous risks, the work can be extremely thankless in some cases. The incentives to continue growing in good faith, on the other hand, become even more compelling when third parties come on board to lend their support. At least for the time being.
