Hi! I'm James O'Beirne. I work on Bitcoin Core, as well as a few other projects that broadly relate to individual sovereignty.

I've been working on Bitcoin Core since 2015 and was at Chaincode Labs for two and a half years. Recently I've been leading work on the assumeutxo scaling project. Basically, this is a change that will help users of Bitcoin overcome an increasingly burdensome initial block download time. But beyond that, I keep an eye on various aspects of Bitcoin development - especially those relating to performance. Funding me means that you'll be helping keep an eye on Bitcoin's technical changes.

I'm seeking funding here to do work that benefits individuals, and not necessarily corporations. Providing funding to individuals like me means you're paying someone to look out for your interests as a user of Bitcoin, not those of a corporation. There's nothing wrong with businesses, but sometimes it's hard to get the incentives right. As the world gets technologically more complex, there's increasingly an asymmetry benefiting concentrated interests who are willing to trade away the rights of the individual. We have to start paying people to work against this.

My interest in Bitcoin is overtly political. I work on it because it helps the individual to opt out of an increasingly surveillant, inflationary money system. You'll be paying me to come up with technical solutions in the service of that aim. As Bitcoin grows in popularity (and more developers get involved) it's important that we preserve this part of its essential nature, and by funding me you'll be helping that aim.

For more about my work...

• assumeutxo proposal, talk, and on Bitcoin Optech
• My bitcoin-core pull requests
• An example of some of my experimental performance work
• Bitcoin for safety: an essay I wrote about the financial conditions contextualizing Bitcoin's importance
• [talk] [MIT] Contributing to Bitcoin Core
• [talk] [Dev++ Tokyo] An overview of Bitcoin Core architecture with slides
• [podcast] Stephan Livera: James O'Beirne - the truth about 'power' in Bitcoin
• [podcast] The Chaincode Podcast: James O'Beirne
• [podcast] Tales From The Crypt
• [podcast] Reckless Review

What will you be funding?

• Continued work on the assumeutxo project, an effort that ensures running a node is practical for non-technical users.
• Continued development of tools like bitcoinperf, ackr.
• Continued review of proposed technical changes to Bitcoin by someone who is ideologically aligned with the continuation of a censorship-resistant currency with a fixed supply.
• Audits of critical ecosystem projects (electrum, coldcard, ...).
• More writing like Bitcoin for safety and bearhaus.
• Yet to be announced experimental projects like...
  • a web-of-trust-based social tool for code review,
  • careful auditing of projects we depend on like gpg and major Linux distros,
  • a turnkey configuration of best-in-class opensource Bitcoin software for personal wallet management and monitoring, and,
  • an industrial-strength Bitcoin network monitor.

If you'd prefer to donate via Bitcoin, you can use this address:

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