Maelstrom’s New BTC Developer Grant Announced by Arthur Hayes

Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of BitMEX, has announced a new Bitcoin developer grant program through his early-stage investment fund, Maelstrom.

The grant program will provide developers with financial assistance varying from $50,000 to $150,000 on an annual basis with potential for cumulative grants of up to $250,000 per developer. The program still accepts applications until August 25, and the grants will be given in the third or fourth quarter of 2024.

Aims and Mission of the Program

The main focus of Maelstrom’s Bitcoin developer grant program is to help open source developers engaged in the development of the Bitcoin protocol. As mentioned in the announcement, the program will focus on increasing the security, capacity, anti-censorship, and anonymisation features of Bitcoin.

”We can help bitcoin developers and are eager to make sure that all the grants are clear and obvious,” states Maelstrom’s official website.

The program is aimed at the development of innovation in the Bitcoin network. Maelstrom plans to support developers by offering financial means to work on new projects and enhance the existing ones for Bitcoin. This efficiently fits into the global initiative of enhancing the development of the Bitcoin network and its sustainability in the crypto market.

Potential Impact on Bitcoin-Native DeFi

Maelstrom’s grants could potentially result in more innovation in Bitcoin-native Decentralized Finance (DeFi) or simply Bitcoin DeFi or BTCFi. Bitcoin DeFi is an effort to increase the utilization of the Bitcoin network and this area has gained attention with the entry of new protocols like Runes. Runes, a protocol for fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network went live on the 20th of April in conjunction with the Bitcoin 2024 halving.

Rich Rines, a Core DAO contributor who is developing Bitcoin DeFi solutions, highlighted the trend of expanding the use cases of Bitcoin.

Proposed grantees will be required to participate in the technical growth of Bitcoin such as submitting pull requests or reviewing work associated with the Bitcoin Core software project.

The program plans to make the grants in the third or fourth quarter of 2024. This timeline is in parity with recent Bitcoin development activities, such as the United States spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the 2024 halving of Bitcoin.

Overview of Maelstrom and Its Purpose

Maelstrom is a family office fund founded by Arthur Hayes that invests in decentralized technologies. Maelstrom’s goal is to develop a strong and diversified position in infrastructure companies over the long term to catalyze the next round of durable trustless decentralization.

The newly launched Bitcoin grant program further depicts Maelstrom’s contribution to the BTC ecosystem and the development of dApps, smart contracts, and other blockchain protocols associated with the Bitcoin network.