Investment Boost for Bitcoin Developer
Ben Allen, a developer focused on Bitcoin, has secured a significant financial boost from the investment company Maelstrom, which has provided him with a grant of $100,000. This funding is designated to advance the development of Payjoin, an innovative tool that prioritizes privacy and aims to address scalability issues within the Bitcoin network. Announced on May 20, the collaboration will also involve fellow developer Dan Gould as they work on enhancing the Payjoin development kit.
Understanding Payjoin
Payjoin, initially introduced by Nicolas Dorier through Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 78 in 2019, allows both parties involved in a transaction—sellers and buyers—to contribute inputs jointly. This collaborative approach not only heightens privacy but also improves the consolidation of transaction outputs, which in turn supports scalability, as highlighted in Maelstrom’s announcement.
Independence and Creative Freedom
The grant from Maelstrom provides Allen with the independence to explore the project without stringent oversight. A representative from the firm informed Cointelegraph that the funds will be distributed monthly over one year in Bitcoin, emphasizing a hands-off approach to allow grantees the creative freedom to pursue their projects.
Challenges and Future Plans
With this support, Allen aims to enhance Payjoin features in order to expand its presence in various digital wallets. He noted that the grant allows him to dedicate his time fully to this initiative. However, he acknowledged the challenges associated with Payjoin, particularly the necessity for recipients to remain online during transactions and the complexity of the payment communication process compared to traditional Bitcoin transactions.
The Bigger Picture
Arthur Hayes, Maelstrom’s Chief Investment Officer and a co-founder of the BitMEX exchange, underscored the significance of advancing financial privacy in Bitcoin, asserting that even marginal adoption of Payjoin could disrupt common assumptions held by financial surveillance entities regarding Bitcoin transactions. He explained that these entities often presume that multiple inputs in a transaction are linked to a single party.
Furthermore, Hayes indicated that the benefits of Payjoin extend beyond its direct users, enhancing the overall privacy of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Allen, in his efforts, is focused on developing benchmarks for other developers looking to integrate Payjoin into their wallet software, with an emphasis on reducing user complexity to facilitate greater acceptance. He indicated that a significant marker of success would be the adoption of Payjoin by widely used open-source Bitcoin wallets, specifically noting that its implementation in the BitcoinCore wallet would signal a major breakthrough in reaching this goal.
