I am currently working on an In-Memory database for libbitcoin. The database uses Multi Version Concurrency Control to increase parallel validation of blocks. The work will also allow for all unspent transactions to be available in RAM (if enough RAM is available). The goal of the database is to reduce the block generation time for miners.

My MVCC work is available here: https://github.com/kulpreet/libbitcoin-mvcc-database

The sponsorship will help me set aside time for continuing the development of the MVCC In Memory database and also to find time and resources to write blog posts and to present the solution at conferences to grow awareness about the work.

To motivate my MVCC work, I am also working on tracking how much time miners lose between receiving a mined block and starting work on a new block. The repo for that work is here: https://github.com/kulpreet/stratum-miners-time-lost. The results for the same will go to the same repo.

In the past, I have also contributed to the Rebooting Web of Trust community.