Opportunity for EA orgs: $5k/year in ETH (tech setup required)

By Aaron Gertler 🔸 @ 2021-03-15T04:11 (+20)

I'm posting this as a favor to someone else; it isn't related to my work at CEA.

The Fugue Foundation is an Ethereum-based blockchain organization (if that terminology makes sense, I'm not a crypto person). They want to use that technology in service of an EA-oriented mission.

To that effect, they're looking to find two EA nonprofits to set up Ethereum validator nodes and receive the attendant rewards (they estimate ~$5k/year, paid out quarterly).

The necessary conditions:

The org has 501(c)3 tax-exempt status
The org is able/willing to receive donations in the form of ETH
"In addition to providing funds to the EANO, FF sees this grant as an opportunity to promote education and career enhancing skills within the open source blockchain community. Thus, a primary requirement for receipt of this grant is that the EANO identify individuals - either within the EANO itself or external volunteers affliated with or supportive of the EANO - to run their own testnet validator node (i.e., the ether involved has no market value)."

Related links:

If you have any questions, I recommend reaching out to the foundation rather than posting them here.

If you have concerns, posting them here is fine; as I mentioned, I'm not a crypto person, so there may be some downside to this project that I'm not aware of.

Milan_Griffes @ 2021-03-15T04:32 (+6)

Wow this is cool: https://blog.fuguefoundation.org/effective-altruism-quest/

FugueFoundation @ 2021-03-21T17:16 (+5)

Thanks, I cross posted it in this forum as well several months ago, though the subject was not particularly well received. When ETH gas fees drop a bit in the coming months (due to various network upgrades) we may set up some bounties to essentially pay people (in stable coins) that successfully complete the quest (i.e., proving they read/understood the intro to EA article).

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/sDtfchRXqKYACJqdm/effective-altruism-quest

Greg_Colbourn @ 2021-03-15T12:32 (+4)

Who is behind it? I can't see any names attached, and a charity would usually need names for due diligence before being able to accept donations of that size. I guess it's ok if they want public anonymity, but they will reveal names privately.

Jon_Behar @ 2021-03-16T02:12 (+4)

I asked my contact at Fugue Foundation about this, and here's their response:

We list information about our corporate structure on our website at the link below. We are incorporated in Arizona and await word from the IRS regarding our 501c3 application. Indeed, as a private foundation, and one that specifically lists privacy protection as one of our core principles, we do try to maintain a certain distance with online identities. I will certainly speak with any of the organizations that are selected to receive the grant.
https://fuguefoundation.org/docs/mission.html#incorporation

Greg_Colbourn @ 2021-03-17T11:46 (+2)

Great, thanks. Do they accept UK charities? We are potentially interested at CEEALAR.

Jon_Behar @ 2021-03-18T15:49 (+2)

They want to stick with registered US charities for this initial round, to keep the grantmaking logistics simpler.

I believe down the road, when FF has built up some grantmaking experience, they'd like to widen things up.

FugueFoundation @ 2021-03-21T17:19 (+1)

Thanks for help with clarifying, Jon.