Purse Enters Multi-Million Dollar Bitcoin Development Agreement

On May 23 the bitcoin marketplace startup Purse announced a multi-million dollar bitcoin protocol development agreement with Bitmain Technologies, Bixin, F2 Pool, and Bitcoin.com. Funds will be directed towards hiring new developers and advance the development of the alternative Bitcoin client Bcoin.

Also read: Bitcoin Exchanges Multiply in Japan

Purse Partners With Four Industry Leaders to Bolster the Advancement of Bitcoin Protocol Development

The bitcoin company Purse has been bolstering the Bcoin implementation for quite some time now. Bcoin is a javascript client that is fully compatible with the latest version of the Bitcoin Core software written in C++. The protocol has been expiremented with on Bitcoin’s testnet and is also the only alternative code base that has been tested by miners on the main network (as it’s based on javascript and not Satoshi Nakamoto’s original C++ client). Bcoin has also been welcomed by bitcoin-centric companies such as Bitpay, Ripio, BTC.com, and Decentraland.

On May 22nd Purse founder and CEO Andrew Lee detailed that he believes multiple reference implementations and adding more developers to the ecosystem will benefit bitcoin, during a scaling panel at Consensus 2017. The Purse CEO said he was quite optimistic Bitcoin will scale this year as others on the panel like BTCC’s Bobby Lee, and Bitpay’s Stephen Pair agreed with him. Lee echoed the same sentiment during the multi-million dollar bitcoin protocol development agreement announcement as well.

“For bitcoin to take off, we need multiple implementations with even market share,” said Purse CEO Andrew Lee. “Decentralizing protocol development will lead to multiple clients, diverse communities, more developers, better security, and more innovation.”

‘The Ability to Execute and Innovate’

The news follows Bitpay’s recent multi-million dollar agreement with Bitmain Technologies two weeks ago. The Atlanta-based bitcoin payment processor said a multi-year plan will advance open source software for miners, mining pools, and full node validators. “We believe that miners and mining technology providers like Bitmain play a vital role in the security and ongoing success of the Bitcoin blockchain,” explained Bitpay. The company last month also announced that it would help test the Bcoin implementation and extension blocks.

Purse’s announcement details that participants of the agreement concurred that Bcoin developers will “retain full autonomy over the project and have not purchased an equity stake.” The Bejing-based Bitmain says they are impressed with the Bcoin software which is currently open sourced under the MIT license. Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu has stated in the past that he thought the Bcoin client was interesting being a fan of alternative implementations of the Bitcoin protocol.

“We’re impressed with the team’s technical capability and professionalism,” said Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu during the announcement. “Further, they’ve already demonstrated the ability to execute and innovate.”

The Rise of Alternative Bitcoin Clients

The recent partnerships and alternative client research and development comes at a time when many bitcoin enthusiasts would like to see the network scale. The network has been limited to its transaction capabilities of only three transactions a second and miner fees have been rising exponentially as bitcoin’s fiat value increases. Since there has been no solutions supported by the vast majority, many alternative clients like Bitcoin Classic, Unlimited, and others have started to gain popularity.

With the help from Bitmain Technologies, Bixin, F2 Pool, and Bitcoin.com, Purse hopes they can push Bcoin to the next level and add more diversity to the bitcoin development scene.

What do you think about Purse’s recent multi-million dollar deal? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Bcoin, Bitmain, Bitcoin.com, Bixin, and F2 Pool.

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