Maelstromthe family office of former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes, has awarded Jon Atack a one-year Bitcoin Developers Scholarship. He is the second recipient of the Maelstrom’s grant program support from open-source Bitcoin developers.
Jon is a veteran contributor to Bitcoin Core, which started in 2019. He was also recently appointed as an administrator of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs).
In a statement, Arthur Hayes said: “We hope that with this financial support, Jon can focus on his work on Bitcoin, without worrying about revenue.” He stressed that the grant has no strings attached, allowing Atack to operate independently.
Bitcoin’s open-source codebase relies on volunteer developers, so grants help more contributors work full-time. Proponents believe that having more funded developers benefits Bitcoin’s ecosystem.
Jon said: “I am concerned about human freedom, decentralization of power, individual empowerment, privacy, and self-sovereignty. Bitcoin and open source software play an important role in achieving these goals.”
He plans to spend the year reviewing proposals and changes to improve Bitcoin Core and BIPs. Jon stated, “Bitcoin is not perfect. It needs further decentralization, continued vigilance, review, bug fixing, updates, maintenance, and improved robustness, performance, privacy, scaling, documentation, and user experience.”
Maelstrom wants to strengthen Bitcoin by providing no-strings subsidies to developers like Atack, while also receiving funding from another organization, OpenSats.