Mysterious Bitcoin Santa Christmas Story

If you are an open-source application developer, look in your inbox and check the spam folder, then suddenly there is a letter from Bitcoin Santa. In the best traditions of the bitcoin community (yes, and Santa Claus), no one knows for sure who is hiding under the pseudonym Bitcoin Grant , but it is known that he, or she, or they, from time to time appear from nowhere and give gifts open source developers. The only difference from Santa, their gifts are large amounts in bitcoins.

Over the past months, they have been looking for open source projects and contacting developers to encourage their efforts to strengthen the community, while doing this anonymously, and do not require anything in return.

Bitcoin Grant Mission

Doing the right thing and working on what you believe in is undoubtedly a noble goal, but in our current reality, often, this goal is supported only by considerations of altruism. This is especially true of work on open source projects, which are virtuous in nature from the very beginning, but towards which there are constantly accused of financial instability. We are people, after all. We need to pay for the apartment, we want to eat, we need to live somehow. Simply put - we need money. That is, for the most part, jeopardizing long-term ideals, replacing them with our short-term needs.

We want to create a better reality, one where what we do every day and what we believe are consistent. We want to eliminate the aching “price of opportunity” in achieving our goals. We want open source code to become the center of forward movement, in return for remaining a hobby or catching thoughts retroactively. And we want to build this reality with you.

The solution we see is Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the first open source project, built from scratch, but taking into account the subsequent monetization. In addition to getting a good mood from work, all our efforts can certainly be quantified, and any excellent work deserves concrete compensation. Bitcoin eliminates your need to compromise, if you still worked purely out of love for your offspring, thenBitcoin Grant would like to finance you, without any conditions, just so that your excellent work will continue. Yes, it is that simple.

The only requirement that we make is that the project must be “open source” in nature, but this does not mean that we are limited only by software. We do not have an application to fill out, you do not need to send us your email address, all that is required of you is to continue your work, and Bitcoin Grant will lend you a hand.

Projects we supported:

• Matt C. - Core Dev - github.com/TheBlueMatt
• Pieter W. - Core Dev - github.com/sipa
• Wladimir L. - Core Dev - github.com/laanwj
• Avalon - ASIC - avalon-asic.com
• Bitfury - ASIC - bitfury.org
• Thomas V. - Electrum - github.com/spesmilo/electrum
• P2Pool - Pool - github.com/forrestv/p2pool
• Replicant - Android - replicant.us

Investing in the future

At the moment, Bitcoin Grant has already supported many Bitcoin -related projects, such as Avalon or Bitfury - companies that build and sell mining equipment, developers of the current version of the system, creators of an “easy” wallet for working with BTC, and these donations, of course , support the network as a whole.

For example, the developers of the Avalon miner at the end of 2012 were transferred 10,000 BTC after a short correspondence by email, during which mysterious benefactors found out the plans of the creators of the device, talked about the future of the project, and, finding that the company was in the process of developing the second version - just transferred ten thousand bitcoins to the account, demanding nothing in return and without requiring the fulfillment of any obligations. They asked to continue work, and reported that their goal - to support and launch into the big world not only projects related to bitcoins, but also any open source projects in general, but in the end one hundred thousand dollars, at the rate of bitcoin at that time - helped Avalon developers to launch the second device in a series.

But the mysterious beneficiaries are not trying to limit themselves only to projects related to BTC - for example, they supported the development of an alternative android operating system for smartphones called Replicant , sending 50 coins to the developers of this system on August 1, 2013:

Dear Replicant Developers, on the behalf of some private donor (s):

Your work (s) on the open source front, namely Replicant have not gone unnoticed. The Bitcoin Grant would like to extend a big thank you in the form of bitcoins. 50 bitcoins has been send to 13tgjejUJ6NtQVX9HvKz8svdcuWPNwgr5T. These contributions come with no strings attached, and all correspondence will be kept in strict confidence. They are being sent as both a thank you, and incentive for community involvement. You can anticipate additional contributions in the future.

Sincerely,
The Bitcoin Grant

Funding open source projects is a natural consequence of the fact that the bictoin system itself is an open source project where the financial plan is literally wrapped in the source code, and the programmers who developed it from the very beginning received a large amount of digital currency even when it cost almost nothing. We may not know who is behind the Bitcoin Grant , but we can guarantee that they received their bitcoins long before the rest of the world understood the value of this cryptocurrency. Their site lists eight projects that they supported, but it is already known that there are more such projects: one example is 25 BTC to the project fund, the purpose of which is to launch the miner into space .

The plan is to send a small satellite with a computer into orbit, which will communicate with ground miners via radio. The author of this idea claims that a satellite node can help the Bitcoin network repel an attack known as the “ Sybil attack ” - when malicious computers flood the p2p nodes of the network with data in order to conduct bitcoin transactions more than once, the criminal intent described in the work of Cornwall University researchers Selfish Miner Scenario , which claims that such an attack can bring down the entire system. The satellite launch project received 25 bitcoins , which is about 17 thousand dollars at the moment.

As a futuristic model, but of a slightly different kind, one of the developers of the p2p system underlying Bitcoin (who also received a gift) says that the system requires a more sophisticated financing system in order to reach the next level of software development:

“This is a really interesting model, but it does not clearly motivate people to do any specific work. To really give in to gas, the system needs to become more streamlined. ”

By ordering, he understands such principles as, for example, assurance contracts - where sponsors could use the technologies embedded in the protocol itself to jointly vouch and pay for the development of the program. This scheme is well known for the example of kickstarter and similar services, although the principle itself is much wider, and has a political background as well.

But for now, this is all a matter of the distant or not very future, but for now - a repeat of the simple rule indicated on the website of this covered secret organization:

We do not have an application to fill out, you do not need to send us your email address, all that is required of you is to continue your work, and Bitcoin Grant will lend you a hand.

So continue to work on your open source projects, and a holiday will come on your street too - Santa Claus will come to you with bitcoins in a pouch.

Sources and related materials:
Articles in Wired about this mission and about launching a miner into space.
Site of the mysterious
Open Source organization about donation.
Note by TJournal in Russian