Looking into this Summer of Protocols thing that @evan and @tomcoates got accepted for to work on adding encryption to #ActivityPub, and realized its a grant from the Ethereum Foundation. I am not opposed to crypto slush money flowing into more useful projects like the #fediverse but thought it was interesting that I hadn't seen anyone mention this fact yet.
@liaizon You’re 100% right that’s where the money comes from. What I find interesting about it is that if you look at the previous work from it almost none of it is even crypto adjacent. A lot of it is related to the subject of “protocol studies” that they’re trying to kick into being. There is work on Christopher Alexander’s pattern language in architecture, essays on metaphors for memory.
@liaizon honestly I think the near future of fediverse work is going to find its funding in lots of places that some people might find disconcerting, particularly given large company moves in the area. I think we just have to keep our eyes on whether the work itself is right, ethical and good for all and be open about the funding.
@liaizon but rest assured this particular tranche of work was a very simple proposal from Evan pitching for the grant based on nothing more than finding a good implementation for E2EE in activity pub. He’s one of the co-authors of the spec. And the goal is to have something at the end of the time to take to the W3C. So lots of openness and opportunities for comment and discussion. And certainly no pressure at all in any direction we’ve seen so far.
@tomcoates yeah I looked through a bunch of it. It's a strange mix of things. I know quite a few people who have managed to get some money from the Ethereum Foundation for non Blockchain stuff. I do expect you will both get some pushback at some point about this though so maybe be prepared for that. There's many valid reasons to be suspicious or sceptical of anything touching crypto capital.