15 Januari 2026
Bitcoin developer Ben Allen has received an impressive $100.000 grant from investment firm Maelstrom. The funding will help fund the development of Payjoin, an innovative privacy tool that aims to improve the scalability and privacy aims to improve and further stimulate Bitcoin transactions.
In a May 20 press release, it was announced that Maelstrom, in collaboration with Dan Gould, will support Ben Allen's work on the Payjoin devkit. The Payjoin system allows both senders and receivers of Bitcoin to perform transactions in batches. This not only increases scalability, but also privacy within the Bitcoin network.
Payjoin was first introduced in 2019 by Nicolas Dorier through the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 78. This system allows both the sender and the receiver to contribute to a transaction, which increases privacy and improves the efficiency of the Bitcoin network. It also allows for better consolidation of transaction output, which improves scalability. It’s like having two hands working together to solve a problem – effectively and elegantly.
Maelstrom confirmed that the $100.000 grant is annual and that Ben Allen will have the freedom to pursue the project in his own way. “We believe grantees thrive when they are given the space to work on their own ideas, without the strict control of funders,” a Maelstrom representative said.
With this grant, Ben Allen can focus full-time on the development of Payjoin. His goal? Improve the implementation and make the feature available to more Bitcoin wallets. He emphasizes that reducing the complexity of the system is crucial to increase ease of use and foster adoption.
Still, Payjoin has its challenges: the recipient must be online at all times, and the communication between the parties is more complex than in standard Bitcoin transactions. However, Maelstrom believes that the adoption of Payjoin will significantly improve the privacy of Bitcoin users. Arthur Hayes, Chief Investment Officer of Maelstrom, notes: “Even in limited deployment, Payjoin breaks the assumptions of financial surveillance systems, which assume that multiple inputs into a transaction always come from the same entity.”
Maelstrom is actively seeking more candidates who are committed to improving privacy within Bitcoin. Payjoin’s success is heavily dependent on its adoption by popular open-source Bitcoin wallets. A major step would be for the BitcoinCore wallet to adopt Payjoin, as that would be a significant step forward.
Ben Allen is determined to use Maelstrom’s support to accelerate the adoption of Payjoin, which will not only improve Bitcoin users’ privacy but also give them more control over their financial data, which will improve the overall Bitcoin user experience.
What is Payjoin?
Payjoin is a system that allows both the sender and receiver of Bitcoin to contribute to a transaction, increasing the privacy and efficiency of the network.
How much funding did Ben Allen receive?
Ben Allen has received a $100.000 grant from Maelstrom to support the development of Payjoin.
What are Payjoin's main challenges?
The main challenges are that the recipient must always be online and the communication is more complex than in normal Bitcoin transactions.
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