The following link: http://www.osnews.com/story/27519/_OpenBSD_will_shut_down_if_we_do_not_have_the_funding_
Was dropped in the IRC Channel #bitcoin-assets and within hours an announcement was made:
mircea_popescu: and it pleases me to announce openbsd got itself sponsored.
It is important to note that not only did this announcing happen on IRC, the important fact finding happened there as well, from the channel #openbsd:
Jan 19 22:14:04 <mircea_popescu> soo, who has the authority to make a deal so I can cover the 20k shortfall Jan 19 22:16:24 <woopstar> mircea_popescu: you need to contact Theo Jan 19 22:16:32 <mircea_popescu> how would i go about that ? Jan 19 22:18:27 <woopstar> mircea_popescu: i believe his email is [redacted because email addresses don't belong in plaintext] Jan 19 22:20:32 <mircea_popescu> woopstar ty. Jan 19 22:20:49 <woopstar> mircea_popescu: anytime. Would be fantastic, if you can set up a deal with Theo
This episode just goes to show that IRC even in the 2010's continues to be one of the most expressive, influential, and effective communications mediums on the Internet. It also shows for Open Source projects seeking sponsorships to continue their operations that the traditional channels by which they hope the Microsofts, Apples, and Oracles of the world that happily vacuum up their code may not be the there in their time of need, but if they are truly doing something that is both useful and interesting chances are someone out there might have the money and intelligence to appreciate your project enough to buy it at least another year.
I for one am happy that for at least another year the Vaxen will have an OS to run.
Well before it gets posted it would be good if the OpenBSD foundation could update its donations page http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/contributors.html showing that said contributor really did what is claimed. Further I feel like this is a stopgap solution - does Mircea have any long term plans to sponsor OpenBSD permanently?
Great news, I was hoping someone would step up and I'm hardly surprised it was someone with a ton of Bitcoins!
Very good news for OpenBSD users!
Well if it's only the VAXen you're worried about, NetBSD has had a VAX port since... always, I think, so you can expect continued support even if one of the two goes bankrupt. However, the VAXen aren't the only good thing about neither OpenBSD nor NetBSD :)
Congrats on getting the funding!
Still though, irony of emails not being in plain text on the internet: http://dpaste.com/1560438/ (link from funders chat log here: http://log.bitcoin-assets.com/?date=20-01-2014#449869)
The Apple's, Microsoft's, and Oracle's? What about the Linux distro's that packages openSSH that didn't do a fscking thing? What about IBM? One of the reason's that Open Source projects like this have problems raising money is because of attitudes like that.
I donated. I didn't cover the whole 20K but I donated. What was the total amount raised once the distress signal was sent?
The plea for cash was posted to Reddit as well, but after everyone started looking into the details, the consensus was that if they were unwilling to share how the money was being spent, few of us were willing to donate.
Billionaire? Hmm, the atomic integral unit of Bitcoin is actually the 'satoshi', and there are 100,000,000 satoshi in "1" notational-bitcoin. So anyone with 10 BTC or more is a "bitcoin billionaire [in satoshis]".
That must be it.
Mircea Popescu a billionaire? Guys, this guy is lying about everything for at least 8 years. He spreads false rumors all the time. At least this was a good joke.
I can't say anything, but that this is great news. I just installed yet again an OpenBSD server (well, at home, but still) and it's rolling like hell on wheels on my measly homebrew box as a mail relay and DNS server for my LAN and soon as the web server too.
Can't be but happy to have OpenBSD around for the time being, it's my favorite operating system on the server side for my needs!
Congratulações a todos do OpenBSD. Não fazia ideia que a instituição passava por esse aperto financeiro. InÃcio de ano com fôlego para renovar e ter em mente projetos que tragam retorno para outros projetos open sources. Um forte abraço a toda comunidade.
obviously like your web site but you need to check the spelling on quite a few of your posts.
Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I find it very troublesome
to tell the reality however I'll certainly come back again.
I don't know about permanently. That wasn't announced. The weight I gave to Mircea's declaration is based on WOT rating at http://bitcoin-otc.com which is stellar (Weighing the negative ratings too heavily mean you need to read into who the fuck is rating and how a WOT works). I find Mircea's announcement adequate to break this news before OpenBSD can update their page based on his reputation.
The only thing a high WoT rating says is that he can probably be trusted not to scam other people who are well connected in the WoT when carrying out the same kind of transactions that earned him that rating. As various people have learned to their cost, WoT trust does not generally imply other kinds of trust. (Remember pirateat40?)
Well he did save OpenBSD as their sponsors page confirms now. Also he credibly does seem to actually own a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin denominated shit.
Well the WOT also gives you a good idea of what people are doing. It made it clear that Pirateat40 was running a Ponzi. It indeed takes practice and discretion to read a WOT.
The WoT didn't make it at all clear he was running a Ponzi until several months after he very publicly vanished and did a runner with everyone's money, during which his scam was in the news and all over the Bitcoin forums. He had a handful of negative ratings as a result of the scam, but they were all from users who had very few ratings - exactly the kind of ratings you're saying people should ignore.
It is generally a good idea to do your reading before opining rather than after people laugh at you for being clueless yet opinionated.
The consensus was more like reddit could get together fiddy bitcents if everyone goes out and buys a little more BTC.
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