₿trust, an initiative committed to supporting open-source Bitcoin developers based in the Global South, has announced the recipients of its Q3 Starter Grants and the new members of its ₿trust Open-Source Cohort.
The Starter Grants, which provide full-time funding to Bitcoin software engineers, are a sign of ₿trust’s dedication to expanding the number of open-source Bitcoin contributors from regions such as Africa, MENA, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
Each recipient receives six months of support, including a stipend paid in bitcoin, technical guidance and support in developing proposals to to join the ₿trust Open-Source Cohort with long-term funding.
Why ₿trust Starter Grants Matter
₿trust Starter Grants provide financial stability to talented open source developers, which helps them focus on their work without financial stress. They also provide mentorship and support aimed to help the developers establish long-term, sustainable careers in the Bitcoin space.
"Through these grants, we can tangibly contribute to decentralizing Bitcoin open source development by introducing these developers with diverse perspectives to strengthen the resilience of the Bitcoin network," said ₿trust Interim CEO Abubakar Nur Khalil in a press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine.
The Starter Grants also provide a pathway to the ₿trust Open-Source Cohort. Developers in the ₿trust Open-Source Cohort receive mentorship, professional development and extended financial support while contributing to open-source initiatives.
"The intention is to make grantees' Bitcoin open-source careers sustainable, and in addition to the long-term financial support we provide, create a supportive environment for them to thrive and feel a larger sense of community," said Nur Khalil.
Starter Grant Recipients
The recipients of Q3 2024 Starter Grants are as follows:
Enigbe Ochekliye
Ochekliye has over two years of experience in backend engineering and has worked on projects including Galoy’s Stablesats and Easepay’s payment service provider (PSP).
Ochekliye will contribute to The Lightning Development Kit’s rust-lightning through this grant. She will also work to improve the onboarding process for new contributors to Bitcoin open source projects.
Enigbe Ochekliye
Tobechi Chukwuleta
Chukwuleta is a highly-experienced backend developer with a background in data analysis. He has also been instrumental in enhancing BTCPay Server functionality, especially as it pertains to the system’s multisig capabilities and plugin development.
The funds from his Starter Grant will support him as he continues to advance BTCPay Server’s store functionality as well as the platform’s modularity.
Tobechi Chukwuleta
Kelvin Isievwore
Isievwore is currently contributing to Bitcoin open source projects such as Polar and LND. While working under the Starter Grant, Isievwore will focus on streamlining the testing and development process for engineers building on Lightning.
Kelvin Isievwore
New Members Of The Open-Source Cohort
The new members of the ₿trust Open-Source Cohort are as follows:
Abubakar Sadiq Ismail
Sadiq Ismail is a Nigerian Bitcoin Core contributor who is actively involved in optimizing the Bitcoin protocol. He works on critical areas of Bitcoin Core such as long-term fee estimation and transaction analysis.
Sadiq Ismail’s work on Mempool fee estimation analysis showcases his technical abilities, which helps to improve the scalability and usability of Bitcoin. While a part of the cohort, he will continue this work, as he refines his abilities to contribute to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Abubakar Sadiq Ismail
Duncan Dean
Dean is a Lightning contributor from South Africa. He has been deeply involved with developing the highly-modular Lightning library, rust-lightning.
Dean also actively participates in projects like ldk-review-club and lndk, where he has contributed to improving continuous integration (CI) actions and helped maintain the robustness of the codebase. While in the cohort, Dean aims to strengthen his abilities to contribute to Bitcoin and Lightning.
Duncan Dean
Oghenovo Usiwoma
Usiwoma is a Bitcoin Core contributor based in Nigeria who has been with ₿trust since 2023. Under the ₿trust Starter Grant he focused on advancing Silent Payments functionality.
As part of the ₿trust Open-Source Cohort, he will work on introducing new key formats and descriptors for Silent Payments in Bitcoin Core, continuing his work of enhancing the privacy and scalability features of Bitcoin.
Oghenovo Usiwoma
Applying For A ₿trust Grant
Developers based in Africa, the MENA region, Southeast Asia and Latin America can apply for ₿trust grants.
Developers in other regions of the Global South will also be considered for grants on a case-by-case basis, predominantly based on their proof of work in the Bitcoin space.
Apply for a ₿trust Starter Grant via this ₿trust link.