Do we have current forum financial records?

[BitBakerr1]

I still cant believe how much money got wasted on new forum software, and we have literally nothing to show for it.  Such a shame.

How hard would it be to use only a small part of that budget to modernize what we already have?

The forum is rich so there is still so much money let. At the current annual spending, it will take over 60 years for the forum to run out of money.

You talk like you are one of the admin in this forum.
Do you know how much the forum have right now, and do you know how much the forum spend in paying there staff or how much they spend in a year in total.

I’m wondering how you knew the money that the forum has is enough to run the forum for 60 years?
This is one of the major reasons theymos needs to be given account so people can know how much is in the forum account to avoid all this speculations.
I’m sure one day someone will say the money on the forum account will be enough to run the forum for 100 years.

[decodx]

I still cant believe how much money got wasted on new forum software, and we have literally nothing to show for it.  Such a shame.

How hard would it be to use only a small part of that budget to modernize what we already have?

The forum is rich so there is still so much money let. At the current annual spending, it will take over 60 years for the forum to run out of money.

You talk like you are one of the admin in this forum.
Do you know how much the forum have right now, and do you know how much the forum spend in paying there staff or how much they spend in a year in total.

I’m wondering how you knew the money that the forum has is enough to run the forum for 60 years?
This is one of the major reasons theymos needs to be given account so people can know how much is in the forum account to avoid all this speculations.
I’m sure one day someone will say the money on the forum account will be enough to run the forum for 100 years.

Check there.
Forum funds.

That's almost $100 million at the current market exchange rate. Even with a ridiculous budget of $1 million a year, that funding covers the next century. And that's without factoring in the inevitable Bitcoin price growth.

[BitBakerr1]

I still cant believe how much money got wasted on new forum software, and we have literally nothing to show for it.  Such a shame.

How hard would it be to use only a small part of that budget to modernize what we already have?

The forum is rich so there is still so much money let. At the current annual spending, it will take over 60 years for the forum to run out of money.

You talk like you are one of the admin in this forum.
Do you know how much the forum have right now, and do you know how much the forum spend in paying there staff or how much they spend in a year in total.

I’m wondering how you knew the money that the forum has is enough to run the forum for 60 years?
This is one of the major reasons theymos needs to be given account so people can know how much is in the forum account to avoid all this speculations.
I’m sure one day someone will say the money on the forum account will be enough to run the forum for 100 years.

Check there.
Forum funds.

That's almost $100 million at the current market exchange rate. Even with a ridiculous budget of $1 million a year, that funding covers the next century. And that's without factoring in the inevitable Bitcoin price growth.

I checked the link you provided and it’s actually the admin that posted it himself, i now believe what Odohu said.
Wow the money on forum funds is actually very big and will actually serve the forum for years to come, and for the fact we have an admin who I believe is going to manage the funds very well it’s will take many years for that money to get finished.
I love how this forum is coordinated, thanks theymos, you are doing a fantastic job.

[notocactus]

That's almost $100 million at the current market exchange rate. Even with a ridiculous budget of $1 million a year, that funding covers the next century. And that's without factoring in the inevitable Bitcoin price growth.

This is a main reason for no longer need donation for forum fund.

Years ago, when Bitcoin was in a bull run, and cost for VIP members or Donator members skyrocketed, people asked theymos to reduce the cost to smaller BTC amounts or change a payment method to stablecoins.

Theymos replied with two main points.

• It's a Bitcoin forum, so bitcoin is a main or only payment method here for forum-related payments.
• The forum no longer needs more donation.

Finally, bitcointalk.org has a large reserve of BTC, so we're able to continue operating without ad revenue for many years. It's not even necessary to cut expenses or find replacement sources of revenue anytime soon, and I currently have no solid plans to do these things. I do regard it as less than ideal to be operating at a constant loss, especially because it constraints any desired future growth in expenses. Improving this situation will be on my mind in the coming years, but luckily it need not be a high priority.

It's about ad sale suspension but years before that, theymos shared similar opinion about forum donation.
Donations for Bitcointalk.

Because we are able to operate comfortably using advertising and fee revenue along with our BTC reserves, we no longer collect donations. If you want to help the forum, please make good posts, report rule-breaking posts, and invite friends. If you want to donate BTC, donate it to a charity, or maybe even to your fellow forum members.

It's interesting

If you want to help the forum, please make good posts, report rule-breaking posts, and invite friends

[Btcdeybodi]

I think it isn't necessary to give financial records of the forum anymore since forum members are no longer making any financial contributions in order to keep the forum running as it were in the past when forum members were making donations and accountability was needed. Theymos is not the only one that is foreseeing the affairs of the forum (i think Cyrus also have same power as theymos) and if there is need for theymos to ask for financial assistance from forum members he would do that but from the information that has been revealed by some members, it seems the forum have in excess an amount that can sustain its maintenance for a very long time. Except a donation is requested in the future that is where it will be necessary to demand accounts of expenses and what is left in the forum's treasury. I trust theymos because he has been managing the affairs of the forum effectively and he will continue to do so.

