Updated 30 April 11:02 GMT: Q&A with Bountysource founder David Rappo included below

Bountysource, a funding platform for open-source software, has finally integrated bitcoin payments.

The site allows open-source developers to earn money by completing jobs posted by ‘backers’ who offer ‘bounties’ – payments, in effect.

Payment with bitcoin has been on the cards since at least March 2013, with the idea resurfacing at the start of this year.

Bountysource founder David Rappo wrote in a blogpost:

“Many of you have been requesting bitcoin support on Bountysource for a while, so we’re thrilled to announce that it’s now live.”

Bountysource is using Coinbase to process bitcoin payments. Rappo has previously said he would consider including litcoin and dogecoin payments, which Coinbase doesn’t support.

“LTC and DOGE are certainly possible, but less likely in the near future […] If Coinbase adds support for more cryptocurrencies this would make the decision a lot easier,” said Rappo on Github in January.

The lack of funding for open-source projects was recently highlighted by the Heartbleed bug in the OpenSSL protocol used by around two-thirds of websites.

OpenSSL had just one person working full-time on the project. Since then, tech giants including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Cisco and Amazon have pledged to donate $3m in total to open source projects over the next three years. OpenSSL now also accepts bitcoin donations.

Originally founded in 2004 as a project management platform for open-source projects, Bountysource relaunched in 2012 as a crowdfunding platform and raised $1.1 million in seed funding in 2013.