Just read this article, "Brock Pierce: Bitcoin Foundation 'Close To Running Out of Money'", which highlights one of the key factors of why we need the for profit company to support DNotes. It's a different kind of idea that not many would be willing to commit to, it may be hard to believe even now as we close in on our second year, the key will be to stay the course and more and more will believe and understand what we are trying to accomplish through demonstration. As Alan has mentioned many times we need to stand the test of time. We could certainly accelerate our efforts with serious investment, but the timing will be critical.

Here is a snippet from the article:

The Bitcoin Foundation will soon run out of funds, the foundation's board was told at a meeting on 20th October.

The meeting's minutes, published yesterday, show that board chairman Brock Pierce opened the event with the declaration that the Foundation is "close to running out of money".

Further disclosures during the meeting show that it is struggling to generate significant revenue. Its last event, the third instalment of its DevCore workshops series held in San Mateo, California on 16th October, earned just $2,000 in sponsorship fees.

The foundation has embarked on cost-cutting measures to staunch the flow of cash. September board meeting minutes show that it was spending "5 to 10%" of the "previous budget". The foundation was spending $150,000 a month as recently as last May, according to minutes released at the time. It was operating with a different board and staff led by then executive director Jon Matonis.

Burn rates and runway

Current foundation spending would stand at $7,500 a month, based on 5% of a $150,000 monthly budget. The foundation had a balance of $59,000, according to minutes from the July board meeting. Based on these estimates, the foundation has funds until next March.

Foundation executive director Bruce Fenton said at the October meeting:

"We need to do serious fundraising ... Revenue is key, we can't do much more to cut expenses."

The foundation currently employs two part-time staff. Fenton runs the organisation as a volunteer. The board pinned much of the expenditure on commitments made by the previous regime. This included vendor invoices, past employee expenses, paid vacation expenses and legal bills.

A new board was elected in March amid drama. Candidates complained about an overhaul of the voting system, poor voter outreach and allegations that the organisation was bankrupt.

Word of caution for anyone hoping to take advantage of arbitrage between Cryptsy and Poloniex: I've been waiting 16 hours for a BTC transfer from Cryptsy, and support is extremely slow to respond as usual.