[irfan_pak10]

If you are looking for these, here I compiled few back in 2020 and I think after that official bitcointalk ads were shutdown. So after that not much raised from ads or maybe from donations as well.

Total Collected from donations	3050
Total funds collected through ad auctions	6583.374133
Grand Total funds collected in BTC	9633.374133BTC

Total funds/BTC collected:    6583.374133BTC      
Total slots sold:    2600.5      
Maximum BTC/ slot:   50BTC      
Minimum BTC/ slot:   0.01BTC      
Average BTC/ slot:   2.320262653BTC      

[MarryWithBTC]

@Churchillvv, I understand that you are looking at it from the technical standpoint. I agree that being technical is an important criterium but it doesn't have as much percentage as the character of that person.
Also remember that apart from being technical, seniority is also considered. There are a lot of users to be mentioned before the likes of PG.

When you say seniority, what exactly do you mean? do you mean by age? or do you mean how long someone has spent in the forum?

The later best fits the definition of seniority (forum age)

Perhaps, we have thousands of dump ass individuals who have been around for so long yet have little knowledge on the forum generally, and when we talk of seniority in terms of ranks we also have similar people with low IQ and EQ in the legendary rank, so what do mean exactly?

No, we don't have thousands of dump ass individuals who have been around for more than a decade. We also do not have many low IQ individuals from a decade ago. Rather the new generation users are the dump ass individuals who know nothing about the forum ethics or goals, but are here to make money.

If you see an idiot whose profile says they are more than a decade here, suspect that the account changed hands. Idiots don't get committed to a project for 10 years.

Here this Youtube video game that explains the admin work better and why technicality is the major factor:

https://youtu.be/o4QE9XFY2os?si=H_JZ4GwBPUvee0hW

comment loading...

Lol... why was theymos the only one shooting and killing innocent people...why didn't he shoot at the government, rather he killed someone who said bitcoin killed his family

Any dedicated thread where this game was discussed, I saw it was for 10 years anniversary? Very fun to watch.

[AVE5]

Reminds me of this meme. I am not sure how it would turn out tbh, there should be clear rule regarding when to necro bump and when not to. Though, personally, I don't find anything wrong with op since the thread you mentioned is really old.

If it is a need of update, asking in that thread would be a better choice. It has only 2 pages, not a big thread, and it's more easily to read backwards for details of  past years and discussion too.

I understand the point you're trying to prove at notocactus in this regards because, following that view will mitigate waking up dead thread but it's also necessary to consider the relevancy of the post so that it doesn't look like the thread was just spam bumped.
Op really doesn't have to be condemned of his action of creating this new thread while referencing the old thread.
It doesn't also make sense asking the Op to update the thread because Op might probably given a long term break to the platform and we can't keep waiting for him to update before we can proceed and sometimes doesn't matter how many pages the old thread might be as well.
There should be need to revive a thread but must be when the need arise but only if Op of the thread hadn't been active.

[theymos]

Here's 2025:

Code:

Numbers in thousands of USD

Income 10

Expenses 420
    Moderators 167
    Other contractors 92
        Security bounties 10 *
    Tax 79
    Hosting 59
    Other 23

(* The largest bounty awarded in 2025 was $1500.)

I decided that one of the biggest reasons why the forum software project failed was that I'm not a skilled manager, and I didn't have enough bandwidth to properly oversee something so big. So I'm very averse to trying any other really big projects like that. I do plan on hiring people for more incremental improvements.

This is not an urgent problem, but if BTC prices stay this high long-term, then the current level of spending is excessively miserly. I plan to address this by:
 1. Seeing if I can incrementally, slowly add useful expenses, such as perhaps hiring more people. (But I definitely don't want to spend money in wasteful or stupid ways.) And/or,
 2. Considering whether some BTC should be donated to relevant 501(c)(3)s, such as Brink (as one possible example).

The top priority, of course, is ensuring that the forum can continue operating for many decades to come.

[MoparMiningLLC]

forums should not have cost that much to begin with. I stopped counting when it got over 500k

If I had paid someone 500k to do a job and it was not completed, I would be getting a refund.

just my two sats.

hiring more staff - if needed - could be beneficial

and donating to charities would be great.

[philipma1957]

Here's 2025:

Code:

Numbers in thousands of USD

Income 10

Expenses 420
    Moderators 167
    Other contractors 92
        Security bounties 10 *
    Tax 79
    Hosting 59
    Other 23

(* The largest bounty awarded in 2025 was $1500.)

I decided that one of the biggest reasons why the forum software project failed was that I'm not a skilled manager, and I didn't have enough bandwidth to properly oversee something so big. So I'm very averse to trying any other really big projects like that. I do plan on hiring people for more incremental improvements.

