Question about forum finances (again :P)

[redsn0w]

Hi theymos, every year the same question  .

Can we have an update about the current forum finances?

Thanks.





PS: I don't work for any government, don't worry. I'm just curious.

[1714133053]

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[1714133053]

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[mdayonliner]

Why are you giving headache to theymos. Don't you accounting gives him headache 

[pugman]

I am damn curious too _{[not really]}, especially after the new type of "purchasable rank" aka Copper Membership has been introduced. Wonder if that helps the forum's finances or not. Also, is Slickage still being paid for the forum that's supposed to be released in, I don't know, 3018^TM?

[RocketSingh]

PS: I don't work for any government, don't worry. I'm just curious.

But, what is stopping government agents to read this thread?

[eddie13]

the new type of "purchasable rank" aka Copper Membership has been introduced. Wonder if that helps the forum's finances or not.

From what I understand the forum has plenty of money BTC and is not motivated by making more money..
The money from copper purchases helps sure, but the amount it insignificant..

The charge for copper is a speedbump for scammers, not a revenue stream scheme.. Same with evil..

[Little Mouse]

From what I understand the forum has plenty of money BTC and is not motivated by making more money..
The money from copper purchases helps sure, but the amount it insignificant..

The charge for copper is a speedbump for scammers, not a revenue stream scheme.. Same with evil..

True but this is now a part of forum's revenue. A financial manager will always count a signle cent 
BTW, it is also not a small amount. AFAIK, total amount of copper membership is more than 3k till now. 3000*0.002= 6 BTC, is not a little amount.

[Steamtyme]

Not to sounds like a dick but what right do any of us have to ask about the forum finances

Apart from say donators, investors( not sure if there ever were any. Maybe some some of the staff depending on how the forum is structured.

You would probably have a better chance if you were a government agency following proper procedures. Despite theymos's political views on government interference I have the impression he operates well within the legal requirements of the US.

[vphasitha01]

True but this is now a part of forum's revenue. A financial manager will always count a signle cent 
BTW, it is also not a small amount. AFAIK, total amount of copper membership is more than 3k till now. 3000*0.002= 6 BTC, is not a little amount.

LOL, 6BTC is not much when compared to the money receiving from the auctions every week for the advertising in the forum.

BTW they have lot of money

~

OgNasty is currently holding 500BTC ($3.843.000) for the forum in this address.
There is also an auction to advertise in the forum every couple days (~1 week), which earns the forum a few BTC per round. Last round, it was 3BTC (for 1 week of advertising)

They have money.

[eddie13]

LOL, 6BTC is not much when compared to the money receiving from the auctions every week for the advertising in the forum.

And even that is barely worth the headache..

I don't care about making money from the forum personally. (I've actually thought about getting rid of the forum ads, since it's often a big headache and the forum has enough reserves for a long time

I don't care about traffic much; I just want there to be a good forum.

[|Admiral|]

Hi theymos, every year the same question  .

Can we have an update about the current forum finances?

Thanks.





PS: I don't work for any government, don't worry. I'm just curious.

theymos, receive adequate fund that's why he is not decreasing donation amount or not creating any new donation campaign. I have read somewhere where theymos mentioned that all is going well by selling ad space. In this case, I think we do not need to give headache to theymos. And also now a days there is a good return for copper membership.

[finaleshot2016]

I'm little bit curious about it too since there are many accounts avail the subscription of being a Copper Member (even some of them are already high ranks) and many people donates for the development of the forum.

hmm you know dude, the membership here is open and we're having many benefits of staying in here so I think we shouldn't ask about the details of finances here as long as we're enjoying and experiencing the platform for infos. If there's a chance of releasing the finances and audit, It'll be another issue and most of us will question where does the funds go?   So even we're asking the same question every year, it'll remain the same. The only thing I'm sure is, the forum has a lot of funds.  

[btc-facebook]

When everything gone with transparent , it will bring the positive impact on the forum.

Not just for the admin but also all people around the forum ! 

[TasosRiv]

Guys... BTCT is not a public company... no one has any obligation to post their private earnings.
Would you go to a local café-bar and while drinking your coffee, ask them how much is their yearly income? Well if you're friends with them maybe, but otherwise that'd be totally weird.

[S_Therapist]

Guys... BTCT is not a public company.

But it's a kinda family. Indeed, every forum is a kinda family for the meta users, at least. So, family member can have curiosity.

Also, it's nothing new. OP already has mentioned it.

Here is quote from last year-

Hi theymos,

I wanted to open this public thread just to ask you if it is possible to post the current forum finances. Basically a thread/update like this : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=780707.0


Thanks for the attention.

Quoting the post of July 2016.


Hi theymos,

is still (or again) possible to know the forum finances updated to 2017 like the last time?


Thanks.

[Piggy]

Guys... BTCT is not a public company... no one has any obligation to post their private earnings.
Would you go to a local café-bar and while drinking your coffee, ask them how much is their yearly income? Well if you're friends with them maybe, but otherwise that'd be totally weird.

