Donate and support GrapheneOS!
Hi all.
if, and I think it is, the bottom line is a simple binary outcome: project dies or project lives, then almost any kind of donation solicitation is justified. I dont care if it "cheapens" the experience or it would offend users, or will make them leave - so freaking what? What good are 1,000,000 users who do not appreciate the labors of others and simply parasitically consume? Wouldn't rather 1,000 donating users be more important and viable to the project? I think it is perfectly OK to have a permanent banner in the OS soliciting a donation which gets removed by paying - if it offends someone and makes them leave - so be it as I'd rather take this project going further with fewer users than dying with million users.
Also, I think EVERY update and initial boot MUST present a solicitation banner: if it results of ANY number additional donations, then it's already justified, and I'm sure it will. Not all users visit forums but ALL MUST BE NOTIFIED and informed that the project needs help.
In my opinion, the project should not be afraid to lose some users in exchange for sustainability
f13a-6c3a the bottom line is a simple binary outcome: project dies or project lives, then almost any kind of donation solicitation is justified.
You nailed it.
f13a-6c3a What good are 1,000,000 users who do not appreciate the labors of others and simply parasitically consume?
This is what currently happens with maybe 60k.
f13a-6c3a Wouldn't rather 1,000 donating users be more important and viable to the project?
To keep the project alive and thriving minimum 50.000 is needed. This way it can grow.
To keep it alive surviving minimum 25000 is needed. But the developers will get exhausted one day.
20.000 users donating 15 a year would cover just surviving.
I think we have 40.000 users that would agree on a one time donation that is 15 bucks.
But to find them and make them aware you need to communicate it to ALL end devices. Period
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Nuttso I read that the user base is estimated as 80,000. I think charging $10 per IMEI, per year, is more than fair. Maybe a one week trial of GrapheneOS before a product key is required to be purchased?
The goal is to not only keep it alive but to keep it thriving. Your approach would be the best for this. I would definitely say this is the way. But this is not what grapheneos is, sadly. We would already be on a whole new level if it was for subscription. It aims to be a non profit organization one day. Hopefully so successful that I could help other privacy and security projects.
We need to find a solution how to make more of the end users aware of the situation. It's not that grapheneos is dead, but we need to prevent it from dying. It would be ideal to just brainstorm about how this could be done best.
We know that all other channel doesn't succeed.
So we need to start to think of a reasonable way how to present this to the actual user. It's the device.
There are different scenarios how this could be done.
I'm not sure how it is in other countries but in Germany you can buy a Paysafe pin in every gas station. They don't want an id if it is below 50€. A lot would use this here for donation.
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Nuttso Paysafe cards are available in my country (US), I just checked.
However the donation request ends up being communicated to the end user, I think a small write up from the project explaining the basic overhead (Development team, update servers, cost of testing devices, hosting/maintaining website) would help the user base understand that donations are necessary.
If I were making decisions, the quickest, easiest and most fair way could be to put convenience features such as seamless updates behind a paywall. I would gladly pay $5 per month to keep the privacy and security of my device automatically up to date. Also provides a recurring revenue stream for the project. Don't want to pay? No problem, just install the updates manually. That way nobody gets alienated and GrapheneOS can continue to thrive. At the very least sell some merch in the interim or something! So much potential here...
Whatever the decision is here as long as it's reasonable it should be done. I pay for my VPN every month so I could pay this as well. As long as it's made anonymous. Make it like 5 bucks a month or something. That's 60 bucks a year from everyone who uses the OS. Gotta do what we gotta do. F@(# it!
seeker I would suggest starting with the lowest impact option, such as a 'GrapheneOS needs funding! Click here to donate' notification one time upon update. If that is not effective, create a message upon reboot 'We are asking for $5 per month GitHub sponsership to keep this project going.' And if that does not bring in the necessary funding, create a subscription system of $5 per month (x 60,000 users) or whatever is necessary. I hope this can be avoided, but just as I pay for Tutanota I already happily make donations for using GrapheneOS.
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Fhggyy5767 I am confidant the user base would diminish if a subscription system were implemented. But if it is necessary to ensure the future of this project, I would recommend not waiting until it is too late.
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Nuttso To keep the project alive and thriving minimum 50.000 is needed. This way it can grow.
To keep it alive surviving minimum 25000 is needed. But the developers will get exhausted one day.
Just to lighten the mood a bit here:
I checked the Graphene Donate page and checked those 2 bitcoin addresses in bitcoin explorer:
1st address: 76046 dollars (first balance change 1 year ago)
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/address/bc1qy6fhm8p00p3h3w5rrcp2h2wejeeqn7x6y7xs2p
2nd address: 222 dollars (first balance change 4 weeks ago)
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/address/bc1paundtwscvlqchmjgds2cj2dpay5y72ll37r07x57dhw9q234k6dqmc2ztx
There is also ethereum address:
eth: 213 dollars (first balance change 1 week ago)
https://blockchair.com/ethereum/address/0xb74ed3be17c0f2af46ac6f15b0536d6d112d1a8c
The last fundraiser to buy new devices announced on Twitter was also successful:
"We need $3500 to preorder 2x Pixel 7 and 2x Pixel 7 Pro (2x $599 + 2x $799 at local prices with added sales tax). One for main device maintainers and one for main dev/testing set.
Bitcoin donation address specifically for this purpose:
bc1q2fh6j65w3rfvyn00zex2gh9eslhw9nvdnvkfy7."
That address received 0.21094725 BTC
4,232.58 USD
Above mentioned donations are only via bitcoin (and ethereum in one case), there are many other means to donate.
I have donated boys and girls! Please keep up the good work! 😍 🥰 😻
Willing to donate but all options involve usage and need to register with ..whoever... 3rd parties.
Did I miss a direct way to send you money?
BTW I am located in Europe, you do not happen to have a bank account SWIFT/IBAN on this end of the globe?
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d4f2 Bitcoin is not a valid option for you? No need to pay a bank for a transfer...
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After reading some of the replies, I have got to ask, what is going through your mind? Do you really think pushing notifications about donations to users is a good solution? Trials? Licenses? Of course solely relying on donations isn't enough, but you can't convince people who don't want to donate to do so. If GrapheneOS wants to generate more revenue, it should offer more options than just donating monies. Maybe selling merchandise could work, but the real solution is partnering with an OEM and selling devices with GrapheneOS that aren't like the crap newer Pixels that come with a barely functioning Samsung modem, easily broken, overheat, have no 3.5mm jack, a bulky design with a huge camera that allows it to slides off wherever it wants to, no easily replacable batteries, and a badly placed front camera. It could also work on bug bounties, and not let the $70k SIM vulnerability incident happen again, but that's not the real solution that is needed in the end.
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The real solution of a partnership to make phones was tried, and it didn't work.