Last year, Brink donates over $1 million to Bitcoin developers

Brink, a non-profit organization focused on funding open source Bitcoin development, has released its annual report detailing over $1 million in donations to Bitcoin developers in 2023. It was founded in 2020 by renowned Bitcoin developers John Newbery and Mike Schmidt and its proposes to provide financial support and mentorship for promising developers working on open source Bitcoin development.

In its 4th anniversary report, Brink revealed that it received approximately $2.4 million in donations last year from more than 500 contributors, with Jack Dorsey’s StartSmall initiative as the major donor.

Brink’s expenses totaled approximately $1.6 million in 2023. More than $1.2 million went directly to developer salaries and grants, allowing them to focus on improvements to the Bitcoin protocol.

Since the Bitcoin code is voluntarily maintained by open-source developers, organizations like Brink help ensure adequate funding for the essential work of the protocol. Proponents believe that having more full-time developers improving Bitcoin results in a stronger network.

The report highlighted major achievements by Brink-sponsored developers in areas such as code reviews, security improvements, test infrastructure and upgrade research.

The annual report provided transparency on how Brink directs funding to support the Bitcoin developer community. The disclosure of expenses and engineering progress helps validate the non-profit organization’s role in supporting Bitcoin as a decentralized open source project.