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> Let’s Encrypt is a certificate authority, co-founded by EFF, Mozilla, and researchers from the University of Michigan I'd like to make a point about money: I
by hackuser 10y ago
> Let’s Encrypt is a certificate authority, co-founded by EFF, Mozilla, and researchers from the University of Michigan
I'd like to make a point about money: Institutions like these need money, or many important public goods will never exist. Consider that next time you are making donations or your legislators want to cut funding.
- maerF0x0 10y agotinhat on. Also consider where they get most of their money.
- Freak_NL 10y agoPlease elaborate if you suspect ulterior motives.
- dev1n 10y agoEFF receives donations from DPR2 [1]. [1]: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-secret-life-of-a-silk-road-20-mastermind http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-secret-life-of-a-silk-r...
- Freak_NL 10y ago> This is because he says he donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to a wealth of different organisations and charities. Those included the Tor Project, the nonprofit that maintains the Tor software, and some entities with no immediate link to technology or drug policy, such as a children's home. (The Tor Project did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) No direct mention of the EFF, but I'll take your word for it. Of course even if Assad, Erdoğan, and Putin donate money to the WWF, that does not mean saving panda's is a bad thing.
- lobo_tuerto 10y agoSo what? now the project is _tainted_?
- a_imho 10y agoRisking playing the devils advocate, checking the EFFs annual financial reports shows 13M support + 1M from investment income against 7,5M total expenses (salaries being 5,3M). EFF is doing good work and Let's Encrypt is a great initiative and I'm sure they can use every dollar, I'm just wondering whether you could have a bigger impact donating your money to other organizations / developers who are worse off. https://www.eff.org/document/fy-2014-statement-activity https://www.eff.org/document/fy-2014-statement-activity
- zeroxfe 10y ago> I'm just wondering whether you could have a bigger impact donating your money to other organizations / developers who are worse off. You certainly could. However, every donation has opportunity costs in multiple dimensions, and if you walk down the "can I have better impact somewhere else" path, you'll find it rife with circularities and get nowhere. Instead of the top N _best_ candidates to donate to, I usually look for N _good_ ones, and be done with it.
- arviewer 10y agoThe smaller the organization, the bigger the impact of your money. However that doesn't mean it will be spent better.