Purse Inks Bitcoin Protocol Pact

Bitcoin marketplace Purse has entered a multi-million dollar bitcoin protocol development agreement with Bitmain Technologies, Bixin, F2 Pool, and Bitcoin.com.

Under the agreement, Purse will apply its approach to bcoin, a Javascript client that is fully compatible with the latest version of the bitcoin core software written in C++. Since launching in September 2016, bcoin has been embraced by companies like BitPay, Ripio, BTC.com, and Decentraland. The software is free and open source under the MIT license.

“For bitcoin to take off, we need multiple implementations with even market share,” said Purse CEO Andrew Lee. “Decentralizing protocol development will lead to multiple clients, diverse communities, more developers, better security, and more innovation.”

The undisclosed funding amount will be used to hire new developers and nurture a vibrant open source community to help advance protocol development, Purse said. Purse also said that the participants of the agreement agreed that bcoin developers would retain full autonomy over the project and have not purchased an equity stake.

“We’re impressed with the team’s technical capability and professionalism,” said Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu. “Further, they’ve already demonstrated ability to execute and innovate.”