Jack Dorsey launches fund to aid Bitcoin developers in legal battles

Twitter co-founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey announced the creation of a fund to defend Bitcoin developers in lawsuits.

So @jack just mailed to the bitcoin-dev mailing list …

This can also be found in the list’s archive: https://t.co/nUvoo75QO2 pic.twitter.com/UeKazPPetx

— Leo WalletScrutiny Wandersleb (@LeoWandersleb) January 12, 2022

The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund aims to defend a community particularly vulnerable to legal pressure. The fund will provide lawyers, develop defence strategies, and cover legal costs so that Bitcoin developers can continue their work.

“We are offering a coordinated and formalised response,” wrote Dorsey.

The board includes Block CEO, Chaincode Labs co-founder Alex Morcos, and scientist Martin White. The fund, if necessary, is prepared to consider external financing.

Initially, the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund will be supported by volunteers and part-time lawyers. Its board will focus on resource allocation.

The nonprofit’s first act will be to support 16 developers named as defendants in Craig Wright’s lawsuit. The self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto demanded access to the bitcoins allegedly lost due to their alleged fault.

In December, the payments firm founded and led by Dorsey, Square renamed its name to Block to emphasise its commitment to blockchain.

Earlier the company invested $50 million and $170 million of its own capital in bitcoin.

In February 2021, Dorsey and rapper Jay-Z pledged to allocate 500 BTC to create ₿trust, aimed at supporting Bitcoin developers in Africa and India.

Another Dorsey project, Spiral (formerly Square Crypto), in December presented a set of tools for developing cryptocurrency wallets and other technical solutions on the Lightning Network.

In January 2022, Block opened vacancies for specialists in developing an ASIC miner of a new generation and a hardware wallet “for the next 100 million Bitcoin users.”

The possibility of creating the latter was announced by Dorsey in June 2021. A month later, Jesse Dorogusker, head of the hardware product development department at the payments firm, confirmed these plans.

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