Jack Dorsey wants to defend Bitcoin developers from legal trouble with a new fund

Jack Dorsey, the Twitter co-founder and an avid supporter of cryptocurrencies, has now proposed a non-profit legal defense fund for the developers of Bitcoin. The fund will help the developers of the Bitcoin project around the world fight the lawsuits they face, which are increasing in number as the ecosystem grows bigger.

With Dorsey, are Chaincode co-founder Alex Morcos and academic Martin White as the signatories on the email that was sent to the bitcoin-dev mailing list on Wednesday. Titled "Bitcoin Legal Defense Board," the mail mentioned a fund meant to form legal strategies for the Bitcoin developer community.

Shared on Twitter, the mail highlights that the fund is free and voluntary, meaning that developers are free to use it if need be. It will have a board and a group of part-time lawyers and volunteers. The decision on which lawsuits will be defended will be taken by the board.

As per the mail, the fund does not have outside capital as of now and is not looking for it either. It may, however, seek outside funding in the future if the board sees it fit.

The fund will first be used in the ongoing lawsuit filed by Craig Wright's Tulip Trading Limited (TTL) against several Bitcoin developers. The lawsuit is in relation to the funds from the defunct Mt. Gox exchange, as mentioned in a report by CoinDesk.

The initiative comes at a time when the community of cryptocurrencies is facing a rising pile of lawsuits. Especially crypto exchanges have been seeing an increasing amount of legal action, mostly from investors who lose their money due to some or other glitch on the platform.

Even though Dorsey's proposal will concentrate on the Bitcoin developer community, for now, it will prove to be a backing for the community at large. Bitcoin developers essentially comprise individuals or teams around the world, who implement upgrades on the Bitcoin network. Since there is no central entity to target, lawsuits usually pick these developers individually. This often leaves them helpless against lawsuits, and the only option left for them is to shut shop.

Of course, other than the larger good, the fund will help Dorsey too. Post his resignation as the Twitter CEO, Dorsey is actively indulged in his company Block. Since a large part of the firm's business is on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, lawsuits impacting the ecosystem in any way will eventually impact Block's business. As one of the most prominent figures in the cryptocurrency industry, Dorsey will try his best to avoid such a situation.