Kivach Donations: 5 GitHub projects it has helped so far

Maybe you don’t know this, but a lot of essential software around is free and open-source. That means the code is available publicly, for anyone to collaborate. It also means that the code is mostly maintained and updated by unpaid volunteers. Most cryptocurrencies (they’re software too) work like this, indeed. To help all those volunteers and their useful work, the Obyte team has created the donation platform Kivach.

“Kivach” is originally a cascade waterfall in Karelia, Russia. Now, a “cascade” is a type of waterfall in which the current descends in a series of rock steps or stages. That’s why our donation platform Kivach took the name. By using this tool, the recipients of donations can donate a part or a total of the coins to any other open-source project(s) they want on GitHub. So, the donation can flow as a cascade across multiple repositories and collaborators.

So far, Kivach has helped numerous projects, inside and outside the cryptocurrency world. A great advantage is that the recipients don’t even need to have an Obyte wallet or know about the donation beforehand to accept it. The donors can input the GitHub repositories on Kivach.org and just donate to any project they want to. Once the recipient(s) learn about this, they can verify their identity on the Obyte Wallet through an easy attestation and receive the funds.

Coming up next, we’ll explore a bit about the most popular benefited projects on Kivach.

Zloirock / Core-js

Core-js is a modular JavaScript library unknowingly used by at least half of the entire web. Brands like Amazon, Yahoo, Microsoft, Instagram, Reddit, Twitch, Adobe, Pinterest, eBay, Netflix, PayPal, Binance, Spotify, and even Pornhub use this “small” tool on their sites. Denis Pushkarev is its creator and sole maintainer on GitHub. Some time ago he issued an announcement asking for help with this tool, since he wasn’t receiving funding at all.

Thanks to Kivach, zloirock now has a donation alternative without limits and fees. So far, this repository has received around $469 in GBYTEs from several donors. The maintainer can use these funds in the Obyte network, take the Counterstake Bridge to send it to BNB Chain, Polygon, or Ethereum; or exchange them for fiat money in any of the available markets. For now, the repository is keeping 100% of the funds.

Tiangolo / FastAPI

FastAPI is a powerful tool that computer programmers use to create something called APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). APIs are like a bridge that allows different computer programs to communicate with each other and share information. FastAPI makes it easier and faster for programmers to build these bridges. It also provides helpful features like automatically generating documentation, validating requests, and organizing data.

FastAPI was created by Sebastian Ramírez (Tiangolo) and is currently used by big brands like Microsoft, Uber, Netflix, and Cisco. However, as an open-source project, FastAPI isn’t directly funded by any specific organization or company. Through Kivach, their developers have received around $278 in GBYTEs to keep up their good work.

FreeCodeCamp

FreeCodeCamp is an online platform (available on GitHub) that offers free coding courses and resources to help people learn programming. It provides a structured curriculum covering a wide range of topics, including web development, data science, and more. FreeCodeCamp aims to make coding education accessible to everyone, regardless of their background or financial means. It also offers coding challenges and projects to practice coding skills and build real-world experience.

It's registered as a donor-supported charity, so any help is welcomed. According to them, “a $5 donation will provide 250 hours of learning to people around the world each month”. They offer several certifications, which take around 300 hours to earn for beginners. So far, this community has raised over $266 through Kivach.

Bitcoin Core

Bitcoin Core is the most popular implementation (software version) of Bitcoin (BTC). It was first released by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, who did all of this without being paid. The following maintainers and collaborators weren’t paid either for a long time until some crypto companies decided to sponsor some (if not all) of them. There are over 700 collaborators of Bitcoin Core on GitHub, and most of them are volunteers.

Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency in existence and the one that made it possible to create all that came next in crypto —including Obyte and Kivach themselves. That’s why, among other repos, we already set 5% of our cascading donations received on Kivach to the Bitcoin Core repository. This way, Bitcoin Core has received around $60, only in cascades and not direct donations.

Dhowe / AdNauseam

AdNauseam is a free browser extension designed to block and counteract online advertising. It’s available for Google Chrome, Edge, Opera, and Firefox. It works by automatically clicking on ads in the background, which confuses tracking systems and protects user privacy. It’s also considered a “guerrilla tactic” to protect individual privacy against big corporations.

AdNauseam was created by a group of developers named Daniel C. Howe (Dhowe), Helen Nissenbaum, and Mushon Zer-Aviv. It was banned by Google Chrome in 2017 for unclear reasons, but users can install it anyway through GitHub. This software is currently supported by donations only, and they have received at least $17 on Kivach. Hopefully, its visibility will improve in the future, as our online privacy is constantly under threat.

By providing a seamless way to donate without limits or fees, Kivach has helped these open-source initiatives receive financial support. This enables the developers to maintain and enhance their valuable software, benefitting users worldwide. Kivach empowers the flow of donations, contributing to the growth of these projects and safeguarding online rights for everyone.

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