According to a statement issued on Tuesday, Bitcoin Gemini exchange is offering a sponsorship to Michael Ford. Ford, popularly known as Fanquake, is Bitcoin’s core maintainer.
“We are delighted to announce the Gemini sponsorship of Bitcoin Core maintainer Michael Ford, aka Fanquake,” the statement from Beth Kurteson Gemini’s Managing Director read.
This sponsorship is the fruit of the Gemini Opportunity fund. The fund has a sole purpose of improving sustainability, stability and scalability of Bitcoin’s network.
Who is Michael Ford
Fanquake, alias Michael Ford, ranks highly for his contributions to Bitcoin Core. His influence spans widely among developer circles, placing him in position five of developers with the most Bitcoin core commits. Ford has a total of 786 commits on the codebase. Not only does he have all these commits, he also has 3000 Github contributions to his name.
This open source developer began his contribution to Bitcoin Core in 2012. Presently, he serves as the project’s maintainer. This comes with among other responsibilities, the role of developing new code versions. Besides that, he is also responsible for improving the codebase’s programming tools and building systems.
Other Recipients of Gemini Opportunity Fund Sponsorship
However, Ford isn’t the first to receive this sponsorship. Before him, four other developers have benefited from the Gemini Opportunity Fund. Top of the list is Amiti Uttarwar, the world’s first ever known woman to be a Bitcoin Core contributor. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and worked in several Silicon Valley startups
Additionally, other beneficiaries of these scholarships are Dhruv Mehta and Jarol Rodriguez. The pair got great recognition for their work in identifying “the susceptibility of the Bitcoin Network to DNS and border gateway protocol attacks on Bitcoin seed nodes,” says Kurteson.
When announcing Ford’s sponsorship, Gemini’s managing Director continued to say that “We are deeply committed to strengthening the Bitcoin network and its developer community and look forward to expanding our support.“
Since it’s official launch about a year ago, Gemini has pledged over $ 1.5 million which went to developing Bitcoin Core. The donor further mentions that it will continue its support through scholarships, grants and donations.