We are seeing donations from multiple people now, I believe. This has gotta be a very strong message to the world if they see it. I love being part of this community and debating, sharing different opinions, criticising and finding consensus so readily. We are very lucky as a group, we must make this feeling last, it’s life energy for us all.
I do get personally some really vile and horrible comments from some equity investors (tiny minority) and folk that know about them wonder why they don’t phase me. There are 2 reasons, I feel I am a hard working, honest person but the real energy comes from this kind of thing, no nonsense, no messing straight forward good! Ye canny get enough o that in yer life.
Yes, it’s a tiny number of them, the vast majority are golden really, super helpful and the patience of saints with us. I feel bad the time it has taken and understand frustrations, but a tiny tiny minority are the worst kind of folk, greedy, selfish and bullying, if you let them, which I don’t. The real investors though, I could not say enough about how great they are considering everything we have all gone through. I will be a happy person indeed on launch to get these folks decent returns on their long long investments.
not related. must be pure coincidence, i assure you all
i just saw the additional donations that came in and wanted to say a big thank you. i had not quite expected this to be honest.
now that we are all here and this journey has stared, maybe a few words on how it all began…
for some time now I’ve been looking at many projects in this space both from an investment perspective and out of pure curiosity. can’t say i studied them all but the one that always stood out to me was MaidSafe. In terms of their vision, the team behind it and the community around it.
You probably know how so many other projects have collected insane amounts of money (ICO or big investors), big hype and all and have either turned out to be scams or achieved very little.
Meanwhile here is MaidSafe, getting shit done week after week on a small budget and not many people seem to notice.
On the one hand I’ve always felt lucky to have stumbled across MaidSafe at such an early stage. On the other hand I’ve always been frustrated by the lack of recognition.
Many times over i wondered what if MaidSafe had a little extra? considering how far they’ve come with very little resources I cant even begin to imagine.
so one evening I shot this email to David: is there was a way to make an anonymous donation to MaidSafe? is this at all possible?
Over the next few weeks this idea was worked over with David and the team and the result is pretty much what you see here. So my question what MaidSafe would do with a little extra was answered: they would not just take it. yes thats right, these crazy people would not just accept the $$$ like that, at least not directly.
Instead work it into a way that would involve the community. which I guess is very much their way of doing things and also the reason I was drawn to it in the first place. So in a weird way this feels like a big circle closing in on itself.
This fund seems obviously the right choice to me now. Anything that MaidSafe could have done with the funds, we can do together with them plus a lot more.
Now a little bird has whispered to me that there already are several applications for the committee. This I find absolutely amazing! It is just as important as the funds that came in. I might get a bit more involved myself but probably at a later stage. Lets keep this rolling for now and see where it goes
So many of us are here for exactly the reasons you describe, and some. Yet others seem unable to see past their fear, greed or paranoia and come to a different view.
I’m very excited to see where your donation leads, great to hear people already putting in proposals!
Applications already in? I was reading that the committee would be suggesting areas to work on? edit: for the committee… the wine is clearing taking its toll on me this evening! Maybe the Bushmills too! Ha!
Either way, I have a few ideas or would be happy to help in areas the team need focus on. Would be great to see a sort of road map of priority apps or features to develop to keep the focus aligned.
As mentioned in other threads, common data formats to sync these apps together is key too. If the apps make a greater whole than their component parts, we will all benefit. Looking forward to seeing what is proposed!
Thank you @BambooGarden and gratulation to @maidsafe the team, @dirvine, and the community. There is no other project or persons in this space that deserves this more than all of you! This makes me so happy!
@BambooGarden Thank you sir for your generosity. You sound like a genuinely good person who has the foresight and possibly some very enlightened self-interest that will benefit all of this community and the users it will serve.
It’s great to hear this. You know what though, I’m not surprised by the response from Maidsafe. For most other teams/companies, yes, but not for Maidsafe. I suspect you thought the same too!
For what it is worth, I believe the world needs more people like you and Maidsafe. Humbling. Seriously humbling.
Folk tales will be sung of your far-sightedness @BambooGarden, legendary stuff! Fair play to you! And you couldn’t have timed it better.
@Traktion if your taste in common data formats is anywhere near as spot on as your taste in whiskey then I hope you’re involved with something. Bushmills, how tasty
The support, generosity, and structure of this is brilliant and I’m super grateful for its existence, whether I am to partake or not. It makes me very hopeful and seriously, thank you @BambooGarden and @maidsafe. I can’t think of a more deserving project and team.
A couple of questions for anyone @maidsafe involved here, @dirvine perhaps.
Is there a desired or recommended template for applications that would help streamline the process for both the applicant and management team?
Is hiring third party developers from outside of this community acceptable if the plan and budget are satisfactory? This would require them being up to speed and knowledgeable to the basic network structure, features and API’s before submitting an application.
**In short, could community members hire third party devs to write and submit a proposal for a community members app idea, and upon approval the fund pays the developers?
I’m assuming API’s and documentation will soon be getting some love to support this amazing effort?
Again, huge amount of gratitude and good luck to all submitting applications!!!
sorry, to clarify: not actual project proposals for funding but applications to join the committee as volunteer community members is what I meant here.
And thank you all for your kind words, it is humbling.
Yes we have not published it yet, but we have a basic template/list of questions.
Not only acceptable but encouraged.
The initial goals are going to be to launch the network, documentation and formalising proofs. I hope we “tool up” for that and when the community-based core team (something for us to grow there) expands a bit to cover that then we should start to get applications for projects.
The hope is we create immediate goals and post those and have them funded and running with resources in place or at least agreed with developers having accepted. Then move on to open out to application developers where we would encourage people to plan apps and we can help with funding developers etc.
With all this up and likely in parallel, post Beta we will ramp up marketing, PR etc. This will be right after proof of networks and launch proper. That gives us all confidence the time to push the message out, speak to 3rd parties, do conferences, meetings, interviews is right and we can do that properly when we all know the network is “alive”.
At least that’s my thoughts, but I suppose the committee will hone that. The main thing is this funds priority will be a launched network and launch faster than MaidSafe on their own. It’s amazing!
Absolutely, right now they are pretty much undocumented and still changing, but not so much these days. They will have to be at or close to a v1 for 3rd party devs to really get involved.
edit: for the committee… the wine is clearing taking its toll on me this evening! Maybe the Bushmills too! Ha! 
