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Long-Term Support For Calvin Kim
OpenSats is pleased to announce its long-term support for Calvin Kim in recognition of his ongoing work on Bitcoin client diversity and making nodes easier to run.
Anyone can run a Bitcoin node using software that independently verifies every transaction without trusting a third party. Bitcoin Core is the dominant node software today, but having more than one viable option is healthy for the overall decentralized network.
Calvin is among the leading contributors to btcd, an alternative node software written in the Go programming language. Parts of btcd are reused by other Bitcoin software, including the lnd Lightning implementation, which is built with btcd's code libraries. People who use that software are relying on Calvin's work, often without knowing it.
His work on btcd has been the unglamorous kind that keeps software dependable. He made btcd lighter to run and faster to start up, adding the ability to run a node on smaller hard drives, and bringing its startup sync in line with modern, faster methods. He also sped up how the software checks new blocks and fixed a long list of bugs along the way.
Beyond btcd, Calvin is working on a newer approach for reducing how much data a node has to store. He is the lead developer of utreexod, a node software built around a cryptographic accumulator called Utreexo. A node has to maintain a record of every unspent coin in existence so it can tell valid spends from invalid or double-spent ones, and that record tends to grow over time. Utreexo shrinks that record dramatically by replacing it with a compact cryptographic summary, small enough to verify the whole chain on something as modest as a cheap, low-power computer. This lowers the cost and effort of verifying Bitcoin for yourself, keeping barriers low for people who want to run their own node. Calvin wrote the technical specifications (BIPs 181, 182, and 183) that define how it works so that other developers can build compatible software.
With this grant, Calvin will continue his work across btcd and utreexod, including:
- Maintaining btcd and implementing new features, such as faster block download.
- Building tools unique to btcd, including support for direct connections with popular wallet software, continuing the work that lets nodes run on minimal hardware.
- Launching the first public test version of utreexod alongside the team behind Floresta, putting these ideas in front of real users for the first time.
OpenSats' mission is to provide sustainable funding for the builders and maintainers of critical open-source infrastructure within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
The Long-Term Support program is made possible by the generosity of our donors. To continue supporting contributors like Calvin and our other LTS grantees, consider making a recurring donation to the General Fund.