OKCoin, BitMEX Operator Grant $150,000 to Core Developer Amiti Uttarwar

As the saying goes: when it rains, it pours. And lately, the Bitcoin Core development community appears to be experiencing a welcomed shower.

Today, cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin and HDR Global Trading Limited, which operates the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, announced a $150,000 grant for Core developer Amiti Uttarwar. The donation follows similar gifts from both donors, as well as others, that have been announced in recent weeks.

Uttarwar focuses on Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer layer, notably reducing the frequency that wallets attempt to rebroadcast transactions and, therefore, the frequency with which transaction information is revealed through her work on PR #18038.

“Most recently, Amiti has focused on increasing test coverage for the P2P layer to ensure a robust codebase,” a press release highlighting the donation explained. “Having strong automated test coverage allows developers to make changes with confidence and is standard for software projects. With Bitcoin Core, the current system we have available for testing real P2P connections only supports certain kinds of connections. Amiti’s work enables mocking another type of connection so that the test coverage can be increased.”

This donation follows similar, recent gifts from both OKCoin (which donated $100,000 to open-source bitcoin payment processor BTCPay Server in late May) and HDR Global (which granted Core developer Gleb Naumenko $100,000 in early June).

The trend signals recognition from these exchange operators that supporting Bitcoin Core will ultimately benefit all sections of the cryptocurrency space.

“Exchanges are built on these open-source protocols which are community goods,” Uttarwar said, per the release. “There are only 30 to 40 developers who contribute to Bitcoin full time. It’s a $150 billion industry now and we’re building towards a functional, decentralized and global currency — so we have a long way to go. This grant enabled me to continue my mission to make the Bitcoin network more reliable, private and understandable to the benefit of everyone.”

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