Brink's 2025 Annual Report \ ~hyperlinks

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Brink's 2025 Annual Report brink.dev/blog/2026/05/26/2025-annual-report/

1658 sats \ 8 comments \ @schmidty 26 May bitcoin

We published Brink's annual financial and organizational report for the community. Feedback and questions welcome.

214 sats \ 2 replies \ @sorukumar 26 May

Great report, Mike!. Really appreciate the transparency and all the work supporting Core.

A few friendly pieces of feedback. assuming the goal of the report is to maximize transparency and build community trust that there’s no undue influence on Core:

Donor Breakdown
Anonymous donations were huge this year (~60%). It would be helpful to know the total number of contributors broken down a bit more (e.g. individuals vs organizations) without revealing any private details.
Branding/ Framing of Supported Developers
I know this is nitpicking, but referring to them as “Brink engineers” might unintentionally suggest closer control than exists. Using something more neutral like “Bitcoin Core contributors funded by Brink” could better reinforce independence and transparency.
Grant Selection Process
The report mentions the Grant Committee but doesn’t describe how grantees are chosen. A short note on the criteria and any safeguards against bias (personal, ideological) , or donor influence would be very helpful for trust.
Conflict of Interest / Governance
Would be great to see a brief overview to how Brink handles potential conflicts of interest — especially between board/grant committee members, large donors, and grantees.

Overall, fantastic job . the high program ratio and impact are impressive.

80 sats \ 1 reply \ @schmidty OP 26 May

Usually anonymous donations are a small % for us. In 2025, we did get a large anonymous-to-us donation which accounts for the higher % this year.
Agreed, it just gets wordy to put that in each time so something we use "Brink engineers" shorthand, but yeah, in isolation that sends the wrong message.
I wrote a bit on Brink's governance here: https://x.com/bitschmidty/status/1967233629618065709 But we never had a detailed piece on this. Ultimately it is up to individual grant committee members, who value positive-impact-to-Bitcoin as the primary driver. Additionally, grant committee recommendations are not binding and the board needs to ultimately approve as well.
See above for some of this. We have not had issues with donors trying to exert any influence, but that would be resolved by the board if it came to it. Grantees have very favorable clauses in terms of being able to terminate with Brink on short notice so they can drop us if we misbehave.

Probably more here, but hope that helps.

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @nitter 26 May

https://twiiit.com/bitschmidty/status/1967233629618065709

23 sats \ 0 replies \ @gregtonoski 26 May

How much did Brink spend on the infamous Gloria Zhao that was fired at the turn of 2025/26?

1 sat \ 2 replies \ @BlokchainB 26 May

ExpensesExpenses

In 2025, Brink’s total expenses were approximately $2,600,000, with approximately 87% directed to program activities. The summary of these expenses include:

Programs: ($2,230,455)
- Developer salaries & grants ($1,749,927)
- Travel ($57,064)
- Office & research materials ($147,840)
- Broader Bitcoin Core infrastructure ($176,437)
- Bitcoin Core Developer meetings ($73,520)
- Bitcoin Optech ($25,667)
General & Administrative Expenses ($314,028)
- Staff compensation ($246,718)
- Operational expenses ($67,310)
Fundraising ($21,050)