- Vinteum is a non-profit dedicated to decentralizing the open-source development of Bitcoin in Brazil.
- The non-profit intends to expand into the whole of Latin America, and eventually fund development worldwide.
- Bruno Garcia will be the first Bitcoin Core developer to be funded through Vinteum.
Vinteum, a non-profit organization dedicated to Bitcoin research and development, will train and fund open-source developers for the Bitcoin ecosystem in Brazil, per a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.
As the broader ecosystem has evolved over the years, multiple exchanges and other organizations have donated varying amounts of funding to Bitcoin’s open-source development, and even legal defense. Moreover, other companies like Lightning Labs, Blockstream and NYDIG go as far as to place Bitcoin developers on the payroll.
Therefore, each organization and every company with a developer on the payroll or beholden to a grant could have their own priorities or motivations, which can arguably present a centralized front for open-source development. Vinteum holds that it is up to each individual, each company, and even each region to create funding for and the education of Bitcoin developers in order to further the decentralization of Bitcoin development.
"Educating and onboarding more developers into Bitcoin and Lightning is critical if we want it to scale to billions of people," Vinteum executive director Lucas Ferreira told Bitcoin Magazine. "The development ecosystem will be more robust and resistant if we have different entities funding developers from all over the world. We have a lot to work on and we need input from a diverse set of engineers, so we can build a truly global and inclusive monetary system and payment network."
Furthermore, Vinteum plans to expand its Bitcoin development network beyond Brazil by diversifying into the broader Latin America region. Then, the non-profit eventually intends to push global input from developers around the world to build and grow the Bitcoin network.
In order to onboard developers, Chaincode Labs Seminar’s curriculum will be translated into Portuguese allowing Brazilian Bitcoin developers to interact within cohorts. In the meantime, Vinteum will also work on building out its own educational material for the future.
The first Bitcoin Core developer to be funded by Vinteum will be Bruno Garcia. Garcia will not only work on Bitcoin Core development, but he will also be joining the Vinteum team as the third founding member. The two remaining founders are Ferreira, and André Neves, the CEO of ZEBEDEE, a bitcoin-only gaming and Lightning payments infrastructure company.