Handshake Provides a Leg Up -- Conservancy has been gifted $200K

[Deb Nicholson]

Handshake has recently 
awarded funds to many critical free and open source software projects. 

In particular Conservancy has been gifted $200K for our ongoing work to

support software freedom by providing a fiscal home for smaller 
projects, enforcing the GPL and undertaking strategic efforts to grow 
and improve free software. Outreachy, the organization offering
biannual, paid internships for 
under-represented people to work in free software (itself a member 
project of Conservancy) has also been awarded $100,000 from these
funds.

  

  
    
      "We are grateful for this donation that will allow us to 
continue supporting people from underrepresented backgrounds in gaining 
focused experience as free software contributors and shaping the future 
of technology," said Marina Zhurakhinskaya, Outreachy Organizer. 
Donations to the Outreachy general fund support program operations and 
increasing awareness of opportunities in free software among people from
 underrepresented groups in tech.


Handshake is a decentralized replacement for the root zone file, 
which leverages blockchain technology to make DNS-based spying and 
censoring more difficult. Purse.io and Private Internet Access provided 
Handshake with the funding to launch decentralized market for Internet 
names. The Handshake organizers said that they received much more than 
they needed to get started and so decided to reinvest $10.2 million 
dollars back into free software by gifting it to FLOSS developers and 
projects, as well as non profit organizations and universities that 
support free software development. 



>From Handshake, "The Internet, and civilization as a whole, would not
 be where it is today without the hard work of the free software and 
open source community and the projects that they work on. The Handshake 
blockchain will start with an initial supply of 1.36 billion coins, of 
which 77.5% will be gifted to FLOSS developers and projects, as well as 
non profit organizations, universities."



"We're glad to be included in this list of organizations that are so 
important to the Internet and to free and open source software." says 
Karen Sandler, Executive Director of Conservancy. "The funds will make a
 big difference in our ability to support and defend free software and 
ethical technology."



As a small organization, we are always working to do the most with 
what we have. The Handshake grant allows us to tackle some of the work 
that we would have otherwise had to put off to a later date. Unfettered 
donations give us the freedom to say yes to hiring contractors to help 
with tasks that we don't have expertise for in house, they help us move 
up our timetables for critical infrastructure and they enable us to 
spend less time fundraising. These kinds of gifts are absolutely 
critical for Conservancy and for our frugal sister organizations in the 
free software community.



"...Handshake has 
everything we need and that capital is better deployed by the FOSS 
organizations to which we have pledged to contribute it. In the spirit 
of free software and radical gifting we’ve taken the validation value 
from this project and shared it with the world."




We hope others are inspired to support the free software commons on 
which so many modern businesses and essential platforms rely. If all the
 amazing work done by free software developers over the last 30+ years 
has put you in a situation where you have "extra money" feel free to 
reach out to us! We can definitely help you with that. Thank you again 
to Handshake for your generous leadership!



    
  









-- 
Deb Nicholson <deb at sfconservancy.org>
Software Freedom Conservancy
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