On another thread, I suggested the idea of supporters funding the Peercoin Foundation via monthly payments through platforms such as Paypal and Patreon.
Such payments would likely be regular low level payments to enable the Peercoin Foundation to meet regular or immediate expenses, rather than large scale funding aimed at a particular project.
I am curious as to the potential of such a scheme, so thought I would set up a poll.
The poll below seeks to establish how many Peercoiners would be willing to contribute $5 a month, and how many would contribute $10 a month.
It is not the purpose of the poll to see what proportion donors would make of all Peercoiners, so the poll is not seeking negative responses. The purpose of the poll is simply to put a minimum dollar value on such a scheme, should it be adopted.
Question: “I would be willing to make monthly payments to the Peercoin Foundation via Paypal or Patreon, or other payment mechanism”:
I suggested something similar recently in another thread, whereby a regular automated PPC payment could be set up, similar to standing orders for bank accounts.
There would be no legal problems with this, so long as the client holder has full control of the autopayment settings.
A question that would arise is whether the autopayment is confined to a single destination (i.e. the Peercoin Foundation) or whether the client holder can choose the destination.
This is a wallet feature. As you say, it doesn’t really have to do with the Foundation, it is just an upgrade to the wallet that could be used to pay anyone regularly. The question is more about the priority of an implementation like this. Is building and supporting a feature like this a good use of our developer’s time? Maybe we should wait until we have rebased to a more recent bitcoin version before we start upgrading the wallet with additional user functionality.
It may also be possible to do this in a more advanced way, using time locked transactions or something. If you really want something like this implemented, why not draw up an RFC so we can discuss it in detail?
I have not said that. The idea arose during a discussion on how to secure a means of regular funding, and an auto-payment tool is one idea of many.
Whether an auto-payment tool is a good use of developers’ time, I do not know. It will depend on how easy it is to implement, its likelihood of being financially beneficial, and whether it draws undue attention away from the road map. Developers will decide and act accordingly.
I’m just trying to help you understand the process whereby you can make developers aware that there is a decision to make. With an RFC, you can be sure developers will see the suggestion and comment on it. If it is just a forum post at the end of a thread like it is here, it is unlikely that it will be picked up.
I’d thought I’d wrap this poll up with a few comments.
Four respondents said they would pledge $10 month, and four offered $5 a month, making $60 a month. This amounts to $720 a year.
Although this might seem a small sum in the crypto world, it’s large enough to cover a regular expense, such as the hosting of the website and/or peercoin.chat. It also offers non-technical supporters a chance to contribute in a material way.
Peerchemist has said elsewhere that money is not presently a problem, so perhaps this scheme is not needed at the moment, but it’s there for consideration.
Such a scheme ought to have a statement, every six months or so, of how much money has been received, what it has been spent on, and the balance. This statement could simply be a post on the forum.
Yes, Paypal requires a linked bank account. Paypal allows two accounts per person: one personal account, and one business account - each requires a different linked bank account and email
I am not sure how “literal” a business bank account has to be - i.e. whether it has to be an actual business or organisation (and verified by paypal as such) or whether it can be an ordinary (personal) bank account, but one simply calls it “business” when setting up the second paypal account
If a personal paypal account is used, the operator will need to keep a manual note of the PPC-related contributions, to keep them separate from other transactions. A second and separate paypal account, devoted to Peercoin alone, would be tidier.
Patreon can accept payments via paypal, but only pays out to a bank account. So, again, someone either uses their own bank account, and keeps a manual note, or sets up a new bank account (or perhaps uses an old, disused account)
I’ll research Paypal some more, in the next day or two.