₿ Trust is a non-profit organization that exists to decentralize the development of Bitcoin software. It was initially established through a generous donation from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and entrepreneur Jay-Z.
It is currently run by an interim CEO, who is part of the four-person all-African (2 Nigeria-based, 1 United States-based, and 1 Europe-based) board of directors responsible for overseeing the organization. The current ₿trust board can be found by visiting btrust.tech.
₿trust fosters developer talent and supports the free and open-source Bitcoin ecosystem. ₿trust’s operation is guided by its genesis principles, which are available on our website.
Our Mission
Our mission is to decentralize the development of Bitcoin open-source software by fostering a more diverse and inclusive development ecosystem.
What we do
We are an early-stage organization looking for a principles-led CEO to help establish and expand our operations. This work will focus on strategic planning and leading the execution of ₿trust’s activities, including identifying and recruiting developers, education, and providing funding and innovative ways to support open-source developers.
By reimagining how we fund open-source software, we can create a more sustainable and equitable ecosystem that can better support the development and maintenance of Bitcoin open-source software.
Since we began operations in early 2022, some milestones have been achieved:
- Registration of the Btrust entity and receipt of the 500 BTC into the created organization.
- Begun to develop a pipeline to train developers in African countries to work on Bitcoin FOSS. It consists of three levels, with developers further along in the pipeline assisting with teaching/mentorship:
Starter Grants
- Successful graduates of ₿trust Builders are invited to join a six-month “starter grant” program, during which they have the opportunity to work full-time on a FOSS program of their choosing.
- Developers have a regular standup and support from mentors on their relevant projects.
Full-Time Grants
- Traditional grant to work on open source, starting with 1 year and doubling in terms, on every successful renewal, to provide developers with a sustainable income.
While we have only sourced participants for starter and full-time grants from ₿trust Builders, qualified participants from other programs with relevant experience could also be included.
Program Grants
- In addition to funding our internal pipeline, ₿trust has given out two grants to programs similar to ₿trust Builders that operate in relevant markets in the global south:
- Liberia De Satoshi: Grant to start a new FOSS training program in Argentina.
- Bitshala: Grant to support apprenticeships for developers to work on FOSS projects.
Conference Support
Btrust has supported several Bitcoin conferences in relevant markets:
- Africa Bitcoin Conference: 2022/23.
- Dakar Bitcoin Day: 2022/23.
- Adopting Bitcoin: 2024.
₿trust Builders
- A three-month, part-time program aimed to onboard developers into Bitcoin FOSS, where developers are compensated for the successful completion of each month of coursework.
- The program is designed with an attrition model, where developers are required to pass coursework to proceed to the next month.
- The first cohort began in late January with 50 developers; approximately 20 graduated to the second month.
- The structure of the program is as follows:
- Month 1 – Introduction to Bitcoin: theoretical coursework (Mastering Bitcoin/Lightning) and programming exercises to.
- Month 2 – Introduction to FOSS: introduction to the etiquette of FOSS, calls with project maintainers to get to know projects, and initial PRs.
- Month 3 – FOSS deep dive: contribution to a Bitcoin FOSS project of their choosing.
- The program participants are currently overseen by former students and organized into “homegroups” of 5 developers to one fellow for supervision.
- The program currently has full-time staff consisting of:
- Interim CEO.
- Operations Lead.
- Engineering Manager.
- Communications and Social Media Manager.
In addition to this formal pipeline, Btrust Builders has established regular BitDevs meetups in Lagos, Accra, and Nairobi and other cities where program participants present highly technical Bitcoin content to a developer audience.