TL;DR: In the wake of Infrastructure Funding Plan for Bitcoin Cash (IFP) debate fallout, a group of developers, eager to show funding could be crowdsourced and voluntary, created Flipstarter in an attempt at a proof of concept. Its first beta campaign went live on March 14, 2020, teaming with charity group EatBCH.

Flipstarter Beta Campaign Goes Live

When the IFP was proposed in late January of this year, many in the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) community considered the merits of redirecting block rewards as part of protocol change. Should it be X percent? Where should funds be sent? What is the threshold for infrastructure projects to be awarded? And so on.

Developers disenchanted with the IFP’s main assumption, namely that voluntary funding in the way they assumed is simply not sustainable, vowed to prove otherwise. And so the idea of Flipstarter was born in mid-February. It seeks to be an antidote to IFP ways of thinking, and Flipstarter proponents consider their trustless, non-custodial assurance contract arrangement to be more in line with Bitcoiners’ philosophy generally on the matter. Those projects deemed worthy will get the funding they need, provided they appeal to the broader Flipstarter community.

Devs, however, are famous for slick talk and neato graphics outlining their ideas. Delivering on the product, shipping it, is another thing altogether. Sure, you might dislike the IFP for a variety of reasons, but what’s your answer? Flipstarter, by contrast, has gone from skeletal beginnings to a real, live project.

EatBCH

Most everyone in the BCH community has heard of and admires EatBCH. It’s the go-to charity demonstrating the use case for fast, reliable, cheap crypto transactions and the power they can have on parts of the world in grave need, namely South Sudan and Venezuela.

Beyond the good a dedicated campaign for EatBCH will do, the Flipstarter team is also trying to make a point. It has given itself two weeks to raise enough funds for Venezuela efforts (“you support 25 volunteers providing food in 9 locations”) and work in South Sudan (“you support 13 volunteers providing food in 11 locations”) for a month. “We are a group of friends doing what we can to help our neighbors in this time of uncertainty. What better way to bond with your neighbors than over a hot meal prepared with love?” the posted campaign stressed.

They’re looking to raise 20 BCH (at current prices, about $3,500), and that number has already been reached. It’s entirely too early to pronounce Flipstarter a success, and the all-volunteer group is keen to make that understood. They acknowledge clunkiness in minimum pledge amounts, complicated plug-ins, and limitations on sending from a private key, multi-sig, or hardware wallet, as features to work-on going forward.

“Funding of Bitcoin Cash infrastructure is important,” the Flipstarter team explained, “and infrastructure diversity creates a resilient ecosystem. Flipstarter provides a way for any project to engage with potential funders in a way that encourages accountability for projects and fairness for funders.” Time will tell.

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DYOR: CoinSpice is your home for just spicy crypto things. We’re not affiliated with any cryptocurrency project or token. Each published piece is intended for information purposes only, not investment advice and not in the hope of impacting speculative markets. There are plenty of trading sites and coin-specific advocacy journals out there, we’re neither. CoinSpice strives for rigorous accuracy in our reporting. Information presented here is contingent usually on a host of factors, and the ecosystem moves fast — prices change, projects change, and at warp speed. Do your own research.

DISCLOSURE: The author holds cryptocurrency as part of his financial portfolio, including BCH.