TL;DR: With a full dozen days to spare, Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN) reached its fundraising goal of 978 BCH, activating nearly a quarter-million dollars. It participated in an innovative new platform, Flipstarter. So far, node campaigns spread across five projects, including BCHN, gathered donation pledges totaling more than $372,000 (at current market prices) among 1,525.44 BCH pending.
Bitcoin Cash Node is First to be Fully Funded on Flipstarter
The month-long Flipstarter-based fundraiser went live on Friday, April 17th, 2020. As of April 26, 2020, at block 632516, Bitcoin Cash Node became fully funded. The full node project, aiming to provide a safe client implementation for the Bitcoin Cash network, set its goal at 978 BCH, $240,030.54 at current market prices.
Funds raised for BCHN came from 46 contributions, some anonymous, others proudly open complete with messages of support. The previously little known SLP Foundation made a grand entrance into the BCH community, putting Bitcoin Cash Node over the top with a pledge of 371.37 BCH ($91,233.69), 38% of the total pledged to BCHN.
With the money triggered, BCHN “hope to get the necessary resources to attend to some immediate needs of Bitcoin Cash miners, businesses and users, providing robust research and implementation for them. We also intend to put in place some necessary structure to ensure we are equipped to sustain ourselves through the next leg of challenges,” according to its Flipstarter appeal message.
Trustless, Non-custodial Assurance Contract Platform Proves it Has Legs
Flipstarter was in part an answer to the Infrastructure Funding Plan for Bitcoin Cash (IFP), introduced in late January of this year by an influential mining pool operator. The IFP debate quickly turned sour (see detailed timeline, below) with original backers pulling out altogether. But the exercise proved fruitful on at least one score: more attention was brought to the need for infrastructure funding.
Developers critical of the IFP, such as imaginary_username, emergent reasons, Dagur, Jonathan Silverblood, Leandro DiMarco, and Sploit, among other volunteers, took their ire and helped found initiatives like Flipstarter and BCHN in response. Flipstarter, a trustless, non-custodial assurance contract platform, began its proof of concept run with a successful campaign for EatBCH, a valued Bitcoin Cash community charity working in Venezuela and South Sudan.
The current nodes campaign, still ongoing among the remaining four participants, looks to help raise 3,039 BCH between all five nodes, slightly over $700,000 at current pricing. Bitcoin ABC, BCHD, Bitcoin Verde, and Knuth are continuing their drives through early May (prominent implementation Bitcoin Unlimited, considered already well-funded, has abstained). A quirk of Flipstarter, however, means campaigns only receive funding if the entire amount of BCH sought is reached. So far, only BCHN has activated donations.
TIMELINE THUS FAR
- 01222020 Infrastructure Funding Proposal
- 01222020 BCH devs react
- 01232020 Jiang Zhuoer AMA
- 01232020 Amaury Séchet addendum to IFP
- 01242020 Bitcoin.com releases statement in support of IFP
- 01242020 Jonald Fyookball’s position on the IFP
- 01252020 Justin Bons, Tobias Ruck suggest voting on IFP
- 01252020 Antony Zegers support of IFP
- 01262020 Early market reaction to IFP
- 01262020 Anon dev imaginary_username’s reaction to IFP
- 01262020 Peter Rizun’s reaction to IFP
- 01272020 Opposing Miners Group
- 01272020 BUIP143: Refuse the Coinbase Tax
- 01282020 Bitcoin Verde’s reaction to IFP
- 01282020 Bitcoin.com drops support for IFP
- 01282020 BCHD’s reaction to IFP
- 02012020 Jiang Zhuoer heavily amends IFP
- 02032020 Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin, Zcash’s Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn react to IFP
- 02072020 More Miners Voice Skepticism at Bitcoin Cash Infrastructure Fund Proposals
- 02102020 Giving Bitcoin Cash a Fighting Chance
- 02102020 imaginary_username Speaks: He’s Working to Build a Developer Funding Alternative
- 02122020 Lockdown: From Mainland China, Bitcoiner Talks Coronavirus and Fallout for Crypto
- 02152020 Flipstarter: BCH Voluntary Commons Funding
- 02152020 Bitcoin ABC Will Implement Bitcoin Cash Infrastructure Fund of 5% During May 15, 2020 Upgrade
- 02162020 Roger Ver on Bitcoin Cash Infrastructure Fund Update: Too Controversial, Not Worth it at This Point
- 02162020 Bitcoin Cash Infrastructure Funding Update: BTC.TOP Founder Proposes 2/3 Hash Voting Threshold
- 02172020 Bitcoin Cash IFP Author, Influential Mining CEO to Chinese Bitcoiners: Decentralization is Key
- 02192020 Two Notable Bitcoin Cash Developers Announce Opposition to the IFP
- 02202020 Bitcoin Cash Developers Fork ABC Reference Implementation Client, Create “BCH Node”
- 02212020 First Bitcoin Cash Developer Meeting After IFP Proposal
- 02272020 Bitcoin Cash Node v0.21.0 Formally Released
- 03012020 Wrapping Our Heads Around the Infrastructure Funding Plan for Bitcoin Cash
- 03032020 Bitcoin Cash Node Team Releases General Roadmap Through November
- 03242020 Brain Drain: BCH Dev Leaves for AVA and Has Choice Words for Community
- 04012020 Bitcoin ABC Launches $3.3 Million Fundraiser
- 04162020 Trustless, Non-custodial Assurance Contract Platform Flipstarter Launches Five Node Campaigns
- 04252020 PODCAST Bitcoin Cash Reference Client Looks to Raise Sustainable Funding
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DYOR: CoinSpice is your home for just spicy crypto things. We’re not affiliated with any cryptocurrency project or token. Each published piece is intended for information purposes only, not investment advice and not in the hope of impacting speculative markets. There are plenty of trading sites and coin-specific advocacy journals out there, we’re neither. CoinSpice strives for rigorous accuracy in our reporting. Information presented here is contingent usually on a host of factors, and the ecosystem moves fast — prices change, projects change, and at warp speed. Do your own research.
DISCLOSURE: The author holds cryptocurrency as part of his financial portfolio, including BCH.
