UF acts as trusted 3rd party to hold escrow crypto funds for crowdfunded grant proposals.
Sent to wolref-podlex on [[2022-12-28]]❌:
With the understanding that UF is pivoting from userspace grants, what do you think of this idea:
- UF acts as the escrow trusted 3rd party for “crowdfunded” projects
- A team submits a grant with user stories
- Then they attempt to crowdfund its development.
- The crowd members can send bitcoin (or whatever crypto) to the UF address for this project, with the knowledge that if the product is not complete to spec by X date, their funds are returned (less fees)
- IF the product is built to spec by the deadline (as judged by trusted 3rd party UF), UF sends the funds to the building team (and UF keeps a fee for their effort)
In this way, UF gets to keep some of the well-earned “Userspace app development HQ” status, relying on their already proven ability to hold grants and judge them fairly. But they do it without putting up their own money nor having to do much work at all aside from reviewing the final product. And urbit users get apps they want. And developers get paid by those customers directly.
that was sort of off the top of my head and I’m coming with this idea as an independent lunatic, not a representative of Quartus, necessarily. I haven’t discussed this with the team much, yet. I’ve been sensing a growing desire for directly-funded userspace apps (funded by users, that is), but I think we need a locus of coordination and trust to achieve it.
it also proves ideas. write a proposal for an app people want? it’ll get funded. write a crap idea, it’ll languish / expire.