Jack Dorsey Announces Plans for Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund

Former Twitter CEO and founder Jack Dorsey (Jack Dorsey) announced plans to create a "bit Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund.

The statement was sent to the bitcoin developers mailing list bitcoin-dev at 00:13:45 UTC on January 12 from an email address that appears to belong to Dorsey.

Cointelegraph reached out to board members to confirm the legitimacy of the email, but did not immediately hear back.

The fund will help provide legal defense to bitcoin developers, who are "currently facing litigation on multiple fronts," the statement said.

Jack’s Email to Bitcoin Developers Mailing List Explains Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund

— Zack Voell (@zackvoell) January 12, 2022

"The lawsuits and ongoing threats are having their intended effect; individual defendants have chosen to submit without legal support," the email said, referring to open source developers who are often independent and therefore vulnerable to legal pressure .

"We have put forward a coordinated and formal response to help defend developers."

The statement also described the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund as a "not-for-profit entity designed to minimize legal issues that prevent software developers from actively developing Bitcoin and related projects."

"The primary purpose of the fund is to protect developers from lawsuits related to their activities in the Bitcoin ecosystem, including finding and hiring defense attorneys, developing litigation strategies, and paying legal fees," the statement said.

Initially, the fund will include volunteers and part-time attorneys "that developers can tap into if they choose," though, the email also noted, "the fund's board of directors will be responsible for determining which lawsuits and defendants it will help defend."

"At this time, the fund is not seeking to raise additional funding for its operations, but if further legal action or staff costs need to be taken, this will be done at the direction of the board."

According to the email, the fund’s first project will be to take over Ramona Ang’s defense of a “Tulip transaction lawsuit” against developers including Ira Kleiman, who is accused of wrongdoing in acquiring his bitcoin fortune .

Dorsey, who resigned as Twitter CEO at the end of November 2021, is a longtime Bitcoin supporter. It's unclear whether Dorsey left the social media company to focus on Square's plans to develop a decentralized bitcoin exchange.

On Nov. 19, the decentralized exchange project known as tbDEX released a white paper detailing its plans to create a message protocol designed to foster trustful relationships without relying on federations to control access.

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