The first quarter of the Bitcoin Design Foundation has flown by filled with learnings, fundraising, budget scenarios, drawing up contracts and an operational setup that we are already starting to reap the benefits from.

Since its inception, the foundation has received continued support from Spiral and a first-time grant from HRF, for which we are very grateful. A big thank you also to the Bitbox team and Ferreyro for their early contributions, and for the many small donations aggregated through OpenSats and Gitcoin. We are working hard to use the donations in the most effective way.

On the grantee side we are happy to report a healthy flow of grant applications. Reviewing them is a delicate process and we spend a good amount of time with each one, while also building a process of direct and timely dialog with all applicants and grantees. 

We were excited to give the first couple of grants to Erik (learn more) and Chris (learn more) in this quarter. Although they are both first time grantees, they have already proven themselves through participation and contributions in the bitcoin design community. We are in conversations with several more applicants which we hope to conclude shortly.

Mo and Christoph went on the Stephan Livera podcast to talk about the foundation, the bitcoin design community and design in bitcoin in general.

We’ve heard from several designers that they are now seriously considering working in the bitcoin open-source ecosystem because they heard of the foundation and funding opportunities. This is a great signal that we are on the right track.

For the next quarter, our areas of focus will be:

Overall, we are pleased with progress so far and very excited about pushing the user experience of bitcoin forward with an expanded group of design grantees in 2024.

– Mo, Daniel, And Christoph