BitMEX: Bitcoin development is most funded by Blockstream and Lightning Labs.

   The research unit of the BitMEX Crypt Currency Derivatives Exchange reported that Bitcoin's open source development is most funded by Blockstream and Lightning Labs.

"The current situation is healthier than before, especially in terms of financial availability, transparency and distribution among financial patrons," the analysts write.

To determine sponsorship, the researchers used public data from people involved in the development of the Bitcoin network. Blockstream and Lightning Labs sponsored 8 developers and Square Crypto sponsored 7. Another 6 developers were supported by Chaincode and Purse, as well as the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

According to the researchers, Chaincode Labs is the largest sponsor of Bitcoin Core development. Among the 33 most active developers of Bitcoin Core 11 are independent, 7 developers are sponsored by Chaincode and only 3 are sponsored by Blockstream.

Last December BitMEX researchers reported that the latest versions of Bitcoin Core have significantly improved the ability to synchronize full nodes, which increases the number of nodes, and thus decentralization of the entire network.