Vinteum Launches Bitcoin Developer Funding in Brazil
Vinteum, a non-profit Bitcoin research and development center, will start training and funding developers for the Bitcoin ecosystem in Brazil. In a press release put out on August 10th, 2022, the non-profit also announced intentions to expand its program to include Latin America and eventually, the whole world.
Dedicated to Decentralizing Bitcoin Development
Vinteum is not the first organization to dedicate funds to Bitcoin’s open-source development. Cryptocurrency exchanges like Bitmex, Gemini, and Okcoin also provide grants to Bitcoin developers. Other companies, like NYDIG and Lightning Labs, even have Bitcoin developers on their payrolls.
According to the non-profit, no single entity should fund Bitcoin development. The more organizations there are, the better it is for the decentralization and open-source nature of Bitcoin.
Vinteum believes that to achieve the goal of building a global currency, Bitcoin development needs diversity. It needs input from developers around the globe. And over time, organizations with different focus areas will pop up. In this regard, Vinteum will “focus on building and growing the Bitcoin development ecosystem in Brazil and the wider Latin America region.”
Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine, Vinteum executive director, Lucas Ferreira, said,
The development ecosystem will be more robust and resistant if we have different entities funding developers from all over the world. We have a lot to work on and we need input from a diverse set of engineers, so we can build a truly global and inclusive monetary system and payment network.
Big Focus on Education
Today, with a low number of Bitcoin developers, this presents a challenge to the goal of scaling Bitcoin to a global level. Vinteum’s solution to it is education.
“Educating and onboarding more developers into Bitcoin and Lightning is critical if we want it to scale to billions of people,” Lucas said.
So in addition to funding developers, the non-profit plans to develop programs to teach developers about Bitcoin and get them into Bitcoin development. It announced its first step will be to adapt Chaincode Labs Seminar’s curriculum and translate it into Portuguese as it works on building its own educational material.
The first beneficiary of Vinteum’s funding will be Bruno Garcia, a Bitcoin Core developer. As he continues working on Bitcoin Core, he will join Vinteum as the third partner alongside Lucas Ferreira and Andre Neves. He will also lead the non-profit educational efforts and help in mentoring the next generation of Bitcoin developers.