Merge pull request 'add-finances-article' (#7) from add-finances-article into main
Reviewed-on: #7
This commit is contained in:
commit
0b0c57de5c
4 changed files with 304 additions and 2 deletions
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@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ $ git clone git@git.robur.coop:robur/blog.robur.coop
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$ cd blog.robur.coop/
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$ opam pin add -yn .
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$ opam install --deps-only blogger
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$ dune exec src/watch.exe --
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$ dune exec bin/watch.exe --
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```
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A little server run on `http://localhost:8000`.
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302
articles/finances.md
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302
articles/finances.md
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@ -0,0 +1,302 @@
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---
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date: 2024-10-21
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title: How has robur financially been doing since 2018?
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description: How we organise as a collective, and why we're doing that.
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tags:
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- finances
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- cooperative
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author:
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name: Hannes Mehnert
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email: hannes@mehnert.org
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link: https://hannes.robur.coop
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---
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Since the beginning, robur has been working on MirageOS unikernels and getting
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them deployed. Due to our experience in hierarchical companies, we wanted to
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create something different - a workplace without bosses and management. Instead,
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we are a collective where everybody has a say on what we do, and who gets how
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much money at the end of the month. This means nobody has to write report and
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meet any goals - there's no KPI involved. We strive to be a bunch of people
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working together nicely and projects that we own and want to bring forward. If
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we discover lack of funding, we reach out to (potential) customers to fill our
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cash register. Or reach out to people to donate money.
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Since our mission is fulfilling and already complex - organising ourselves in a
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hierarchy-free environment, including the payment, and work on software in a
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niche market - we decided from the early days that bookeeping and invoicing
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should not be part of our collective. Especially since we want to be free in
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what kind of funding we accept - donations, commercial contracts, public
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funding. In the books, robur is part of the non-profit company
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[Änderwerk](https://aenderwerk.de) in Germany - and friends of ours run that
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company. They get a cut on each income we generate.
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To be inclusive and enable everyone to participate in decisions, we are 100%
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transparent in our books - every collective member has access to the financial
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spreadsheets, contracts, etc. We use a needs-based payment model, so we talk
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about the needs everyone has on a regular basis and adjust the salary, everyone
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agreeing to all the numbers.
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## 2018
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We started operations in 2018. In late 2017, we got donations (in the form of
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bitcoins) by friends who were convinced of our mission. This was 54,194.91 €.
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So, in 2018 we started with that money, and tried to find a mission, and
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generate income to sustain our salaries.
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Also, already in 2017, we applied for funding from
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[Prototypefund](https://prototypefund.de) on a [CalDAV server](https://prototypefund.de/project/robur-io/),
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and we received the grant in early 2018. This was another 48,500 €, paid to
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individuals (due to reasons, Prototype fund can't cash out to the non-profit -
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this put us into some struggle, since we needed some double bookkeeping and
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individuals had to dig into health care etc.).
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We also did in the second half of 2018 a security audit for
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[Least Authority](https://leastauthority.com/blog/audits/five-security-audits-for-the-tezos-foundation/)
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(invoicing 19,600 €).
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And later in 2018 we started on what is now called NetHSM with an initial
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design workshop (5,000 €).
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And lastly, we started to work on a grant to implement [TLS 1.3](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8446),
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funded by Jane Street (via OCaml Labs Consulting). In 2018, we received 12,741.71 €
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We applied at NLNet for improving the QubesOS firewall developed in MirageOS
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(without success), tried to get the IT security prize in Germany (without
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success), and to DIAL OSC (without success).
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| Project | Amount |
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|-----------------|----------:|
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| Donation | 54,194.91 |
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| Prototypefund | 48,500.00 |
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| Least Authority | 19,600.00 |
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| TLS 1.3 | 12,741.71 |
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| Nitrokey | 5,000.00 |
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| __Total__ | __140,036.62__ |
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## 2019
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We were keen to finish the CalDAV implementation (and start a CardDAV
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implementation), and received some financial support from Tarides for it
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(15,000 €).
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The TLS 1.3 work continued, we got in total 68,887.53 €.
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We also applied to (and got funding from) Prototypefund, once with an [OpenVPN-compatible
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MirageOS unikernel](https://prototypefund.de/en/project/robust-openvpn-client-with-low-use-of-resources/),
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and once with [improving the QubesOS firewall developed as MirageOS unikernel](https://prototypefund.de/project/portable-firewall-fuer-qubesos/).
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This means again twice 48,500 €.
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We also started the implementation work of NetHSM - which still included a lot
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of design work - in total the contract was over 82,500 €. In 2019, we invoiced
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Nitrokey in 2019 in total 40,500 €.
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We also received a total of 516.48 € as donations from source unknown to us.
