Тег: Donations

Update to the “Donations” section

I received information from the author of a service that allowed anyone to send Bitcoin donations while paying in rubles from a bank card. Unfortunately, the service closed because the author’s Yandex wallet was blocked, and other ruble online payment tools do not have the necessary functions in their API. This, alas, is a typical situation for agorists—the state seeks to tax every transaction, and if it cannot, it prefers to crush everything in sight. As for Yandex, although it is formally private today, it is unable to resist the whims of the state.

So I had to update the instructions in the Donations section, removing the description of this option. However, taking advantage of the occasion, I added some updates to the Lightning description page—there, on the contrary, a new service appeared for exchanging those same Yandex rubles for Lightning; I don’t know how long it will last.

On the other hand, the VPN from Vee Security, which I advertised some time ago, is quite alive and has no intention of fading away.

I hope everyone who wanted to has taken advantage of the recent dip in the Bitcoin rate and stocked up for the future.

Donations and plans

I have updated the donations section on my website, adding several instructions on using cryptocurrencies, so as not to refer to scattered blog posts.

Also, something unexpected happened to me. When Siberia was covered in smog, I complained in the chat about headaches, throat problems, and sleep disturbances. The smog has eased now, but one of my readers suddenly decided to gift me a trip to the sea, so I will soon head to Armenia and Georgia for a couple of weeks. Such generous gestures are, of course, very overwhelming. But I will try to view the trip more as a business trip than a vacation, and from time to time, I’ll write something interesting in the channel.

Thank you for filling my life with such pleasant surprises!

Acknowledgements psto

Three days ago, I received an unexpectedly large donation, which covered all previous expenses and provided a good foundation for the future. I don’t count the time spent, of course, as answering your questions is a pleasure for me.

Thank you, whoever you are! Now I’m sitting here in deep thought: how should I spend the money to achieve the maximum effect.

I really want to do something pleasant for the donor. And also to extend this practice for the future—for example, depending on the size of the donation, offering something as a keepsake. Going back to thinking.

when one can dream specifically…

Sup, Ancap-chan. How will fundamental scientific research (mathematical and physical, for example) work in the absence of state funding? As history shows, such things only begin to bring benefit after decades and centuries. Will private foundations really invest in this?

anonymous question

How did fundamental scientific research work before the emergence of state academies of sciences? There were two main mechanisms.

First. A scientist conducted their research independently and at their own expense, satisfying their own private interest.

Second. A scientist found a patron, usually some aristocrat, and conducted research at the patron’s expense, while simultaneously fulfilling their minor whims and contributing to the increase of the patron’s prestige.

What are the contraindications to using these mechanisms even after the state withers away? Effectively, only one. It is claimed that quite many fundamental scientific projects are too expensive to implement for a single patron to be able to afford. Well, since the time of pre-state science, financial institutions have made good progress, so funds with billion-dollar budgets are by no means an exotic rarity now.

The question of motivation remains. What would prompt a potential sponsor of fundamental science to invest in a particular fund? Exactly the same considerations apply here as in patronage or philanthropy: the sponsor satisfies their sense of self-importance and gets good PR. Accordingly, for money to flow into fundamental science, it needs good marketing: stroking the egos of sponsors, vividly highlighting the results obtained and the breathtaking prospects. This is, of course, very soulless, but far fairer than the current model, where money is forcibly collected into a black box, and the report on results is given in the most tedious form possible, understandable only to narrow specialists, but not to those who pay.

Yes, it may happen that a stateless society will not fund certain fundamental mega-projects, and the Large Hadron Collider will never be built. Well, so be it; on the other hand, thousands of small projects will receive funding that would not have been allocated under a state because of it.

Bet you can’t build a Death Star on donations, huh, Elon Musk?

Of course, fundamental science will always compete for donations with art, sports, Mashinka’s nonsense, and Ancap-chan (donate here: 1A7Wu2enQNRETLXDNpQEufcbJybtM1VHZ8) – but this is a normal market process. I, too, would like to work on making donating to the channel prestigious.