Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has laid out plans to create a legal defense fund exclusively for Bitcoin developers who face litigations from multiple fronts. The announcement was sent in a mail addressing Bitcoin developers, at around 13:45 UTC on January 12 from an email account that seems to belong to Dorsey. The mail which was co-signed by Chaincode Labs co-founder Alex Morcos and Martin White stated,
Litigation and continued threats are having their intended effect; individual defendants have chosen to capitulate in the absence of legal support. We propose a coordinated and formalized response to help defend developers. The main purpose of this Fund is to defend developers from lawsuits regarding their activities in the Bitcoin ecosystem, including finding and retaining defense counsel, developing litigation strategy, and paying legal bills.
In addition to that, Jack Dorsey and co. explained the proposed fund to be ‘ a nonprofit entity that aims to minimize legal headaches that discourage software developers from actively developing Bitcoin and related projects.’ At first, the fund will begin with volunteers and part-time lawyers stating that developers are free to choose whether to take the service or not.
The mail also stated that ‘the board of the Fund will be responsible for determining which lawsuits and defendants it will help defend.’ Further, it confirmed the first task would be to take over the rein of the current defense of Ramona Ang’s “Tulip Trading Lawsuit” against developers including Ira Kleiman for alleged misconduct over access to a BTC fortune.
The mail ended on a note that the fund is not currently looking to raise additional money for its operations until advised by the board which if needed would be used only to pay for legal expenses or for its staff.
Jack Dorsey mining plans finally to bear fruits
Jack Dorsey, a known Bitcoin maximalist who resigned as Twitter Chief Exec in Nov 2021 had revealed plans that Block [previously Square], a digital payment firm he co-founded, might jump into the bitcoin mining business. As per a recent LinkedIn job posting, Block is looking to hire a custom digital design lead for its team that will help build the “next generation” of microchips used to mine Bitcoin.