If Blender had a patreon or coffee or kofi, I would happily subscribe to something like $3/month. I know artists that have tens of thousands of paid subscribers and their minimal plan is $3. Blender could achieve hundreds of thousands of paid subscribers eventually imo. To make things interesting, they could release prebuilt binaries of some subprojects like NPR fork, only to subscribers, also they could do partnership and paid plugin giveaways every month to subscribers. It just needs a bit of dedicated SMM work. One-time donations just don't hit the same. I do those maybe once a year or two, and don't do another one until I get the feeling "it's been a while".

start a nonprofit that hosts services, gather donations for equipment and other stuff.

what is so difficult here?

The expense of running busy servers is too much to expect of anyone. I haven't even tried to figure out how the math would work but I wonder if the ultimate solution could be more of a BitTorrent architecture where the "server" is a hive of users' computers all sharing the load? I'm a software developer but have never worked on anything in that area, but since BitTorrent works it certainly seems feasible. Comments?

I brainstormed with Chatgpt (i know evil chatgpt) and will hopefully not be banned for presenting the idea.

Alright, let’s push way past the usual and synthesize a radically creative, scalable, and totally on-brand Fediverse funding solution—one that would not only fix the “who pays?” problem, but make the network more resilient, social, and even fun. This is going to blend a bit of tech, social engineering, game theory, transparency, and maybe even a touch of “digital folklore.”

🚀 Fediverse “Co-op Cloud Commons” Model

(A new take on digital mutualism and collective intelligence funding)

The Vision:

A network-wide, federated cooperative where every user, moderator, developer, and instance is a “member-owner.” Funding, decisions, and rewards flow not just by usage, but by a mix of social trust, verified contribution, and creative cooperation—and the entire process is public, auditable, and playful.

1. The Heart: The Commons Ledger

• Every instance runs a lightweight, open-source “Commons Ledger” plugin.

• The ledger tracks:

  • Actual resource usage (server costs, moderation time, bandwidth, storage)
  • Social contributions (upvotes, moderation actions, code commits, art, bug reports, memes!)
  • Community “quests” (see below)

• Everything is published in real-time on a public dashboard across the network, viewable per instance or across the entire Fediverse.

2. Funding: The Digital Barn-Raising

• Monthly or Quarterly, the network holds a “Digital Barn-Raising”:

  • The ledger displays upcoming costs and “quests” (e.g. hardware upgrade, anti-spam tooling, new emoji set, legal help).
  • Members pledge time, skills, or cash for specific needs (e.g., “I’ll write docs for 50 users, or donate $20 toward SSDs”).
  • All contributions are voluntary, but celebrated.

• Rewards/Recognition:

  • Every participant receives public credit (“Network Steward,” “Keeper of the Memes,” “Uptime Hero”).
  • Top contributors can claim “patron” or “founder” status on profiles.
  • Unlock whimsical digital badges, custom emoji, or other perks.

3. The “Quests” Mechanism (Gamification for Good)

• Every instance can post “quests”:

  • “Translate the UI to Swahili,”
  • “Build a moderation bot for spam,”
  • “Write a 101 guide for newbies,”
  • “Memify our rules!”

• Anyone in the network can pick up a quest and earn credit (points, badges, or even a slice of the monthly prize pool if donors opt for it).

4. Liquid Funding Pools with Smart Distribution

• All donations (small or large, any payment method) go into a federated, multi-instance fund held transparently.

• Funding auto-flows to where need and contribution intersect:

  • Heavily loaded instances with high verified activity and transparent costs get proportionally more.
  • “Stewardship votes” from users direct some funds to underdog instances or critical dev projects.
  • Emergency Reserve: Smart contract or rules-based set-aside for DDoS, hacks, or sudden surges.

5. “Transparent, Playful Accountability”

• Every transaction, quest, and badge is publicly logged (think: GitHub meets Wikipedia’s edit history meets RPG scoreboard).

• Annual “Festival of the Commons”:

  • Celebrate contributions, major milestones, funniest memes, most heroic bug fixes, top upvoters.
  • Awards voted on by the whole Fediverse—make it a social event, with live dashboards and community voting.
  • Publish a beautiful, infographic-rich “State of the Commons” report for all to see.

6. Optional: “Proof-of-Play/Proof-of-Help” Sidechain

• If the network ever wants to dabble in lightweight tokens (not as a currency, but for tracking contributions), use an open, federated, non-speculative “Proof-of-Play” or “Proof-of-Help” chain:

  • Each badge, quest, or meaningful action gets an on-chain badge.
  • You can export your contribution record anywhere—for jobs, bragging rights, new instance migration.
  • Never for speculation or trade. Purely for decentralized “CVs” and anti-Sybil proof.

7. Stretch Goal: Local Node Self-Sufficiency

• When enough money, code, and resources accumulate, the Commons can “spin off” fully self-hosted nodes: pre-built, low-power, community-maintained home servers (like YunoHost, FreedomBox).
• Ship or crowdfund home Fediverse kits to communities worldwide, increasing resilience and lowering costs per user.

Summary Table: “Fediverse Co-op Cloud Commons”

Why This Would Blow the Door Off…

• Not just “who pays,” but who helps—in every form.
• Reframes money as just one kind of support.
• Turns maintenance into a culture event, not a guilt trip.
• Boosts network resilience, not just for techies, but for artists, moderators, translators, and meme-lords.
• Exports verifiable contribution records, rewarding users everywhere.
• Transparent, fun, and non-extractive—fully aligned with Fediverse and open source ideals.

Final Thoughts

• This is more than funding—it’s digital mutual aid at network scale, mixing ancient co-op traditions with the modern Fediverse.
• Implementation would require strong collaboration between instance admins, devs, and artists.
• But even launching the Ledger + Barn-Raising + Quests could change the Fediverse forever—turning the “cost problem” into a community superpower.