x.com/btrustteam”>₿trustan initiative committed to supporting open-source bitcoin developers based in the Global South, has announced the recipients of its Q3 seed grants and new members of its open-source ₿trust cohort.
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1/ Announcing ₿trust Q3 grants!
We are excited to announce the recipients of our Q3 2024 Trust Seed Grants and Open Source Cohort members!
A key part of our mission to empower talented developers from the Global South to contribute to the bitcoin open source ecosystem. image.twitter.com/FnlgPGJoHu
— Btrust (@btrustteam) twitter.com/btrustteam/status/1824500622248284549?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 16, 2024
Starter Grants, which provide full-time funding to bitcoin software engineers, are a testament to ₿trust’s dedication to expanding the number of open source bitcoin contributors from regions including 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 join ₿trust’s open source cohort with long-term funding.
Why are Trust seed grants important?
The Trust’s seed grants provide financial stability to talented open source developers, helping them focus on their work without financial stress. They also provide mentorship and support aimed at helping 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 to diverse perspectives to strengthen the resilience of the bitcoin network,” ₿trust Acting CEO Abubakar Nur Khalil said in a press release shared with bitcoin Magazine.
Seed grants also provide an entry path into the ₿trust open source group. Developers in the ₿trust open source group receive mentorship, professional development, and additional financial support as they contribute to open source initiatives.
“The intention is to make the beneficiaries' 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 greater sense of community,” said Nur Khalil.
Recipients of the initial grant
Recipients of the initial grants for the third quarter of 2024 are as follows:
Enigbe Ochekliye
Ochekliye has over two years of backend engineering experience and has worked on projects including Galoy's Stablesats and Easy paymentPayment Service Provider (PSP).
Ochekliye will contribute to The Lightning Development Kit's rust ray Through this grant, we will also work to improve the onboarding process for new contributors to bitcoin open source projects.
Tobechi Chukwuleta
Chukwuleta is a highly experienced backend developer with expertise in data analytics. He has also been instrumental in improving BTCPay Server functionality, especially with regard to the system's multi-signature capabilities and plugin development.
Your seed grant funds will support you as you continue to advance the functionality of the BTCPay Server storefront as well as the modularity of the platform.
Kelvin Isiev dressed up
Isievwore He is currently contributing to bitcoin open source projects such as Polar and LNDWhile working on the seed grant, Isievwore will focus on streamlining the testing and development process for engineers building on Lightning.
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 He demonstrates his technical skills, helping to improve the scalability and usability of bitcoin. While he is part of the cohort, he will continue this work, as he hones his skills to contribute to the bitcoin ecosystem.
Dean Duncan
Dean He is a Lightning contributor from South Africa. He has been heavily involved in the development of the highly modular Lightning library, rust-lightning.
Dean is also actively involved in projects such as ldk review club and cannedwhere he has contributed to improving continuous integration (CI) efforts and helped maintain the robustness of the codebase. While in the cohort, Dean aims to strengthen his skills to contribute to bitcoin and Lightning.
Oghenovo Usiwomá
He is drying us out is a Nigeria-based bitcoin Core contributor who has been working for ₿trust since 2023. As part of ₿trust’s initial grant, he focused on improving the Silent Payments functionality.
As part of the ₿trust open source cohort, he will work on introducing new key formats and descriptors for silent payments into bitcoin Core, continuing his work on improving bitcoin’s privacy and scalability features.
Application for a Trust Grant
Developers based in Africa, MENA, Southeast Asia, and Latin America are eligible to apply for ₿trust grants.
Developers from other regions in the Global South will also be considered for grants on a case-by-case basis, primarily based on their proof of work in the bitcoin space.
Apply for a Trust seed grant via This trusted link.
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