The planet needs Vinteum because “we need developers from all over the world to build this global internet-native money.” What is Vinteum? In the post announcing the organization’s existence, they describe themselves as “a non-profit Bitcoin research and development center dedicated to supporting Bitcoin developers in Brazil and the wider Latin America region. We will train and fund open source developers to work on Bitcoin and the Lightning Network.” 

Our organization will train and fund Brazilian open source developers to work in one of the most revolutionary technologies of our time. We need developers from all over the world to build this global internet-native money.

— Vinteum (@Vinteum_org) August 10, 2022

To illustrate their reason to be, Vinteum quotes Spiral’s Steve Lee “on an episode of Stephan Livera’s podcast.”

“I think the right way for open source development funding and organization is a 10 by 10 model. 10 organizations of 10 people, where each organization is independent. Independent funding, independent leadership… other projects might have more of a 1 by 100 model, where it’s just a centralized entity that has a huge budget, and I think that’s the antithesis of Bitcoin and how it should be done.”

Independent organizations developing and funding talent from all over the world. What a concept.

About The Need To Fund Developers And Vinteum’s Role

Currently, bitcoin’s market capitalization is at $465B, give or take. With all of that value at stake, and all the value that’s coming, the network’s development should be top priority. However, bitcoin is truly decentralized. That means, there’s not one foundation making sure that the code evolves as planned. More importantly, there’s no guaranteed funding for said developers to be able to focus on bitcoin full-time.

This is where Vinteum comes in:

“We need talent. Bitcoin development funding has improved, but we still face lots of challenges, especially with regard to building a robust recruiting pipeline. That’s why it is important that we not only fund developers but also develop programs and educational efforts to teach developers about Bitcoin and onboard them into Bitcoin development.”

That’s right, the organization will develop and adapt education programs to prepare the next generation of Brazilian bitcoin developers. 

“The first thing we’ll do is adapt Chaincode Labs Seminar’s curriculum and start cohorts in Portuguese so Brazilian developers can interact with each other and learn in groups. If you’re a developer interested in learning more about how Bitcoin and Lightning work, we’re now accepting applications.”

The People Involved In Vinteum

In parallel to letting the world know about their existence, Vinteum announced its first grantee. Bruno Ely Garcia was previously supported by Brink and was one of the developers who review Taproot, bitcoin’s first major upgrade since 2017. Besides the Vinteum grant, Ely Garcia will join the organization as Director of Education. The developer told Portal Do Bitcoin:

“Being able to focus all your forces on Bitcoin is very good, it gives me the feeling that I am now fulfilling a mission! That’s what I want because it’s a career that brings together two passions: programming and Bitcoin.”

Vinteum is the brainchild of Lightning Labs’ Lucas Ferreira, a developer and a Bitcoin Twitter staple, and André Neves, co-founder of bitcoin gaming giant Zebedee. About his partner, Ferreira told Portal Do Bitcoin:

“André, being a living example of what this model can generate, seemed to me the ideal person to join me in this project”, explains Ferreira. In 2018, André was part of the first class focused on Lighting Network at Chaincode Labs, a New York-based bitcoin research group famous for the seminars it promotes.”

If you’re interested in potentially contributing to Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, but feel you don’t have enough technical understanding of how they work, apply for our seminars! We’re following the @ChaincodeLabs curriculum and we have some great mentors in the pipeline!

— Vinteum (@Vinteum_org) August 10, 2022

For his part, Ferreira talked about the need to bring “more geographic diversity to this talent pool, people who will understand the needs of their regions and will keep that in mind when developing Bitcoin.” This is a crucial part of Vinteum’s reason to be. Brazil and Latin America might currently be underrepresented in bitcoin development, but that’s about to change.

BTC price chart for 08/11/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

Where Did The Money Come From

If bitcoin is decentralized, where did the money for Vinteum come from? Ferreira told Portal Do Bitcoin:

“Getting the funds was really hard work. We had to put together a deck explaining the idea and sell this project to potential donors. I went after my network and so did André, and we were raising the funds.”

In the end, Vinteum informs, the “philanthropic donations” came from “John Pfeffer, Wences Casares, Sebastian Serrano, Okcoin, and the Human Rights Foundation.” Other contributors were, “Casa for providing us with state-of-the-art Bitcoin custody and Voltage for provisioning our Lightning Network node infrastructure.”

Kudos to those organizations and individuals for understanding the importance of funding bitcoin development all over the world. United we stand.

Featured Image: Vinteum logo from their website | Charts by TradingView