For the first time in it’s long and prominent history, Coinbase – a leading cryptocurrency exchange in the western hemisphere – has announced it will be sponsoring two separate bitcoin developers.
Coinbase Is Moving in a Whole New Direction
This marks a serious change for the trading platform, who in the beginning, has refused to take such a position when it comes to bitcoin and cryptocurrency developers. However, the company has taken quite a bit of backlash over the years for refusing to take a stance on those that are consistently improving bitcoin’s coding. If it wasn’t for bitcoin and other forms of crypto, Coinbase and many other exchanges would not even be in existence, nor would they be reaping the billions of dollars they garner each year, and some are taking offense with Coinbase’s lagging decisions.
Over the past few months, several trading platforms have sought to take stances regarding support for crypto developers. Some of these platforms include BitMEX, OK Coin and even Square, which while not necessarily an exchange, does permit the selling and trading of bitcoin units. Each of these companies have established various grants for bitcoin and crypto developers in the past, and now it looks like Coinbase is joining the ranks.
In a blog post, the trading firm announced:
As part of our Crypto Community Fund, Coinbase plans to sponsor at least two bitcoin developers, who contribute directly to the bitcoin core codebase or associated bitcoin projects. We are beginning our search for grant recipient starting today. We believe that helping to connect and grow the crypto economy is essential to building an open financial system for the world. Our Crypto Community Fund aims to grow and improve the entire crypto industry, while making it simpler to use and more secure for everyone. If successful, we intend to expand the program to other types of projects and crypto communities.
While the program is open to all kinds of developers with varying levels of experience, Coinbase claims it is looking specifically for developers that can offer tooling to the bitcoin network. In addition, it is also looking for people who can potentially “improve testing” and “contribute code.” The blog post also contains a link that allows individuals to apply for the grants the trading firm is now offering.
A Lot of Change for the Exchange Thus Far
Coinbase further stated:
We’re excited to fund projects nearly anywhere in the world. While we aim to focus on year-long developer grants, we also encourage people or teams with shorter projects in mind to apply. If successful, we hope to grow the Crypto Community Fund over time.
Coinbase recently stirred up controversy when it said that its workplace would no longer be a haven for political discussions, and instead would focus on just being a place of business that provided top notch crypto-based tools and services for people to appreciate and utilize.