We’re excited to share the Q2 2025 Btrust Developer Grant recipients. This round features three new Starter Grant and two renewed Long Term grantees, all driving open-source Bitcoin development. Check out the full list of grantees here:

Btrust Blog

Announcing Q2 2025 Btrust Developer Grant Recipients

Africa, July 2, 2025 — We are excited to present the recipients of our Q2 Starter Grants and welcome returning members to the Btrust Open-Source ...

Starter Grants empower talented engineers to contribute full-time to open-source Bitcoin development, giving them the flexibility and security to identify their specialty and deepen their community involvement. Sulaiman Aminu Barkindo is focusing his efforts on the Validating Lightning Signer (VLS) project. With the support of the Starter Grant, he’ll be working on enhancing HTLC security, advancing on-chain state enforcement and disaster recovery, optimizing signer performance for rapid synchronization, and ensuring robust data persistence. He’s also expanding system test coverage and implementing advanced tools to bring VLS closer to production-readiness, helping make non-custodial, secure Lightning solutions more reliable and accessible, especially where self-custody is essential. Peter Tyonum is making Bitcoin wallet development more approachable and powerful through the Bitcoin Dev Kit (BDK) libraries. He’s focused on releasing bdk-cli version 1.0.0, integrating new features like hardware wallet support, building advanced wallet templates, and improving compatibility with chain clients and RPC proxies. Peter will also be expanding documentation and contributing code reviews across the ecosystem. Jamal ERRAKIBI is dedicating himself to boosting the stability and usability of rust-bitcoin. His priorities include regular code reviews, expanding documentation, improving serialization consistency, and helping guide core rust-bitcoin libraries towards a stable release. This work will support both core developers and newcomers as Bitcoin’s open-source foundation continues to grow. The Btrust Long Term Grant helps experienced contributors continue making high-impact, sustainable advances in Bitcoin infrastructure. Both Long Term Grant renewals will provide two more years of dedicated support to each recipient. Duncan Dean is working on the Lightning Development Kit, particularly advancing dual-funded channels. He is enabling funding contributions from channel acceptors, introducing robust APIs for channel initiators, and developing interactive fee-bumping. Duncan’s future plans include pioneering simple taproot channels to enhance privacy and exploring the integration of Point Time Locked Contracts. Abubakar Sadiq Ismail is deepening his work on Bitcoin Core, focusing on fee estimation improvements and strengthening mempool infrastructure. He’s developing a cluster-aware fee estimator, contributing to multiprocess support and mining interface testing, and continuing to mentor new contributors, host review sessions, and advance his expertise in Bitcoin cryptography. At Btrust, we believe supporting developer talent is key to a stronger, more decentralized Bitcoin. Our grant applications are open year-round, and new grantees are announced every quarter. If you’re passionate about contributing to Bitcoin open-source, we encourage you to apply. Visit our website to learn more about our ongoing grant programs:

Grants

Get funding to work on Free and Open-Source Bitcoin projects

At this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum 🇳🇴, our CEO @npub1sn0q...tr2x took the stage during the Freedom Tech track to share the story of Btrust and our mission to decentralize open-source Bitcoin development across the Global South. Abubakar spoke about the work we’ve been doing to build an ecosystem of African Bitcoin developers, from the early days with just a few contributors to now reaching thousands through grants, education, and infrastructure support. His message was clear: those most affected by financial repression must be empowered to build the tools that safeguard financial freedom. That’s why Btrust exists, to educate developers, fund talent, and grow a developer base that reflects the communities Bitcoin was built to serve. It was also an honor to have our Engineering Lead Kelvin Isievwore, along with Theophilus Isah, Olutobi Adeyemi and Duncan Dean, representing Btrust at the conference. A huge thank you to the @HRF team for bringing together such a thoughtful, impactful group of individuals working at the intersection of technology and freedom.

