MARA launches foundation to shore up Bitcoin’s future, tackle quantum risk and boost network resilience At the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas on Monday, MARA Holdings (MARA) CEO Fred Thiel unveiled the MARA Foundation — a new, broader effort to protect and strengthen the Bitcoin network beyond the company’s existing bitcoin and AI mining operations. “Bitcoin is the most important decentralized system ever created, but its future is not guaranteed,” Thiel said, framing the foundation around active stewardship of the protocol. He described Bitcoin as “a public utility that nobody owns, but everybody depends on,” adding that decentralization “doesn’t mean it runs on itself, it means responsibility is distributed.” What the foundation will do The MARA Foundation will concentrate on preserving Bitcoin’s core properties as “sound, durable money” and promoting its open, global use. Key priorities announced include: - Bolstering the network’s security budget, with emphasis on helping develop a sustainable transaction-fee market as block subsidies decline. - Funding research into emerging technical threats — notably the potential impact of quantum computing on the cryptographic primitives that secure Bitcoin. - Supporting open-source work across scaling, mining software, and user infrastructure. - Expanding access to self-custody tools and advancing financial sovereignty worldwide. - Investing in education and policy outreach, including technical training, multilingual resources, and engagement with regulators. Why these priorities matter MARA’s focus on the “security budget” reflects a long-running industry conversation: as block rewards halve over time, transaction fees will play a larger role in compensating miners and securing the network. Similarly, quantum computing — while still developing — poses a theoretical threat to current public-key cryptography, making proactive research and preparedness sensible risk management for a multi-decade protocol. Community-first launch To underline the ecosystem-wide nature of the effort, MARA announced it will award $100,000 to one of three nonprofits; the recipient will be chosen by community vote. The move echoes Thiel’s call for distributed responsibility across Bitcoin’s diverse stakeholders. The MARA Foundation positions the company not just as a miner, but as an active backer of technical, educational, and policy work aimed at keeping Bitcoin resilient for the long term. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news