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Show HN: Land conservation through crowdfunding

10 points by cromulent 10y ago

cromulent 10y ago
Hi folks. This is a non-profit I'm involved with. I would be happy to get HN'ers feedback here. I'm trying to feed the YC knowledge and other HN info to the other founders.
simonpure 10y ago
This seems like a great initiative and increasingly important for future generations - congrats! I noticed there's a disproportionate number of Australian owners. Any insight why that is?
- cromulent 10y ago
  Thanks. Please share if possible. I'm Australian, so it would be the network effect :)
fiatjaf 10y ago
Why isn't that foundation disapearing with our money in some years? Is that foundation taking government money?
- cromulent 10y ago
  Great questions. The foundation is specifically designed to avoid problems like hostile takeovers, etc. In the agreement between you and the Foundation when you purchase a Greenspace, you get a veto voting right for any change in the purpose of the land. So, even if <bad company x> buys all the other ones, you can stop them. Anyone can read the statutes here: https://www.helsinkifoundation.org/Helsinki-Foundation-Statutes.pdf https://www.helsinkifoundation.org/Helsinki-Foundation-Statu... No government money. It is totally free market conservation. We buy the land, people choose to buy Greenspaces if they want to.
fiatjaf 10y ago
If this is successful you should somehow open it to people that have land or want to buy land in other parts of the globe to let it be sold like that. Which is probably very difficult legally speaking. Ok, I've changed my mind, maybe there should be an Ethereum smart contract for this.
- cromulent 10y ago
  We had dismissed this as too difficult for the moment, so the Foundation must hold the title. Currently we have leads on some land that matches your description, but we need to transfer it to the Foundation. At some point I'll investigate the Ethereum contract, I don't know anything about it apart from it being blockchain based. Thanks!
  - fiatjaf 10y ago
    Maybe in a somewhat near future the smart contract hype will be good advertisign.

10 points by cromulent 10y ago

Hi folks. This is a non-profit I'm involved with. I would be happy to get HN'ers feedback here. I'm trying to feed the YC knowledge and other HN info to the other founders.

simonpure 10y ago

This seems like a great initiative and increasingly important for future generations - congrats! I noticed there's a disproportionate number of Australian owners. Any insight why that is?

cromulent 10y ago
Thanks. Please share if possible. I'm Australian, so it would be the network effect :)

fiatjaf 10y ago

Why isn't that foundation disapearing with our money in some years? Is that foundation taking government money?

cromulent 10y ago
Great questions. The foundation is specifically designed to avoid problems like hostile takeovers, etc. In the agreement between you and the Foundation when you purchase a Greenspace, you get a veto voting right for any change in the purpose of the land. So, even if <bad company x> buys all the other ones, you can stop them. Anyone can read the statutes here: https://www.helsinkifoundation.org/Helsinki-Foundation-Statutes.pdf https://www.helsinkifoundation.org/Helsinki-Foundation-Statu... No government money. It is totally free market conservation. We buy the land, people choose to buy Greenspaces if they want to.

fiatjaf 10y ago

If this is successful you should somehow open it to people that have land or want to buy land in other parts of the globe to let it be sold like that. Which is probably very difficult legally speaking. Ok, I've changed my mind, maybe there should be an Ethereum smart contract for this.

cromulent 10y ago
We had dismissed this as too difficult for the moment, so the Foundation must hold the title. Currently we have leads on some land that matches your description, but we need to transfer it to the Foundation. At some point I'll investigate the Ethereum contract, I don't know anything about it apart from it being blockchain based. Thanks!
- fiatjaf 10y ago
  Maybe in a somewhat near future the smart contract hype will be good advertisign.