Brink Grants and Fellowship
BrinkBitcoinAlways open
Year-long, full-time grants for established Bitcoin protocol developers, plus a paid one-year fellowship in London for new contributors.
Time left to apply
Anytime
Rolling: reviewed as applications arrive
Apply to Brink Grants and Fellowship
Applications go through docs.google.com. Expect a decision in about 8 weeks.
Grant stats
- Grant size
- Undisclosed
- Largest grant
- Not published
- Paid in
- Salary or grant
- Payout
- One payment
- Funding model
- Rolling
- Apply any time. Reviewed as applications arrive.
- Typical decision
- 8 weeks
- From submission to an answer
- Round budget
- 2025: $1.75M for 8 engineers and 2 interns
- Ecosystem
- Bitcoin
Checked Oct 1 against 9 sources. Confirm amounts and dates on brink.dev before you apply.
About Brink Grants and Fellowship
Brink is a donor-funded nonprofit that supports Bitcoin protocol development. Its grant program gives established Bitcoin protocol developers year-long grants to work full-time on open-source Bitcoin projects. The main focus is the security and stability of the base protocol, but Brink also funds work on functionality, scalability and usability, including Lightning and other layer-two technology.
The fellowship is a separate, one-year, full-time program in Brink's London office for engineers new to Bitcoin protocol work. Fellows are paid a salary with benefits, get dedicated mentoring, and contribute to Bitcoin Core from day one. Brink says evidence of open-source contributions matters far more than formal education.
Both programs use a short online form with no deadline. A grant committee of experienced Bitcoin engineers reviews applications and recommends candidates to the board. In 2025 Brink spent $1,749,927 on developer salaries, grants and benefits for eight full-time engineers and two research interns.
Resources
Categories
Funded before
- Michael Ford (fanquake)
- Niklas Gögge
- conduition
What they fund
- Security and stability of the Bitcoin base protocol
- Bitcoin Core review, testing, fuzzing and maintenance
- Peer-to-peer networking, build systems and dependency reduction
- Cryptography research, including post-quantum work for Bitcoin
- Lightning and other layer-two protocols
Who can apply
Tick what applies to you. Saved on this device only.
How applying works
- 1
Pick a track
Choose the grant program if you are an established Bitcoin developer, or the fellowship if you are moving into protocol work.
- 2
Submit the form
Fill in the Google Form with links to your work, past open-source contributions, and the projects, deliverables and timeline you propose.
- 3
Committee review
Brink's grant committee of Bitcoin Core contributors assesses the application and recommends candidates.
- 4
Board approval
Brink's board approves recommended grants and fellowships.
- 5
Work in public
Grantees work full-time for a year and post regular public updates on their deliverables.
Similar programs
More in InfrastructureFAQ
- When does Brink Grants and Fellowship close?
- Brink Grants and Fellowship has no deadline. Applications are reviewed as they arrive, so you can apply whenever your proposal is ready.
- How much can I get?
- The program doesn't publish a range; amounts are set per proposal.
- How long until I hear back?
- About 8 weeks from submission to a decision, going by the program's own process or past rounds.
- Where do I apply?
- On the official site, docs.google.com. web3grant links there directly and never takes applications itself.
Sources
Checked on Oct 1 against these pages. Programs change often, so confirm the details on brink.dev before you apply.
- brink.dev
- brink.dev/programs
- docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSenuE_EXfLSM6uzMr89I_7HZkSG8_GndMjlsq5vIAvh2FpF4w/viewform
- docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdr7s5UhhxmNCApL1USOow608tOaifwx7XGZT5-mLLocjQvSg/viewform
- brink.dev/blog
- brink.dev/blog/2026/05/26/2025-annual-report
- brink.dev/assets/files/brink-annual-report-2025.pdf
- brink.dev/blog/2026/06/01/conduition
- brink.dev/blog/2026/07/22/martin-zumsande