We’re proud to announce that Btrust has awarded over $1 million in our first round of 2025 Developer Education and Event Grants, supporting 10 initiatives advancing open-source Bitcoin development across Africa, Latin America, and India. 🚀 This round includes four developer education programs shaping the future of Bitcoin contributors in the Global South. We’re supporting Summer of Bitcoin, Vinteum, Bitshala, and Bitcoin For Open Source (B4OS) by Librería de Satoshi. Both Bitshala and B4OS will also be receiving long-term support, allowing them to scale sustainably and focus on impact without the pressure of constant fundraising. We’re also backed four major Bitcoin conferences and events: Adopting Bitcoin Cape Town 🇿🇦, Bitcoin++ Florianópolis 🇧🇷, Dakar Bitcoin Days 🇸🇳, and the Africa Bitcoin Conference. Beyond conferences, we’re funding developer bootcamps and learning formats that reach developers where they are. Africa Free Routing’s Lightning Bootcamps are onboarding experienced devs from the tech and digital assets world into Lightning development, while Base58’s LARP Tutor Training in Mauritius is equipping leaders with tools to teach Bitcoin in a hands-on, engaging way. Each of these projects plays a unique role in strengthening the Bitcoin open-source pipeline, from discovery and onboarding to technical training and ecosystem growth. And together, they reflect our ongoing commitment to building long-term infrastructure for Bitcoin development in the Global South. Read the full blog and meet the grantees here:

Btrust Blog

Introducing the First Round of 2025 Btrust Event and Developer Education Grants

$1M+ awarded across 10 initiatives in the first round of 2025 Btrust grants, powering Bitcoin open-source development in the Global South.

Learn more and explore our grant programs:

Grants

Get funding to work on Free and Open-Source Bitcoin projects

Big thanks to the @HRF team for featuring us in this week’s Financial Freedom Report. Read this issue and subscribe here:

Human Rights Foundation

HRF's Weekly Financial Freedom Report #73

Good morning, readers! This week, we bring reports from Bangladesh, where the interim government instructed the central bank to halt the printing o...

We kick off activities this weekend in Kaduna 🇳🇬 with the Kaduna Bitcoin Seminar, followed by the Lightning Development Bootcamp. Cc @npub1j8w9...8nud @npub1q7qt...q5kj

What does it take to go from juggling short-term startup gigs to becoming a full-time Bitcoin open-source contributor? In our latest Btrust Blog, Abdullahi Yunus walks us through his path from discovering Bitcoin in 2023, joining the Btrust Builders Fellowship, contributing to projects like LND and Polar, and finally being awarded the Btrust Starter Grant. This is a must-read for developers curious about Bitcoin open-source development and how Btrust supports that journey. Read his story here:

Btrust Blog

From Startups to Satoshis: My Bitcoin Journey

My journey from discovering Bitcoin to becoming a Btrust Builder and eventually a Btrust grantee.

We’re excited to welcome Brandon Odiwuor and Itoro Ukpong as the latest recipients of the Btrust Starter Grant 🚀 This grant allows recipients to explore different areas within Bitcoin development, identify a focus for long-term contributions, and engage deeply with the Bitcoin open-source community without financial constraints. These talented developers are making impactful contributions to open-source Bitcoin projects, strengthening the ecosystem and expanding Bitcoin’s accessibility. • Brandon is focused on improving Bitcoin Core’s testing infrastructure, build system, and developer tooling, while also engaging with the community through Nairobi BitDevs. • Itoro is enhancing Bitcoinj and BDK-FFI, improving wallet development, mobile privacy features, and Schnorr/PSBT support, and also driving Bitcoin education as an organizer for BitDevs Accra. At Btrust, we are committed to supporting open-source Bitcoin developers in the Global South, ensuring they have the resources to build, contribute, and grow. Btrust grants are open year-round. Learn more about the grants and apply here:

Grants

Get funding to work on Free and Open-Source Bitcoin projects

The @btcplusplus, Hacking Edition, has officially kicked off in Florianópolis, Brazil! 🇧🇷. This is where Bitcoin devs, builders, and hackers come together to collaborate, learn, and push open-source Bitcoin development forward. 🧑‍💻⚡ We’re proud to support this event, promoting innovation and empowering developers to build the future of Bitcoin. 📅 Happening today until February 22nd 📺 Catch the action LIVE here: https://youtube.com/@btcplusplus?si=5len0k4i84SYPGlv

We're excited to be on Nostr 🚀 Btrust is all about identifying, training, and supporting open-source Bitcoin developers from the Global South. Our mission is to empower builders and strengthen the Bitcoin ecosystem, one contribution at a time. 🛠️⚡ Excited to connect, share, and grow with the Nostr community! 🏗️ Follow us, say hi and learn more about what we do at btrust.tech