Bitcoin Security Initiative

Bitcoin’s (un)common good

This is a long-term research focus to financially and technically support strategic open source development to address the core threats to Bitcoin's long term security and resilience.

Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab Launched the Bitcoin Software and Security Effort with Industry Leaders

Thanks to millions of open source developer hours over the past 12 years (2009-2021), and a burgeoning and supportive ecosystem, Bitcoin is no longer an obscure cryptographic toy. It is now an open-source financial network that secures on the order of $1T of value. 

As the use of Bitcoin grows, and as it becomes more deeply embedded into our societies, the security of the network must grow and strengthen alongside it. Yet, as a common good, there is no one single Bitcoin protector or guardian to take on this formidable task. By design, there is no central command. And while this presents significant logistical challenges, it is also the distinguishing feature perhaps most unique to Bitcoin: no central point of failure. Bitcoin's nearly-uninterrupted operation over the years is a testament to the power of decentralization.

That said, a lack of central organization does not mean there is no need for thoughtful focus and coordination to continually reinforce Bitcoin’s security and preemptively shore up any vulnerabilities. 

Moving into the future, strategically supporting the development of Bitcoin will require understanding and proactively addressing a particular type of risk: protocol risk. Unlike traditional assets, Bitcoin is software running on a decentralized network. Bitcoin's security is predicated on the accuracy and robustness of the software and hardware running it, and the actions of those participating in the network. 

With this in mind, DCI has established a Bitcoin Software and Security Effort. The four-year research and development program (2020-2024) is designed to continue to harden the Bitcoin network and steward the industry's commitment to funding open source software. This will include contributing to Bitcoin Core development as well as rigorous long-term research, such as investigations into the stability of fee-based rewards and software to provide strong robustness and correctness guarantees. It will also include attracting domain experts in network and operating system security, compilers, programming languages, and more to join the effort.

A second important goal of this effort is to help reduce bottlenecks in the development ecosystem which might lead to centralization. Crucially, effort must be taken to ensure that critical knowledge, not only around the technology itself, but also around key processes, is systematically recorded and passed down to harden security and improve resilience. 

The objective of the program is to contribute neutral, expert resources to improving the robustness of the Bitcoin protocol. Bitcoin’s security is foundational to the underlying technology’s continued evolution, as well as the broad realization of the public-good promises of digital currencies.

To fund the four-year program, DCI reached out to a cross-section of industry leaders, and were proud to share that we’ve received $4M in charitable contributions. These resources were used to hire open source developers and researchers, and to kick off an ecosystem-wide focus on longer-term strategies to harden the underlying protocol.

Over the four years, DCI focused its contributions to the Bitcoin community in four core areas of R&D:

Founding contributors to the DCI program include Alex Morcos (MIT '98) and Suhas Daftuar (Chaincode), CoinShares, Meltem Demirors (MIT Sloan '15), Jack Dorsey, Fidelity Digital Assets, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Gemini), Reid Hoffman, Michael Saylor (MicroStrategy, MIT '87), and John Pfeffer.