We’ve been through a lot lately: our servers got shut down, PayPal froze our donation funds, our servers were hit with several sustained DDoS attacks and even our bitcoin wallet, along with the wallet of Wikileaks was hit with a dust attack…

We received many donations via Bitcoin and Dogecoin and these will help pay for our biggest hosting bill in history of Voat. We’ve also received hundreds and hundreds of emails from people willing to donate and help support Voat, asking about alternative ways to donate as they find crypto currency to be a hassle to use.

For the last 2 years, Voat has been just a student side project. That left us open to personal liability and headaches in the long run. As of today, Voat Voat, Inc. is no longer a student side project but a corporation registered in the U.S.

Why the U.S.? Switzerland seemed like a great option in the beginning, but when it comes to freedom of speech, the main idea behind Voat, U.S. law by far beats every other candidate country we’ve researched. The First Amendment is very clear about this:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Incorporating in the U.S. brings us closer to cheaper infrastructure (Silicon Valley anyone?), gives us more financial options, and will allow our community more protections.

So now what?

So now we can work towards providing a sustainable model for Voat. We can provide better donation options for those who have asked for it. We can build systems into Voat that can help offset hosting costs. We can provide merchandise goods if people want to support Voat in that way. We can hopefully start hiring soon and get out of Alpha!

To celebrate the founding we will be opening up registrations at random times during the following days as we work towards opening up permanently once again. No announcements will be posted concerning when registrations will be enabled as the duration and times this happens will be controlled by an automated process using random algorithms.