About funding and all that

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PrzemoF
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Re: About funding and all that

Post by PrzemoF »

Yes, I do. I'd say the biggest problem is that it limits number of people that could donate. Transfers are easy, quick & cheap.
I'd do it anyway, but as a secondary way of getting donations.

Try https://blockchain.com/ for an online account or https://bitcoin.org/en/download for local client (loong blockchain download - 50GB) or this one for android https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/? ... ach.wallet . Once you have your address (or many of them, whatever) send me a PM - I'll do a small test transfer.
cox
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Re: About funding and all that

Post by cox »

It could not hurt setting up a Bitcoin wallet even if other means of transfer is also available.

Would recommend setting up a multisig account on a hosted service, https://www.coinbase.com/multisig this is just an example.''
What is important is that the service provider does not hold to many of the private keys. You could spread keys on several people say 5 and to spend them any 3 would have to sign the transaction with their private key.

Using a multisig wallet you safeguard against loosing keys, and any one person running of with the funds.
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triplus
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Re: About funding and all that

Post by triplus »

Some people asked me about a "donate" button, there was one on the sourceforge page, that linked to Jürgen's paypal account I think. We could place that button on the freecadweb homepage, no?
Something like that would probably make the most sense ATM. Beyond the button there could be some sort of a note describing on how somebody interested in founding individual feature development and therefore implementation can/could contact individual developers. As for found raising campaigns probably one of the campaign platforms could be used for start.
jmaustpc
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Re: About funding and all that

Post by jmaustpc »

I read something the other day about problems with bitcoin and possible fork on Slashdot

http://slashdot.org/?fhfilter=bitcoin+fork

I don't know what, if any, effect it will/could have.

I think "real" money is a better bet but I imagine multiple choices couldn't hurt.
cox
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Re: About funding and all that

Post by cox »

I myself am not to worried about this possible fork, although the issue brings a lot of uncertainty. The issue at hand is if the block size should be increased or not. Disregarding this question specifically i think there are enough incentive for everyone involved to back the winning proposal. What is exiting about what is happening is that the decentralised development model will be properly tested. Bitcoin coming out on the other end of this debacle will be stronger. There is however a possibility that it will not, but I can not find any compelling reason why.

However it might be prudent for the FreeCAD community to use the paypal account for the time being.
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Jee-Bee
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Re: About funding and all that

Post by Jee-Bee »

yorik wrote:Another idea comes to my mind, but I'm really not sure how worth it is: Bitcoin. With bitcoin, we could have an account that is not tied to anybody personnally... Of course it has its problems too I suppose. But it might be worth looking at it too. Anyone has some experience with bitcoin?
I don't know if i'm happy with the bit coin. (Specially) In large amount of bit coins the banks don't trust it (At least in a big part of Europe). They see it as Black marked money; fraud; etc.
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PrzemoF
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Re: About funding and all that

Post by PrzemoF »

Jee-Bee wrote:[..]I don't know if i'm happy with the bit coin. (Specially) In large amount of bit coins the banks don't trust it (At least in a big part of Europe). They see it as Black marked money; fraud; etc.
Myths, rumours and FUD. Banks are not happy with anything that is undermining their business - that's a normal behaviour.
Bitcoins are legal in Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_ ... by_country
Jee-Bee
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Re: About funding and all that

Post by Jee-Bee »

PrzemoF wrote:Myths, rumours and FUD. Banks are not happy with anything that is undermining their business - that's a normal behaviour.
Bitcoins are legal in Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_ ... by_country
Yes Gambling and cash is also legal but also a problem for banks. Banks needs true regulations from ECB (Europe Central Bank) and laws tell if there is some doubt about where money come from.
And everybody who have large amount of cash and bring that to the bank or comes with money from the casino is untrusted because bank lost history so they get questioned by government.
2 or 3 bit coins shouldn't be a problem but large amount are...
mandersson
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Re: About funding and all that

Post by mandersson »

Bitcoin and paypal and so on may work well for donations from individuals that would like to support the project.But in the long run if larger companies and organisations would like to sponsor the project i do not think that they will be satisfied if there is no foundation/organisation that governs fair use of the founds they provide :? If such organisation would be to be formed it do not have to take over the current infrastructure of the project.It could just focus on collecting founds and distribute it to developers and individuals that works for the project within the area that the giver would like to focus on :)
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yorik
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Re: About funding and all that

Post by yorik »

Thanks for all the opinions everybody... This is very instructive.

I think these are all possible paths for the future, but indeed at the current scale it's probably safer and less work to stay with the current solution. What triplus said above makes sense, instead of having a "donate" button that goes straight to a paypal account, we should make it land on a page that explains what the options are.

I'd like to experiment with bitcoin too, however ;) Indeed this probably wouldn't work well for big money, but we're not there yet. And in any case, to receive big money from firms, I suppose a serious structure like a foundation is unavoidable, these people would want justificatives, receipts, tax deduction and all that...
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