One of the world's longest-running open source software projects will live on, thanks to a Romanian bitcoin baron.
Recently, Theo de Raadt and the other engineers who oversee the OpenBSD operating system were hit with a $20,000 bill for the electricity that feeds the computers on which they test this venerable piece of software. fter they revealed that the bill could bring the project down, Mircea Popescu, the Romanian who runs the online bitcoin exchange MPEx, stepped in to save them.
It's another example of how the bitcoin community is working to boost the fortunes of the wider world of open source software. The software that drives bitcoin across a worldwide network of machines also is open source, and because this code shares new currency with those who help run it, the project has created a new class of very rich computer geeks. We call them the bitcoin nouveau riche, and many are sharing their money with their open source brethren.
OpenBSD isn't as widely used or as famous as Linux -- the open source operating system that runs vast swaths of the web and the world's smartphones -- but it has been a mainstay of computing for 20 years. It's one of several open source operating systems that grew from the Unix OS in the early 1990s, and it's always stood out thanks to its relentless -- some would say paranoid -- focus on security.
OpenBSD is used on servers, desktop PCs, and networking gear around the globe, but because anyone can license it for free, the nonprofit OpenBSD Foundation relies on donations to cover its significant costs, including the money needed to run test servers. Late last year, de Raadt, one of the project's founders, warned that its electricity bills could bring it down, and "a number of logistical reasons" prevents moving to a location that might offer cheaper space and power.
>Since Edward Snowden's revelations about National Security Agency internet surveillance, OpenBSD is more relevant than ever.
Initially, de Raadt hoped to find a single sponsor company to foot the electrical bills. When that failed, the OpenBSD Foundation's Bob Beck took to the mailing list to ask for fresh donations. "OpenBSD will shut down if we do not have the funding to keep the lights on," he warned. Since Edward Snowden's revelations about the National Security Agency's widespread internet surveillance, OpenBSD is more relevant than ever, and it would have been a shame -- and then some -- to see it shut down. Popescu swooped in with a $20,000 donation.
Popescu is a former strategic consultant and founder of the bitcoin exchange company MPEx. Although he has been described as a billionaire, he's coy about his finances. "Who knows these things? I've never made a large hole in the ground and filled it with a billion in bills," he tells WIRED. He does say that he first jumped on the bitcoin bandwagon in 2011, and that bitcoin accounts for at least part of his wealth.
MPEx uses OpenBSD, and Popescu says he likes the OS for its "clamped down, security-minded approach."
He wasn't the only one who ponied up to keep OpenBSD alive. The project received strong support from corporate donors as well. "In a nutshell, we have in one week gone from being in a dire situation to having a commitment of approximately $100,000 in donations to the foundation," Beck wrote in an email posted to the OpenBSD list.
"This combined with a large groundswell of popular support from the little guy has taken us out of dire financial problems," Beck tells WIRED. But while OpenBSD is out of the red, it still needs more money to stay afloat in the future. The foundation's goal is to raise a total of $150,000 this year. Luckily, it can call on the bitcoin nouveau riche.