Is not the first time the forum publish these kind of informations as you can see

I'm behind on the accounting. 2015 is basically done, but I need to double-check it and apply the results of taxes (even when there's a net loss, there may be capital gain taxes). 2016 is still very incomplete: I've had to do half of the work in order to pay taxes, but I basically need to go through everything again to figure out forum balances. Sloppy, I know, but I've been disincentivized to spend many hours figuring it out exactly because the reserves so obviously exceed the expenses. There's currently about 1250 BTC(+BCH) in reserve.

Keep in mind that if I make an accounting mistake, almost certainly the result of this will be that I pay forum expenses out of my own pocket accidentally. The income is almost all very obvious/public, and I have to list all of the expenses that I temporarily paid out of pocket in order to be repaid from the forum income or reserves. So it's very unlikely that I would take too much money.

Here are approximate numbers.

Code:

2015:
Income: About $144,000
Expenses - Forum software project: $849,400
Expenses - Mods and others: About $104,000

2016:
Income: About $178,000
Expenses - Forum software project: $36,260
Expenses - Mods and others: About $85,000
Expenses - Hosting etc: About $27,000

2017 !!!VERY TENTATIVE!!!
Income: About $1,065,000
Expenses - Forum software project: About $159,000
Expenses - Mods and others: About $120,000
Expenses - Hosting etc: About $40,000

[markiz73]

I do not like to count other people's finances, but I will take this opportunity to ask a question.

Now on the balance of the forum 272 Bitcoin + other reserve funds
This is a very good capital.
https://www.smartbit.com.au/address/17RTTUAiiPqUTKtEggJPec8RxLMi2n9EZ9

Does the forum have a financial problem?

[vit05]

Almost 2 million in savings at the original address. Perhaps, from now on, BitcoinTalk will be able to create its own endowment and compete with traditional institutions such as Harvard and Stanford. Financing researches, researchers and courses about Bitcoin. Unfortunately, all attempts so far by Bitcoin-related organizations have failed, but at some point, one can be successful in its way of organizing its governance.

It is unbelievable how a forum with such a simple layout is capable of creating such a productive environment where so much wealth circulates and it is distributed.

[TasosRiv]

Guys... BTCT is not a public company... no one has any obligation to post their private earnings.
Would you go to a local café-bar and while drinking your coffee, ask them how much is their yearly income? Well if you're friends with them maybe, but otherwise that'd be totally weird.

Is not the first time the forum publish these kind of informations as you can see

I'm behind on the accounting. 2015 is basically done, but I need to double-check it and apply the results of taxes (even when there's a net loss, there may be capital gain taxes). 2016 is still very incomplete: I've had to do half of the work in order to pay taxes, but I basically need to go through everything again to figure out forum balances. Sloppy, I know, but I've been disincentivized to spend many hours figuring it out exactly because the reserves so obviously exceed the expenses. There's currently about 1250 BTC(+BCH) in reserve.

Keep in mind that if I make an accounting mistake, almost certainly the result of this will be that I pay forum expenses out of my own pocket accidentally. The income is almost all very obvious/public, and I have to list all of the expenses that I temporarily paid out of pocket in order to be repaid from the forum income or reserves. So it's very unlikely that I would take too much money.

Here are approximate numbers.

Code:

2015:
Income: About $144,000
Expenses - Forum software project: $849,400
Expenses - Mods and others: About $104,000

2016:
Income: About $178,000
Expenses - Forum software project: $36,260
Expenses - Mods and others: About $85,000
Expenses - Hosting etc: About $27,000

2017 !!!VERY TENTATIVE!!!
Income: About $1,065,000
Expenses - Forum software project: About $159,000
Expenses - Mods and others: About $120,000
Expenses - Hosting etc: About $40,000

Ah I see, I didn't know that! Thanks!
But I guess it's a bit early to ask for 2018, wouldn't the numbers be finalized on January 2019 the earliest?

[finaleshot2016]

Almost 2 million in savings at the original address. Perhaps, from now on, BitcoinTalk will be able to create its own endowment and compete with traditional institutions such as Harvard and Stanford. Financing researches, researchers and courses about Bitcoin. Unfortunately, all attempts so far by Bitcoin-related organizations have failed, but at some point, one can be successful in its way of organizing its governance.

Im expecting a million dollar or less and yeah i'm right, predicted. Why doesn't the BTC org creates a project where we can help people since we're lucky to have this opportunity to increase profits.

It is unbelievable how a forum with such a simple layout is capable of creating such a productive environment where so much wealth circulates and it is distributed.

A simple platform where people discuss with some issues around crypto makes a lot of money, Amazing. Imagine, there's a lot of donators existing here and givin' funds to our forum, the PPV (Pay-per-view) of the platform also becomes additional funds since many of us always visiting the site and lastly, from copper rank membership. I think 2018 will have the greatest income than last year, even the btc today was not good as in the 2017.

[theymos]

I'm not ready to post more hard numbers yet.

I think 2018 will have the greatest income than last year, even the btc today was not good as in the 2017.

No, I think that gross income will be roughly halved: the two main factors for this are my ban on ICO forum ads and a general reduction in traffic after the bubble popped (as has happened after previous bubbles). While non-ad user payments have become somewhat significant (whereas they were barely worth mentioning in 2017), keep in mind that both evil fees and copper member fees are (intentionally) tiny.

(There's no need to be concerned about this whatsoever, BTW. The forum's purpose is not to make money, there are plenty of reserves, and it would be easy to increase income if necessary.)