I need people to stop trying to solve funding problems in the Atmosphere by trying to be attractive to the same funders and funding models that put us in this situation in the first place. Empowering individuals and communities via technology was step one. Step two is doing the same for funding.
Mar 30, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Reasonable
A straightforward funding mechanism that rewards innovators and risk-takers while remaining sensitive to the social impact of new…
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Explore the projects we're funding in the Scaling Trust opportunity space.
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Gaps in philanthropic funding for era-defining science and discovery demand a new approach. In this piece, we look at how learning from venture capital is a game changer for catalytic philanthropy.
Funding digital infrastructure
This week, a group of funders got together in Philadelphia, for the first time, to discuss software infrastructure.
Open source has a funding problem - Stack Overflow
Relying on volunteers to maintain every open source project isn't long term sustainable. Funding open source projects could keep development moving, but would that funding be raised and who would pay for it?
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We convene researchers, builders, and institutions to develop the funding mechanisms, governance systems, and coordination tools that public goods need in an age of AI.
Here's the updated "Funding Models Are Not Binary" slide from my Feature/Product/Business talk #ATmosphereConf. Turns out there are even more great examples already in the Atmosphere!
I wonder if having some kind of "atproto Foundation" would help with fundraising for the broader atmosphere? Currently there is no easy way to invest in the atmosphere so would-be funders default to bsky cc @ecosystemaction.com
Erin Kissane
Knight Foundation's kind of an exception here, tbh, and has a specific interest that's different from the VCs—and also a specific connection into the protocol. I'd love to see them send money to a slew of atmosphere projects and I wouldn't be super surprised if they did.
I wonder if having some kind of "atproto Foundation" would help with fundraising for the broader atmosphere? Currently there is no easy way to invest in the atmosphere so would-be funders default to bsky cc @ecosystemaction.com
Erin Kissane
Knight Foundation's kind of an exception here, tbh, and has a specific interest that's different from the VCs—and also a specific connection into the protocol. I'd love to see them send money to a slew of atmosphere projects and I wouldn't be super surprised if they did.
Early on in my time here I was sketching out a Bandcamp alternative hosted on the ATmosphere. The necessary affordances weren't there to make the market work (private data), but there was also not a way to get funding to build it because there is no moat or ROI. The data model is open, competition
Ted Han★ 韓聖安
I've been talking about this for months with others. SaaS products built around data moats are not a thing in the Atmosphere. The whole point is that users data should not be enclosed. This is a space that requires other types of business models.
novel funding mechanisms
funding models that doesn't depend on VC. funding models that keep things accessible and open but yet provide enough incentive for people to pay
Funding / contribution structures
Alternative org, funding, finance, contribution structures towards... improving society somewhat
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Company as a Commons
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Let's Talk Money - Interlinked
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