Bitcoin ABC’s lead developer highlighted the lack of development funding for the project, raising questions as to the volunteer-basis structure of developing Bitcoin Cash’s implementations.
One of the several implementations of Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin ABC was criticized for developers not signing releases and allowing verification with checksums. When lead developer Amaury Sechét replied that no infrastructure was set up to do this, and was asked why this is, he replied by outlining the voluntary nature of his position, as well as an acute lack of funding from the community:
“Yes it is. My job has been to do this, plus being webmaster of two sites, plus community manager, plus lead dev, plus specs, plus negotiate with exchanges, miner and alike, plus, plus plus. We have close to zero funding to hire people to do it, and as far as the community goes, we have a lot of words of support, but not much actual work done.”
Like many of the first cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin Cash has no funding mechanism specifically set up to deal with development. This is also compounded by the project’s development being spread across several different implementations rather than a cohesive, singular team.
A self-funding mechanism could help maintain developmental independence
The difficulty in securing consistent funding for Bitcoin Cash development has raised several questions about how to properly and independently fund development. Reddit user chainxor, referencing news of mining giant Antpool allegedly burning 12% of Bitcoin Cash mining fees, encouraged miners to instead donate a portion of their proceeds to development:
This suggestion mirrors what Dash has set up at the protocol level, with 10% of the monthly block reward being set aside for development and other funding. This allows for developers to be paid pending a vote from the masternode network, removing any need for outside financial interests.
Dash’s DAO is the standard for self-funding and self-governance
For the last several years, Dash has served as the standard for self-governance and self-funding in cryptocurrency. Thanks to the masternode network and the treasury system, Dash operates as a decentralized autonomous organization, the world’s first, enabling an entire ecosystem of self-funding activity, removing issues with limited funding or dependence on outside organizations.
