We are excited to have more contributors working on and supporting open-source bitcoin design.

The foundation supports highly motivated and vetted individuals with grants that enable them to dedicate more of their time on open-source bitcoin design, user research and associated areas.

The foundation is a non-profit, and all applications are reviewed by the admins.

Working on a grant

Working on a grant means that you have full freedom to work on things you really enjoy. Work days and planning is managed by you. You get to decide on:

• Working hours
• Holidays
• Planning

It means having a hyperfocus in one specific area and improving that area in the bitcoin ecosystem. Grantees are given a huge amount of trust and freedom. We trust that you will produce and work on the tasks that you have set out for yourself. With trust comes the responsibility to produce incredible work that you are proud of, and that contributes to the broader ecosystem. While this sounds like a bunch of fun (and it is), discipline and planning and grit are some of the core characteristics you’ll be tapping into.

Areas the foundation is looking to support

These are some of the areas where we observed a need and desire for more design contributions. You are more than welcome to share other ideas.

• UX best practices for cutting edge bitcoin technologies: Interest for cutting-edge bitcoin technology, to help identify and document UX best practices for BOLT12, silent payments, async payments, LSP specs, and similar technologies.
• Merchant interactions: Purchases, especially in-person ones, are extremely sensitive moments where technology and user interactions have to come together flawlessly.
• Ecash: Fedimint and Cashu are two protocols with very active ecosystems of builders.
• Key projects and collaboration support: Existing community collaborations and key projects to continue and deepen. The list includes Bitcoin Core App, Bitcoin UI Kit, Bitcoin Research Kit, Fedimint, Saving Satoshi, JAM and others.
• Accessibility: How can we improve accessbility in bitcoin wallets? ****During our research on accessibility in the bitcoin ecosystem, we found that many wallets have very basic accessibility issues that prevent users with those needs from managing their bitcoin.

Grant review process

The grant selection process involves the evaluation of multiple criteria. The 3 criteria that proposals are evaluated with are the following:

• Bitcoin
• Free and open-source