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Funding Software Development Through Bonds

Posted by Hemos on from the i'd-like-a-derivative-on-task-kde dept.

TwP writes "There is a rather long but very interesting paper posted on First Monday that describes a software completion bond market. The bond market would be used by programmers to generate revenue for software projects, open source or otherwise. It would also help to identify potential users of the software package - those who invest in the bonds would most likely be those to use the developed software."

1 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. This is not the bond market by bluGill · · Score: 5

    This financing through bonds has little if anyone to do with the bond market as you would find on Wall Street.

    A normal bond would be where I give you $1000, and every year you send me $50 interest. At the end of 10 years you send me $1050. (The orgional $1000 + $50 interest) Interest rates change of course, trust worthy companies with little dept pay less interest, while untrustworth companies with a lot of dept pay high interest. You get the idea though, basicaly a bond is a loan.

    These bonds are an agreement, I put up $1000 (with a trusted third party), payable to anyone who provides certian software functionality. The third party, upon reciving a program with that functionality would pay the programers. The bonds avaibale would be known so programers could decide what to work on.

    I'm not sure if it is a good or workable idea, but it is an idea.