A new group to help fund work on Bitcoin’s long-term security, including post-quantum cryptography, and to serve as a credible source on the state of that work
A group of leading financial institutions and Bitcoin companies announced the formation of the Bitcoin Security Consortium, an initiative dedicated to supporting the long-term security and resilience of the Bitcoin network, backed by an aggregate $15 million in member pledges over the next three years.
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Founding members are Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Block, Blockstream, Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets®, Galaxy, and Strategy, a cross-section of the institutional Bitcoin ecosystem that includes holders, custodians, exchanges, infrastructure providers, payments providers, and asset managers, united by a shared interest in Bitcoin’s continued security.
The Consortium’s day-to-day work is coordinated by Mike Schmidt, Executive Director of Brink, a 501c3 non-profit that funds and supports Bitcoin open-source developers, who serves in a volunteer capacity.
$15 Million Pledged
The Consortium will help fund and support the developers and researchers already working on Bitcoin’s security, including the long-term work of preparing Bitcoin for a potential era of quantum computing. As part of the launch, members have independently pledged an aggregate of $15 million over the next three years toward this work. Each member directs its own funding independently to the developers, researchers, and organizations it chooses.
The Consortium will also serve as a clear and reliable source of information on these efforts for investors, the public, and the media.
“As long-term holders, we have every incentive to see Bitcoin remain secure for generations. Funding the people who do this work, and helping inform the conversation around it, is a natural way for us to contribute.” – Phong Le, Chief Executive Officer of Strategy
Supporting the existing open ecosystem
The Consortium is modeled on the way industry groups have long supported the open-source software they depend on, contributing resources and awareness without controlling the underlying work.
It does not develop or direct Bitcoin’s protocol, takes no position on specific protocol changes, and does not speak for Bitcoin or its developers. Bitcoin’s development is, and will remain, the work of a global, decentralized community of contributors.
“Bitcoin Core developers do incredibly important work, and we’re pleased that our firm and the others in this group will now be making significant additional funding available to support Bitcoin’s long-term security needs.” – Robert Mitchnick, Global Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock
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