Since launching regulated and secure BTC trading in 2015, Gemini says it has been a passionate supporter of Bitcoin and the blockchain ecosystem.
Importantly, Gemini provided grants and sponsorships through the Gemini Opportunity Fund to various groups “supporting the Bitcoin Network, including Bitcoin Developers.”
In May, Gemini announced the launch of Superlunar, which is described as “a multi-disciplinary web3 research and design studio.” Overseeing the Gemini Opportunity Fund, Superlunar has “continued to sponsor Bitcoin Developers, and has expanded sponsorships over the past months.”
Superlunar now “sponsors nine full-time Bitcoin Developers on year-long contracts” throughout the world, supporting “the continued sustainability, scalability, and security of the Bitcoin Network.”
Gemini is quite pleased about the work they are doing, and are excited to highlight their projects.
- Dhruv Mehta — Gemini has been sponsoring Dhruv’s work on Bitcoin Core since early 2021. His work focuses on the security of Bitcoin Network nodes, with a specific interest in BIP324, which proposes an updated P2P protocol for the Bitcoin Network.
- Jarol Rodriguez — like Dhruv, Jarol has been sponsored by the Gemini Opportunity Fund since early 2021. His focus has been on building out a more intuitive Bitcoin Core Graphical User Interface (GUI), which is based on the QT Modeling Language (QML).
- Amiti Uttarwar — Amiti was previously sponsored by Gemini Opportunity Fund and will resume her work with us this November. She plans to continue work on the P2P network, with a focus on security and privacy. She is also passionate about helping others with their Bitcoin journeys, especially bringing more diversity into the ecosystem.
- Collin Rukundo — Collin has been focused on the usability of the Bitcoin Network, building the EttaWallet, which aims to improve accessibility and the user experience, particularly for users in Africa who are encountering Bitcoin for the first time and may be mobile-first users. As a Ugandan activist, Collin is also passionate about privacy and custody, ensuring that users keep their funds safe when interacting with the Bitcoin Network.
- Duncan Dean — with a focus on decentralization and resilience, Duncan has been working on enabling “asmap” in Bitcoin Core by default, ensuring the continued security of the Bitcoin Network by diversifying the peers with which Bitcoin miners share connections. He has also worked on the Lightning Developer Kit (LDK), building tools and libraries that facilitate the integration of Lightning into any Bitcoin wallet. Read more about Duncan’s experience and journey to becoming a Bitcoin Core Dev here.
- Josie — Josie is currently curating data sets and assisting with data analysis for research related to the Bitcoin Mempool as well as diving into a statistical analysis of Bitcoin transactions and fees. He also plans to focus on Cross Input Signature Aggregation as a soft-fork for Bitcoin. Josie is passionate about mentorship and dedicating time to reviewing and testing open PRs in Core.
- Ruben Somsen — working closely with other Bitcoin Developers, Ruben has honed his work on spacechains, which seek to improve the Bitcoin ecosystem by using a permissionless method to create trustless blockchains.
- Shashwat Vangani — an alumni of the Summer of Bitcoin initiative, Shashwat has a unique interest in the Bitcoin Core GUI and helping in its development. Recently, he implemented its onboarding view and is now focused on implementing a Bitcoin block clock for the new version of the GUI.
- Stratospher — also an alumni of Summer of Bitcoin, Stratospher is focused on implementing the cryptography for BIP324’s integration testing framework, and has written illustrated blog posts about techniques to securely transmit public keys.
Gemini says it is “grateful for the work the Bitcoin Developers sponsored by Superlunar have accomplished.”
They are dedicated to furthering their support for the Bitcoin community as they continue on their mission “to unlock the next era of financial, creative, and personal freedom.”