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We also applied to NLnet with [DNSvizor](https://nlnet.nl/project/Robur/), and
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got a grant, but due to buerocratic reasons they couldn't transfer the money to
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our non-profit (which was involved with NLnet in some EU grants), and we didn't
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get any money in the end.
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| Project | Amount |
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|----------|----------:|
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| CardDAV | 15,000.00 |
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| TLS 1.3 | 68,887.53 |
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| OpenVPN | 48,500.00 |
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| QubesOS | 48,500.00 |
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| Donation | 516.48 |
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| Nitrokey | 40,500.00 |
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| __Total__ | __221,904.01__ |
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## 2020
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In 2020, we agreed with OCaml Labs Consulting to work on maintenance of OCaml
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packages in the MirageOS ecosystem. This was a contract where at the end of the
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month, we reported on which PRs and issues we spent how much time. For us, this
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was great to have the freedom to work on which OCaml packages we were keen to
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get up to speed. In 2020, we received 45,000 € for this maintenance.
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We finished the TLS 1.3 work (18,659.01 €)
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We continued to work on the NetHSM project, and invoiced 55,500 €.
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We received a total of 255 € in donations from sources unknown to us.
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We applied at reset.tech again with DNSvizor, unfortunately without success.
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We also applied at [NGI pointer](https://pointer.ngi.eu) to work on reproducible
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builds for MirageOS, and a web frontend. Here we got the grant of 200,000 €,
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which we worked on in 2021 and 2022.
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| Project | Amount |
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|-----------|----------:|
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| OCLC | 45,000.00 |
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| TLS 1.3 | 18,659.01 |
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| Nitrokey | 55,500.00 |
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| Donations | 255.00 |
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| __Total__ | __119,414.01__ |
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## 2021
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As outlined, we worked on reproducible builds of unikernels - rethinking the way
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how a unikernel is configured: no more compiled-in secrets, but instead using
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boot parameters. We setup the infrastructure for doing daily reproducible
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builds, serving system packages via a package repository, and a
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[web frontend](https://builds.robur.coop) hosting the reproducible builds.
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We received in total 120,000 € from NGI Pointer in 2021.
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Our work on NetHSM continued, including the introduction of elliptic curves
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in mirage-crypto (using [fiat](https://github.com/mit-plv/fiat-crypto/)). The
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invoices to Nitrokey summed up to 26,000 € in 2021.
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We developed in a short timeframe two packages, [u2f](https://github.com/robur-coop/u2f)
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and later [webauthn](https://git.robur.coop/robur/webauthn) for Skolem Labs based
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on [gift economy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy). This resulted in
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donations of 18,976 €.
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We agreed with [OCSF](https://ocaml-sf.org/) to work on
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[conex](https://github.com/hannesm/conex), which we have not delivered yet
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(lots of other things had to be cleared first: we did a security review of opam
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(leading to [a security advisory](https://opam.ocaml.org/blog/opam-2-1-5-local-cache/)),
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we got rid of [`extra-files`](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-opam-repository-policy-change-checksums-no-md5-and-no-extra-files)
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in the opam-repository, and we [removed the weak hash md5](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-opam-repository-policy-change-checksums-no-md5-and-no-extra-files)
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from the opam-repository.
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| Customer | Amount |
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|-------------|----------:|
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| NGI Pointer | 120,000.00 |
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| Nitrokey | 26,000.00 |
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| Skolem | 18,976.00 |
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| __Total__ | __164,976.00__ |
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## 2022
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We finished our NGI pointer project, and received another 80,000 €.
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We also did some minor maintenance for Nitrokey, and invoiced 4,500 €.
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For Tarides, we started another maintaining MirageOS packages (and continuing
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[our TCP/IP stack](https://github.com/robur-coop/utcp)), and invoiced in
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total 22,500 €.
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A grant application for [bob](https://github.com/dinosaure/bob/) was rejected,
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but a grant application for [MirageVPN](https://github.com/robur-coop/miragevpn)
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got accepted. Both at NLnet within the EU NGI project.
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| Project | Amount |
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|-------------|---------:|
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| NGI Pointer | 80,000.00 |
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| Nitrokey | 4,500.00 |
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| Tarides | 22,500.00 |
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| __Total__ | __107,000.00__ |
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## 2023
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We finished the NetHSM project, and had a final invoice over 2,500 €.
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We started a collaboration for [semgrep](https://semgrep.dev), porting some of
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their Python code to OCaml. We received in total 37,500 €.
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We continued the MirageOS opam package maintenance and invoiced in total
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89,250 € to Tarides.
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A grant application on [MirageVPN](https://nlnet.nl/project/MirageVPN/) got
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accepted (NGI Assure), and we received in total 12,000 € for our work on it.
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This is a continuation of our 2019 work funded by Prototypefund.
