- The Trust is locating, educating and paying new bitcoin developers in Africa to decentralize contributors around the world.
- The non-profit has identified its founding member who will focus on custody solutions empowering Africans to keep their keys.
- The Trust hopes to expand the program internationally.
A non-profit trust dedicated to advancing the open source development of bitcoin is funding the development and education of developers new to bitcoin in Africa, according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.
The Trust Africa Open Source Cohort will trace, educate and pay individuals for the time they spend in the program as they learn to build the tools needed for the bitcoin ecosystem. The trust continues to focus on countries with fewer bitcoin developers, which means supporting new contributors to the ecosystem. The challenge of new developers left unchecked in open source development can often put developers at a disadvantage rather than provide a creative proposal or champion the developmental change needed.
The Trust Cohort has created a framework through a five-point system to prevent damaging scenarios in which nonprofits will be able to offer ongoing support to developers.
Thus, group members will receive a mentor – a technical guide through the developer’s chosen application, as well as oversight from a designated manager to assist each member. Additionally, members will receive peer support through daily team-based activities; Project relationships in which the trust will openly communicate ongoing projects with cohort members, and finally, new cohort members are contracted for one year with the option to renew to encourage long-term productivity. Additional support, including stipends for hardware and travel, will be provided to encourage community foundations.
In addition, the trust has also identified its founding member – Vladimir Fomin. Fomene is a Cameroonian – West African – software engineer proficient in both Java Script and Rust. He previously worked as a full stack engineer and his initial focus would be the Bitcoin Development Kit, which provides the tools needed for developers to build a bitcoin wallet capable of working cross-platform. With the aim of enabling Africans to keep their own bitcoin keys, Fomen will primarily focus on developments that are further bitcoin custody solutions.
Formin details his initial reluctance towards bitcoin, and what ultimately attracted him, in a blog post.
“With the unfolding of the above events, it became clear to me that we had given too much power to governments and that they could abuse it through their misbehavior or actions,” Formin said. “The people must take back some of that power or have systems that can keep their governments under control.”
The Trust will continue to introduce newcomers to the ecosystem with a long-term vision of expanding the program through the Global South.