Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund Launched By Jack Dorsey 13 Years After First BTC Transaction

A recent open letter published to the Bitcoin developers mailing list written by Block founder Jack Dorsey points to the establishment of a legal defense fund for open-source developers in order to protect them “from lawsuits regarding their activities in the Bitcoin ecosystem.”

The letter, co-signed by Alex Marcos (Chaincode Labs) and Martin White (Hudson River Trading) describes the current dynamics of the Bitcoin industry with “the Bitcoin community currently being the subject of multi-front litigation.” Without any reference to individual cases, the letter further notes that “individual defendants have chosen to capitulate in the absence of legal support.”

The letter explains that people with questions, concerns or pending needs for assistance can email the team at the email domain “bitcoindefensefund.org,” with the landing page still under construction at the time of writing. The letter describes the organization as:

“The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund is a nonprofit entity that aims to minimize legal headaches that discourage software developers from actively developing Bitcoin and related projects such as the Lightning Network, Bitcoin privacy protocols, and the like.”

The letter also refers to the ongoing Tulip Trading lawsuit, which involves the person who many believe to be a straight out scammer, Craig Wright, the Australian who claims he is Satoshi Nakamoto and the inventor of Bitcoin.

Dorsey’s message to the Bitcoin developers email-list is timed exactly 13 years to the day since computer scientist Hal Finney received the first transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain from creator Satoshi Nakamoto. On Jan. 12, 2009, Satoshi sent Finney 10 BTC — worth a few pennies at the time, but now roughly $440,000.

The online Bitcoin community responded in awe to the creation of the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund.

Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund is such a awesome idea!

Email straight from @jack to the bitcoin-dev email list is . pic.twitter.com/4tjvuRTM6N

— David Lawant (@dlawant) January 12, 2022