Beyond funding developers, how else do you empower developers to begin their open source Bitcoin development journey?

Are there any particular mentorship, training, or community building methods that you've found to be highly effective?

Funding is important, but it’s usually not the first or even the most critical ingredient. A big barrier we see is that many people don’t even realize contributing to open-source Bitcoin is a viable career path at all. It simply doesn’t show up as an option.

I often say that representation inspires participation. Once people have others around them who are already contributing upstream, reviewing PRs, or living off open-source work, the path stops feeling abstract. It becomes something concrete and reachable.

What we’ve found most effective is creating clear, low-pressure on-ramps. That means structured study groups around real codebases, small scoped exercises that force people to read and understand existing projects, and early exposure to how open-source collaboration actually works, not just how the code works.

Mentorship works best when it’s continuous and adaptive. We don’t rely on a single mentor-mentee model. Instead, we combine regular checkpoints, group discussions, and public progress updates with more personalized follow-up for those who stand out and stick around. Some people receive attention for months or even years, well beyond a single program or grant.

That personalization matters because timing and life context vary a lot. People hit different phases at different moments. Jobs change, family situations change, motivation fluctuates. We try to build real relationships so we can support people one-on-one, help them find their next step, and push them to keep growing without locking them into a comfort zone.

Community ties all of this together. Mixing people at different stages, learning, contributing, and mentoring, creates a reinforcing loop. The goal is not just to help someone make a first contribution, but to help them imagine themselves as long-term open-source Bitcoin developers, and then give them the support to actually become one.