Share this article
MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative Raises $4M for Effort to ‘Harden’ Bitcoin
Prominent backers include CoinShares’ Meltem Demirors, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor.
By Daniel Kuhn
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 12:18 p.m. Published Feb 28, 2021, 4:19 p.m.
The MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) is spinning up a multiyear effort dedicated to Bitcoin research and development. The program raised $4 million from prominent backers, including CoinShares’ Meltem Demirors, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, among others, as well as corporate entities, including Fidelity Digital Assets. It has made the long-term health of the Bitcoin protocol its key area of focus.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Over the next four years, the Bitcoin Software and Security Effort will dedicate resources to Bitcoin Core development, the underlying codebase of the near-trillion-dollar network. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will also investigate long-standing questions regarding Bitcoin’s core attributes, such as the stability of the network after the 21 million BTC mining subsidy runs out.
In its 12-year existence, Bitcoin has proved remarkably robust. The decentralized network has gone down just twice in its history – most recently in 2013. A core group of maintainers patch bugs, ship updates and generally oversee the protocol. Their work is primarily funded on the patronage model, with corporations supporting the work of developers, or is a labor of love.
Part of the Media Lab’s mandate is to help provide stewardship for this unofficial development process, thereby helping to “reduce bottlenecks in the development ecosystem which might lead to centralization.”
See also: Nic Carter – Bitcoin’s Patronage System Is an Unheralded Strength
“As the use of Bitcoin grows, and as it becomes more deeply embedded into our societies, the security of the network must grow and strengthen alongside it. Yet, as a common good, there is no one single Bitcoin protector or guardian to take on this formidable task,” the group wrote in a statement.
The DCI has supported Bitcoin development since at least 2015.
The Media Lab fell short of its $8 million funding goal, though the effort has received praise from the Bitcoin community.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
From Lockstep to Lag, Bitcoin Poised to Catch Up With Small Cap Highs
The Federal Reserve begins Treasury bill purchases later Friday, starting with $8.2 billion as part of its reserve management program.
What to know:
- The Russell 2000 index has pushed to new all time highs alongside strength across U.S. equities and metals, while bitcoin remains 27% below its peak, marking a rare divergence after years of moving in sync.
- With small-cap stocks highly sensitive to falling interest rates and 2026 earning-per-share growth expectations near 49%, according to Goldman Sachs, improving macroeconomic conditions could realign bitcoin and crypto with small-cap strength.
- The Federal Reserve starts Treasury bill purchases today with an initial $8.2 billion operation, the first step in a $40 billion reserve management program running until April.
Top Stories
