Much of what we do at Spiral aims to support FOSS (free and open-source software) bitcoin developers and designers. Our grant program currently funds over two dozen developers and designers across more than 18 countries—the largest bitcoin fund of its kind. These individuals are helping make bitcoin the world's preferred currency by tackling a range of projects from Bitcoin Core and Lightning to general UX improvements.
We have a lot going on, and tweets weren’t cutting it. So here’s a new kind of update that we’ll be releasing quarterly to cover what we’re working on, where we’re speaking, who we’re funding, etc.
Once Square decided to rebrand, we knew it was time for our own long-overdue rebrand. After all, Square Crypto was never the best name for our team.
Spiral was founded in 2019 to improve the bitcoin ecosystem by contributing to free and open-source projects. After six months of nothing but tweeting, a PM and engineers were hired and began work on the Lightning Development Kit, a collection of developer-focused tools that simplify and expedite the process of adding Lightning Network functionality to bitcoin applications.
To foster a greater and more engaged bitcoin design community, we are expanding our existing grant program to designers. Initial grants will last 6 months. Our hope is that all grant recipients will serve as stewards for the growing bitcoin design community.
Great design is essential to the adoption of new technologies. That’s what made it one of Square Crypto’s earliest considerations.
We support bitcoin by building developer toolkits, contributing to the Lightning Network and Bitcoin Core, and supplying grants that free up developers to work on bitcoin in their own way. To date, we’ve supplied grants to BTCPayServer and ZmnSCPxj. Today we’re awarding two more to Jon Atack and Tankred Hase, in addition to providing steps that could help your bitcoin project get funded by us.
For bitcoin to become a widely used global currency — one that can’t be stopped, tampered with, or rigged in anyone’s favor — improvements to bitcoin’s UX, security, privacy, and scaling are required.
Square Crypto was founded to improve and promote bitcoin, both through our own work and by supporting the work of others. In that spirit, today we’re announcing the first of what will be many grants to support open-source bitcoin projects.
Bitcoin has demonstrated incredible resilience in its first 10 years largely due to its sophisticated technical design and passionate community. However, for Bitcoin to eventually become a daily-use currency with widespread adoption, there is a need to significantly improve the user experience, as echoed by Jack Dorsey when he announced Square Crypto.
