Bitcoin developer Jonas Schnelli receives a $96,000 grant from Marathon Patent Group

Bitcoin Core developer and maintainer Jonas Schnelli has received a grant from Nasdaq-listed bitcoin miner Marathon Patent Group.

Marathon told The Block that the grant is worth a total of $96,000, payable monthly in bitcoin (BTC) over one year.

"It's an acceptable salary," Schnelli told The Block. "However, much less than I could get as a corporate software developer. But I'm in for the Bitcoin ethos and not for the money."

Schnelli said he would use the money to continue to work on Bitcoin Core. Schnelli has been contributing to Bitcoin Core since 2013 and has contributed over 30,000 lines of code in over 750 commits. His work revolves around Bitcoin Core's peer-to-peer transport layer encryption as well as its testing in general.

Marathon's move comes shortly after rival Bitmain decided to halt funding for Schnelli and another bitcoin developer Joao Barbosa. Barbosa then received a grant from Coinbase at the time, marking the exchange's first-ever such sponsorship.

Marathon CEO and chairman Merrick Okamoto said, "it is essential that we do our part to help advance the Bitcoin network. Absent core developers like Jonas, Bitcoin’s efficacy and long-term adoption, and therefore our business, could be impacted."

As The Block reported recently, crypto firms have granted more than $3 million to date to Bitcoin developers and projects working to improve the Bitcoin network.