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Open-Source Blockchain Explorer Scores Foundry Development Grant

While small in dollar terms, the grant represents an investment in the further decentralization of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Updated Apr 10, 2024, 3:21 a.m. Published Aug 5, 2021, 1:00 p.m.

Foundry, a provider of services to cryptocurrency miners in North America, has donated 1 BTC (about $40,000) to fund the development of mempool.space, an open-source Bitcoin blockchain explorer.

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While small in dollar terms, the grant represents an investment in the further decentralization of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Other crypto startups, ranging from the lender Nexo to the Kraken exchange, have supported open-source software developers to strengthen the networks underpinning their businesses.

Block explorers are like special goggles, they let members of the public easily see what is happening on cryptocurrency networks without having to download and parse gigabytes of data. But they are typically hosted by centralized services like Blockchain.com or Etherscan, an arrangement that reintroduces the risk inherent in trusting third parties that Bitcoin was designed to avoid. To address that problem, mempool.space, a project run out of Japan, lets users run their own local versions of its block explorer.

Foundry said mempool.space is particularly appealing for miners because it shows the fees that senders have offered to pay for transactions awaiting confirmation and models what the next block may look like based on the mempool (a sort of waiting room for Bitcoin transactions).

Foundry joins Jack Dorsey's payments unicorn Square, the Winklevoss brothers' crypto exchange Gemini and hardware wallet maker Exodus in supporting the open-source blockchain explorer.

In addition to the grant, Foundry, based in Rochester, N.Y., said it would help build mining-related features for the mempool.space website and an "open transaction acceleration marketplace."

Foundry is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which also owns CoinDesk.

Mempool Space K.K., the operator of the eponymous website, also runs block explorers for the Liquid sidechain and the Bisq decentralized exchange, according to its terms of service, which include a rather pointed bitcoin maximalist disclaimer.

"Unfortunately, the liquid.network and bisq.markets explorers cannot be considered Bitcoin Only, as they may display altcoins as part of their core network functionality. We do not endorse any altcoins and encourage you to stay Bitcoin Only," the document states.

Bitcoin Mining Grants Foundry

Marc Hochstein

As Deputy Editor-in-Chief for Features, Opinion, Ethics and Standards, Marc oversaw CoinDesk's long-form content, set editorial policies and acted as the ombudsman for our industry-leading newsroom. He also spearheaded our nascent coverage of prediction markets and helped compile The Node, our daily email newsletter rounding up the biggest stories in crypto. From November 2022 to June 2024 Marc was the Executive Editor of Consensus, CoinDesk's flagship annual event. He joined CoinDesk in 2017 as a managing editor and has steadily added responsibilities over the years. Marc is a veteran journalist with more than 25 years' experience, including 17 years at the trade publication American Banker, the last three as editor-in-chief, where he was responsible for some of the earliest mainstream news coverage of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. DISCLOSURE: Marc holds BTC above CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000; marginal amounts of ETH, SOL, XMR, ZEC, MATIC and EGIRL; an Urbit planet (~fodrex-malmev); two ENS domain names (MarcHochstein.eth and MarcusHNYC.eth); and NFTs from the Oekaki (pictured), Lil Skribblers, SSRWives, and Gwar collections.