Slashdot Mirror


Romanian Bitcoin Entrepreneur Steps In To Pay OpenBSD Shortfall

New submitter MrBingoBoingo writes "Recently it was announced here on Slashdot that OpenBSD was facing an impending shortfall that jeopardized its continued existence. A sponsorship to save OpenBSD has been announced, and it wasn't one of the usual culprits that saved OpenBSD, but a Romanian Bitcoin billionaire."

15 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Perhaps... by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's still better than someone who gave nothing but cheap hot air.

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  2. Hmmmm by cold+fjord · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Interesting....

    I hope it works out for OpenBSD, but the proof is in the pudding.... or the check clearing.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  3. Re:Perhaps... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cheap hot air is actually great if you have a gas turbine and a generator and can sell the resulting electricity.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  4. Re:Perhaps... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How is this modded +2?

    Coinbase.com makes it trivially easy. For people who are willing to put in some legwork, there's localbitcoins.com

    I haven't tried bitpay.com but I understand that it works just as well as coinbase. Stop spreading FUD and educate yourself.

  5. Re:Mircea Popescu is a criminal... nothing more by Immerman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Assume everything you say is true, it seems to me there are two outcomes possible:
    (1) Donation accepted:
    criminal has less money
    OpenBSD safe for another year (or whatever)
    (2) Donation refused:
    criminal has more money to perpetuate further crimes
    OpenBSD remains in danger of shutting down

    In what universe is (2) a better outcome?

    Now if Popescu is attempting to buy considerations that might change things, but being a criminal doesn't automatically mean you can't be an honest philanthropist, just look at Bill Gates. (Okay, so maybe not the worlds best possible example of honest philanthropy, but still)

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  6. Re:Mircea Popescu is a criminal... nothing more by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 4, Funny

    Perhaps Obama could chip in some of the bitcoin seized from Silk Road to keep OpenBSD afloat. :)

  7. Serious Questions about OpenBSD infrastructure by hackus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That sort of an electrical bill is a crap explanation in my opinion to support the development and deployment of OpenBSD developers and users.

    Poor management is more likely the explanation.

    I mean, for example to not watch the cash flow, and all of a sudden require a huge cash intake is something I don't understand.

    This sort of problem should have been apparent YEARS AGO, anyone managing the infrastructure could have seen coming and there should have been PLENTY of time to correct the issue.

    Am I missing something here people if so please do explain.

    -Hack

    --
    Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
    1. Re:Serious Questions about OpenBSD infrastructure by MrBingoBoingo · · Score: 4, Informative

      This electricity bill was explained last Slashdot post. OpenBSD builds for VAX. OpenBSD builds for 68K. I for one am happy someone builds modern software to let the Vaxen run.

    2. Re:Serious Questions about OpenBSD infrastructure by Pinhedd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's purely poor management. From what I understand, the build servers are absolutely archaic beasts that had they been replaced long ago would not have led to such astronomically high bills. It also doesn't help that they seem to be located in Theo de Raadt's basement.

  8. Re:Perhaps... by r.freeman · · Score: 3, Informative

    Daily 12.000.000 usd worth of bitcoin is converted on biggest exchange ( http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/btceUSD.html ) Converting 20.000 usd is triviall.

  9. Re: lol @ Romanian "btc billionaire" by Moridineas · · Score: 5, Informative

    Romanian != Roma.

    Romania is a country whose inhabitants are called, in English, Romanians. The name of the country (and therefore the people) comes from Rome. The Roman Empire. THAT Rome. Romanian--like French, Spanish, and Italian--is a romance language descended directly from Latin. Some even argue that it's the Romance language that today most closely resembles Latin!

    Roma, on the other hand, is a name for a minority population of people that most probably emigrated from South Asia over a thousand years ago. AKA gypsies. The word Roma comes from some Roma dialect and has no connection to Romania or Roman other than as homonyms. Good example of a false congate--they sound alike, but there is no connection.

    Admittedly, the conflation is a common mistake to make, especially since there is a very large (comparatively speaking) Roma population in Romania.

  10. Re:Perhaps... by pantaril · · Score: 4, Informative

    This assumes that 20,000$ worth of bitcoins can be converted to real money.

    This assumption is correct.

  11. Re:Perhaps... by pantaril · · Score: 4, Informative

    The point is, there are no BUYERS. It will not happen. No one is going to pay $20k of REAL money for bitcoins.

    I don't know WTF are you talking about but converting bitcoins to 20k USD is non-issue on most existing exchanges like coinbase, bitstamp, mtgox or btc-e. Just go and see their daily trade volume.

  12. Re:Perhaps... by gox · · Score: 3, Informative

    OpenBSD already accepts Bitcoin donations:

    http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/donations.html

    Just sent 50 CAD worth, easy peasy. They get converted on the fly to the local currency by BitPay.

    Are you from 2010?

  13. Re:Mircea Popescu is a criminal... nothing more by Luthair · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have no idea who any of these posters are but the PR person's posts certainly have all the hallmarks of a scammer.