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# Digital Freedom meets Digital Payments
NGI Forum 2025
21 Jun 2025
Tags: GNU Taler
Summary: How GNU Taler will increase funding of FLOSS
Özgür Kesim
Developer, GNU Taler
oec-taler@kesim.org
https://taler.net/
## Thesis
Anonymous {
- micropayments
- donations
- subscriptions
} via GNU Taler
will help fund Digital Freedom (FLOSS, services, etc.) significantly.
## Thesis
Anonymous {
- micropayments
- donations
- subscriptions
} via GNU Taler
will help fund Digital Freedom
**by an additional 1.2 Billion € by 2030**.
## Why should that happen?
## Gedankenexperiment A
Let's say a new digital payment service enters the market.
Same type of account based technology (credit card, wire transfer, "paypal",...)
Has some sort of advantage and reaches critical mass.
**How much more funding will it make possible?**
Probably not much more.
## Gedankenexperiment B
Let's say a new digital payment service enters the market.
It offers
- full anonymity for buyers
- micropayments
and reaches critical mass.
**How much more funding will it make possible?**
Probably (much?) more.
## Gedankenexperiment C
Let's say a new digital payment service enters the market.
It offers
- full anonymity for buyers
- micropayments
- **microeffort**
and reaches critical mass.
**How much more funding will it make possible?**
Probably much more.
##
<h2>Anonymous micro-{payment & effort}<br> ⇒ macro effect!</h2>
## Macro effect
Optimistic, yet reasonable estimate:
After growth of x years of GNU Taler in the EU,
N Mio users will on average pay
y€/month on Digital Freedom (FLOSS software, services) via Taler.
**⇒ `N*y*12` Million € per year.**
## About GNU Taler...
## Demo low friction payment via Taler...
## Demo low friction integration of Taler...
## What is still needed?
## EU-wide availability
## Existing Forms of Funding
## Existing forms of funding
1. Large companies
- via resources (engineering, sponsoring events)
2. Goverment grants, like NGI (EU)
3. Independent foundations (Linux Foundation,...)
4. User donations
- mostly "paypal", "patreon", "github", "gofundme",...
5. Ad revenue
6. PlayStore, AppStore
// 5. Volunteers, Students
## Goverment grants
Great form of funding, especially initial stages.
Included: Selection Process, Coaching, Networking.
Follow-up often possible
‥‥ But
not a continuous income stream.
depends on political will and fiscal situation
## NGI
Dedication to FLOSS
Aims at increasing digital sovereignty
‥‥ But also not reliable income stream.
## Large Companies
FB, G, A's, etc. provide significant resources.
Funding via hired engineers, sponsoring events, compute resources.
Focus on very few selected projects, core technologies
- linux kernel, compilers, kubernetes,...
Often have strong control over governance of the FLOSS projects.
Mixed bag: economical incentives of companies
do not necessarily align with other users'
or developers needs.
(Licensing models...)
## "patreon" et al.
Closed systems: Users and Devs need to enroll.
Works well (enough?), but...
- no privacy
- enrollment required
- engagement overhead for contributors
- incentives unclear
Costs? (TODO)
## Wake up calls
## License matters
- failed adoption due to license (f.e. plan9)
## Funding and security
- understuffed maintainance (OpenSSL, Log4j,...)
- knowledge flee (GNUPG)
- Part of the xz, npm,...
- TODO OTHER?
## Anti-patterns
- gated ecosystems (play-store)
- big sponsors (dependency, control, incentives)
## Why Anonymous?
Users want it.
Well, _some_ users want it.
In fact, given the choice, users would choose it.
The option does not exists besides cash or bitcoins etc.
## FLOSS
Very diverse set of people, software, incentives, etc.
## Funding Software vs. Funding Service
## Micro-{payment, cost, effort} => Macro effect
## Ideas for models
- anonymous donations
- anonymous subscriptions
- anonymous feature voting
## Github sponsors
> GitHub Sponsors does not charge any fees for sponsorships from personal accounts, so 100% of these sponsorships go to the sponsored developer or organization. GitHub Sponsors charges a fee of up to 6% for sponsorships from organization accounts. The 6% fee is split between the following:
> - 3% credit card processing fee
> - 3% GitHub service processing fee
> Organizations can save the 3% credit card processing fee by switching to invoiced billing for sponsorships. For more information, see Paying for GitHub Sponsors by invoice.
Minimum: 25$ one-time or monthly
|
