The last few months have been an impressive testimony to Peter Bushnell’s energy to move Feathercoin forward by catching up with recent core releases including the ability to use SegWit in Feathercoin transactions. This energy and passion of the creator of Feathercoin not gone unnoticed and leads to the main purpose of this blog post, namely the announcement of the Feathercoin Development Foundation.

The Feathercoin Development Foundation (FDF), based in Zug (Switzerland), was set up to foster the development and acceptance of Feathercoin, supporting the amazing work driven by Peter Bushnell and the Feathercoin community. A detailed roadmap will follow in due course, though we can reveal for now that key focus areas are libbitcoin and wallets in addition to developing Feathercoin Core further. In both areas, the FDF also aims to contribute back towards Bitcoin as we believe that a stronger system overall will benefit everyone.

The Foundation has received funding to hire three developers and is also setting some coins aside to reward outstanding contributions from the community. In fact, the FDF will kickstart further software development, and its resources will help see new and existing projects to completion.

The Foundation will also serve as an instrument to coordinate the broader community efforts around Feathercoin: if the open source movement has taught us anything, it is that no amount of money can replace the enthusiasm of a dedicated community. It can, however, be valuable to have a catalyst for this enthusiasm so we can include people (not just developers) who want to contribute because they believe that a fair amount of choice in cryptocurrencies is also a fair amount of freedom.

As feathers are inherently linked to birds who can rise high into the sky and roam freely, the association with Feathercoin could not be more fitting: may Feathercoin spread its wings and fly!

Foundation Support and Composition

As of today, the Board of Directors consists of the following people:

- Lucas Betschart (President)

- Peter Bushnell

- Oliver Wolfensberger

- Stephan Masek

Three of those board members — namely Lucas Betschart, Oliver Wolfensberger and Peter Bushnell — have been the driving force behind the setup of the Feathercoin Development Foundation and were fortunate enough to find a financial supporter in Hyperion Capital AG (represented through Stephan Masek) who shares the values and vision of the foundation. Hyperion Capital AG is an investment vehicle of a number of successful entrepreneurs, including Swiss businessman and investor Rainer-Marc Frey.

Feathercoin will continue to grow and benefit first and foremost from the impressive number of people that have already been involved in shaping the Feathercoin Development Foundation — and we are looking forward to welcome many more.

The best place to get started is the forum on the Feathercoin website. For those who prefer instant communication, there is the Feathercoin Telegram channel (also available in German). You can also stay informed by following us on Twitter (Feathercoin Foundation, Feathercoin, Feathercoin deutsch) or visit our website on https://feathercoin.foundation