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We also wrote various funding applications, including one for
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[DNSvizor](https://github.com/robur-coop/dnsvizor) that was
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[accepted](https://nlnet.nl/project/DNSvizor/) (NGI0 Entrust).
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| Customer | Amount |
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|-----------|---------:|
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| Nitrokey | 2,500.00 |
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| semgrep | 37,500.00 |
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| Tarides | 89,250.00 |
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| MirageVPN | 12,000.00 |
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| __Total__ | __141,250.00__ |
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## 2024
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We're still in the middle of it, but so far we continued the Tarides maintenance
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contract (54,937.50 €).
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We also finished the MirageVPN work, and received another 45,000 €.
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We had a contract with Semgrep again on porting Python code to OCaml and received 18,559.40 €.
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We again worked on several successful funding applications, one on
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[PTT](https://nlnet.nl/project/PTT/) (NGI Zero Core), a continuation of the
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[NGI DAPSI](https://www.ngi.eu/funded_solution/ngi-dapsiproject-24/) project -
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now realizing mailing lists with our SMTP stack.
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We also got [MTE](https://nlnet.nl/project/MTE/) (NGI Taler) accepted.
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The below table is until end of September 2024.
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| Project | Amount |
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|-----------|----------:|
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| Semgrep | 18,559.40 |
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| Tarides | 62,812.50 |
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| MirageVPN | 45,000.00 |
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| __Total__ | __126,371.90__ |
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## Total
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In a single table, here's our income since robur started.
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| Year | Amount |
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|-------|-----------:|
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| 2018 | 140,036.62 |
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| 2019 | 221,904.01 |
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| 2020 | 119,414.01 |
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| 2021 | 164,976.00 |
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| 2022 | 107,000.00 |
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| 2023 | 141,250.00 |
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| 2024 | 126,371.90 |
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| __Total__ | __1,020,952.54__ |
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As you can spot, it varies quite a bit. In some years we have fewer money
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available than in other years.
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## Expenses
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As mentioned, the non-profit company [Änderwerk](https://aenderwerk.de) running
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the bookkeeping and legal stuff (invoices, tax statements, contracts, etc.) gets
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a cut on each income we produce. They are doing amazing work and are very
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quick responding to our queries.
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We spend most of our income on salary. Some money we spend on travel. We also
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pay monthly for our server (plus some extra for hardware, and in June 2024 a
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huge amount for trying to recover data from failed SSDs).
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## Conclusion
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We have provided an overview of our income, we were three to five people working
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at robur over the entire time. As written at the beginning, we use needs-based
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payment. Our experience with this is great! It provides a lot of trust into each
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other.
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Our funding is diverse from multiple sources - donations, commercial work,
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public funding. This was our initial goal, and we're very happy that it works
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fine over the last five years.
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Taking the numbers into account, we are not paying ourselves "industry standard"
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rates - but we really love what we do - and sometimes we just take some time off.
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We do work on various projects that we really really enjoy - but where (at the
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moment) no funding is available for.
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We are always happy to discuss how our collective operates. If you're
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interested, please drop us a message.
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Of course, if we receive donations, we use them wisely - mainly for working on
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the currently not funded projects (bob, albatross, miou, mollymawk - to name a few). If you
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can spare a dime or two, don't hesitate to [donate](https://robur.coop/Donate).
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Donations are tax-deductable in Germany (and should be in Europe) since we're a
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registered non-profit.
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If you're interested in MirageOS and using it in your domain, don't hesitate
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to reach out to us (via eMail: team@robur.coop) so we can start to chat - we're keen to deploy MirageOS
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and find more domains where it is useful.
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@ -93,6 +93,6 @@ As a spoiler, for P-256 sign there's another improvement of around 4.5 with [Vir
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Remove all cstruct, everywhere, apart from in mirage-block-xen and mirage-net-xen ;). It was a fine decision in the early MirageOS days, but from a performance point of view, and for making our packages more broadly usable without many dependencies, it is time to remove cstruct. Earlier this year we already [removed cstruct from ocaml-tar](https://github.com/mirage/ocaml-tar/pull/137) for similar reasons.
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Our MirageOS work is only partially funded, we cross-fund our work by commercial contracts and public (EU) funding. We are part of a non-profit company, you can make a (tax-deducable - at least in the EU) [donation](https://aenderwerk.de/donate/) (select "DONATION robur" in the dropdown menu).
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Our MirageOS work is only partially funded, we cross-fund our work by commercial contracts and public (EU) funding. We are part of a non-profit company, you can make a (tax-deductable - at least in the EU) [donation](https://aenderwerk.de/donate/) (select "DONATION robur" in the dropdown menu).
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We're keen to get MirageOS deployed in production - if you would like to do that, don't hesitate to reach out to us via eMail team at robur.coop
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