ANN: $5m USD - donation dedicated to advancing the new and growing nostr ecosystem

OpenSats Receives Additional Funding of $10m from #startsmall #

We are delighted to announce that OpenSats has received a generous donation
of $10 million from Jack Dorsey's philanthropic initiative, #startsmall,
which will be used to support the development of free and open-source
software and projects focusing on bitcoin, nostr, and related technologies.

OpenSats' mission is to help build a sustainable ecosystem and provide
consistent funding for free and open-source projects and protocols. We
believe that free software and open protocols are necessary for a free and
prosperous society. Without software that protects the individual user's
rights and freedoms, and without digital infrastructure that is open to
all, modern society risks slipping further into digital totalitarianism.

OpenSats will continue to be a 100% pass-through operation, meaning that
all donated funds will be fully allocated to projects vetted by the
OpenSats board of directors unless they are specifically provided for
operational purposes. #startsmall's donation includes funding for OpenSats'
operational budget, which will allow us to remain 100% pass-through, expand
efforts, and streamline operations as a 501(c)(3) public charity going
forward.

Half of the donation amount—$5m USD—will be dedicated to advancing the new
and growing nostr ecosystem. We have set up a committee of nostr developers
and tinkerers, including fiatjaf and NVK, who will help us to evaluate
projects and protocol contributions. If you are working on nostr and
looking for funding, please apply here: https://opensats.org/apply

As part of expanding these efforts, NVK and Gigi are joining the OpenSats
board to help with our organizational and funding decisions. Gigi will be
joining in a full-time capacity to lead our ongoing operations and strategy.

The structure of OpenSats remains unchanged: we want to create a
sustainable, independent, and consistent ecosystem of funding for bitcoin,
nostr, and other open-source projects. Having multiple open-source
contributors on our board—tenured core devs among them—helps us to better
understand what is needed to put effective long-term support structures
into place.

We are excited to work with contributors, industry, and the wider free and
open-source community to help ship the freedom tools that are so
desperately needed. We can't wait to see what you are going to build.

In the words of Cypherpunk founder Eric Hughes:
"Let us proceed together apace. Onward."

https://opensats.org/blog