In Brief:
- Dorsey launched the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund with Alex Morcos, and Martin White.
- The fund arises as a result of an increase in “multi-front litigation and persistent threats” in the community.
- The Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing legal barriers for developers.
- Tulip Trading litigation will be the first case for the Fund.
Jack Dorsey, the former Twitter CEO, Bitcoin (BTC) bull, and CEO of Block (previously Square) has taken aim at those who take legal jabs at Bitcoin innovators, such as Craig “Faketoshi” Wright.
In an open letter to developers, Dorsey, Alex Morcos of Chaincode Labs, the co-founder of Hudson River Trading proposed the launch of the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund for the community to help them fight the legal battles.
Early on January 12, in an email to developers, Dorsey described the open-source community as “susceptible to legal pressure.” The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund Board comprises Jack Dorsey, Alex Morcos, and Martin White.
The fund arises as a result of an increase in “multi-front litigation and persistent threats” in the community, which force individual defendants to succumb to the lack of legal representation. The fund’s principal purpose is to “protect developers from legal action arising from their participation in the Bitcoin ecosystem.” Finding and retaining defense counsel, creating litigation strategy, and paying legal fees are all part of this.
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing legal barriers that prevent software engineers from actively developing Bitcoin and related projects like the Lightning Network and Bitcoin privacy protocols.
The Fund will start with a corps of volunteer and part-time lawyers. The board of the Fund will be responsible for determining which lawsuits and defendants it will help defend.
“At this time, the Fund is not seeking to raise additional money for its operations but will do so at the direction of the board if needed for further legal action or to pay for staff,” reads the email.
The fund has already decided on its first case, in which it will “take over coordination of the existing defense of the Tulip Trading litigation against certain developers for violation of fiduciary duty and give financing for outside attorneys.”
It was only last year in November that Dorsey resigned from Twitter after more than six years as its CEO to follow his passion for Bitcoin.
