A big problem here is BountySource was structured as a for-profit business. If someone pursued the same idea as a not-for-profit, this diversion of funds would be less likely. Not impossible: it isn’t as if no not-for-profit has ever misused funds. But the system is set up to make that less likely, and to have greater legal recourse when it happens
> This is false. For profit companies clear and custody billions per day successfully.
> Brokerages, banks, title and escrow companies, clearing companies.
Those are all highly regulated industries. Some of them would love to put stuff in their T&Cs like BountySource’s “if the beneficiary doesn’t withdraw the money after 2 years we get to keep it” but the regulators would never let them. For a business like BountySource, that level of regulation does not exist
It is also naive - non profits have bountiful ways of making money disappear into pockets in all sorts of legal manners. It’s an entire industry - and by being non-profit they can be almost entirely impossible to “control” once the board is captured.
I think you’d want the money to be held by an organisation which is respectable and has some backing and track record - e.g. the OSI, FSF, Linux Foundation, Software Freedom Conservancy - orgs like that are unlikely to redirect the funds into something completely unrelated.
There does need to be some flexibility however - e.g. if a project is defunct and nobody wants to work on it, it is stupid just to leave funding in a bank account forever. But if you give it to another open source project (preferably one in the same area) I think that is fine. Adding it to the coffers of a for-profit company isn’t
And it might be reasonable for a not-for-profit to contract with a for-profit firm to administer such a funding scheme - but they should only be trustees of the funds (so if they go bankrupt the creditors can’t touch it) and they only get paid a defined percentage as a fee for service
Yes, but the particular type of non-profit I had in mind – in a sibling reply I gave examples of the OSI, FSF, Linux Foundation, Software Freedom Conservancy – do groups like those have a history of fraud and embezzlement?
Evidence of fraud in other, very different non-profits – which I agree exists – doesn't really answer that question
