Hey @aiyadt, sounds good. @birdify and I are going to try to update this weekend. What are the logistics of updating the proposal? Should we just update via the “submittable” interface? I requested permission to edit there. Should we also update the OP here or try to paste the new proposal in a comment?
Legal Budget
@birdify and I have talked about adding $30,000 to the proposal for a top-tier Silicon Valley law firm for bootstrapping and ongoing retainer for small things that might come up - hopefully this will last a couple of years or more. This would bring the total for the proposal to $153,000.
For the contingency fund, we are talking about asking for $100,000. This would mostly be a show of force to deter any trolls and let people know we are serious. We are committed to running Free2z in a legal and compliant way with a strong foundation from a top-tier law firm - following their advice closely. So, we don’t anticipate ever having to tap into the contingency fund. Do you and the other committee members think these numbers are reasonable? It’s our belief that committing to a strong legal basis upfront will be cheaper in the long run than trying to skimp on the legal foundations.
$123,000 + $30,000 = $153,000 total proposal
$100,000 legal contingency, hopefully never tapped.
Security Audit
I’d be happy to help with the security audit RFP. We are actually qualified to provide such services ourselves and I would be happy to donate my time to help form standards and help audit future similar grantees.
I support Free2z in its entirety. I even have my own page on it. This is the type of grants I love. Utility + Privacy. This is such an awesome idea. I want it to be as big as Gofundme, Patreon, and Substack combined. @skyl has already delivered a MVP or rather a VP.
Noting here that we are amending the proposal after feedback from the ZF and the ZCG committee.
Instead of adding $30,000 for initial legal expenses and formation documents, we will keep the original dollar amounts and milestones how they are - $123,000 total including $5,000 for legal services. With this $5,000 we will form a legal entity in the US and start a relationship with a respectable law firm. For legal and accounting expenses beyond this initial $5,000, we will request that the ZF reserve $100,000 for further legal and compliance expenses. Free2z will draw on this reserve on an itemized basis, as necessary.
Arranging the funding in this way will allow Free2z to establish on solid legal foundations while maintaining the necessary separation from the ZF and ZCG.