This is not an urgent problem, but if BTC prices stay this high long-term, then the current level of spending is excessively miserly. I plan to address this by:
 1. Seeing if I can incrementally, slowly add useful expenses, such as perhaps hiring more people. (But I definitely don't want to spend money in wasteful or stupid ways.) And/or,
 2. Considering whether some BTC should be donated to relevant 501(c)(3)s, such as Brink (as one possible example).

The top priority, of course, is ensuring that the forum can continue operating for many decades to come.

Considering the forum has 1100 plus btc is there any thought keeping some funds 10% in cash.

100 btc is over 8 million yeah tax is maybe 3 million leaving 5 million cash and still 1000 plus btc.

5 million cash at 4% government bonds is 200k income no risk.

And we still have 1000 plus coins .

If there is a drop in btc that lasts a decade the forum could tap into cash reserve.

Never needing to cash the btc

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Considering the forum has 1100 plus btc is there any thought keeping some funds 10% in cash.

100 btc is over 8 million yeah tax is maybe 3 million leaving 5 million cash and still 1000 plus btc.

5 million cash at 4% government bonds is 200k income no risk.

And we still have 1000 plus coins .

If there is a drop in btc that lasts a decade the forum could tap into cash reserve.

Never needing to cash the btc

Your idea is good as a more secure way of handling forum fund for the forum operational cost in the future. If I am the admin, I would think of doing your suggestion but unlikely now, perhaps next two more Bitcoin market cycles. Because after two more market cycles, Bitcoin price would be more considerable higher than now.

It can be more helpful in finance but there is a risk factor that is unpredictable. Will the USA government do something like the Dutch government with a very likely upcoming tax to death in Netherlands?

Cashing 100 BTC, and investing it in USA government bond can be a good choice, to avoid more tax with time and guarantee forum operations in the far future.

[hilariousandco]

2. Considering whether some BTC should be donated to relevant 501(c)(3)s, such as Brink (as one possible example).

The top priority, of course, is ensuring that the forum can continue operating for many decades to come.

What's Brink? Seems to be a lot of different charities and organisations called Brink, even some in the UK.

Considering the forum has 1100 plus btc is there any thought keeping some funds 10% in cash.

100 btc is over 8 million yeah tax is maybe 3 million leaving 5 million cash and still 1000 plus btc.

5 million cash at 4% government bonds is 200k income no risk.

And we still have 1000 plus coins .

If there is a drop in btc that lasts a decade the forum could tap into cash reserve.

Never needing to cash the btc

The forum should buy precious metals like gold and silver instead of cash, though I suppose some cash reserves would also be useful. In the UK gold/silver/platinum British issued coins are capital gains tax free. I don't know if there's anything like that in the States.

[ABCbits]

2. Considering whether some BTC should be donated to relevant 501(c)(3)s, such as Brink (as one possible example).

Would you consider OpenSats as one of possible candidate, https://opensats.org/? I never do deep/serious research about them, but it seems they donate to many kinds of developer and project.

2. Considering whether some BTC should be donated to relevant 501(c)(3)s, such as Brink (as one possible example).

The top priority, of course, is ensuring that the forum can continue operating for many decades to come.

What's Brink? Seems to be a lot of different charities and organisations called Brink, even some in the UK.

Should be this one, https://brink.dev/.

[Riginac111]

Do we have current records?

I think the people that is suppose to be asking this kind of question, is the staffs of the forum and other reputable members of the forum who has being here for awhile and also close to the forum management, what we should know is that the income forum generates is not being mismanaged, because to keep forum running smoothly is not an easy task

[SuperBitMan]

Here's 2025:

Code:

Numbers in thousands of USD

Income 10

Expenses 420
    Moderators 167
    Other contractors 92
        Security bounties 10 *
    Tax 79
    Hosting 59
    Other 23

(* The largest bounty awarded in 2025 was $1500.)

Thanks for sharing this, you are actually doing a very good job in this forum.
Ever since I came to this forum and I knew you as the forum admin, you have always been committed, and with the way you handle this forum, I most say that you are a responsive and accessible leader.
The forum is lucky to have an Admin like you.

I hope you drop this kind of financial record after the end of this year too, and continue that way in the first thread you created were you dropped something like this.

[KingsDen]

Considering the forum has 1100 plus btc is there any thought keeping some funds 10% in cash.

100 btc is over 8 million yeah tax is maybe 3 million leaving 5 million cash and still 1000 plus btc.

Moving the asset holding to regions of zero capital gain jurisdiction will reduce the $3M assumption to zero. El Salvador, Switzerland etc - this will preserve the entire 8m for treasury bills.

5 million cash at 4% government bonds is 200k income no risk.

And we still have 1000 plus coins .

If there is a drop in btc that lasts a decade the forum could tap into cash reserve.

Never needing to cash the btc

Remember that fixed-rate fiat is subject to inflationary decay. Over a decade long bear market, $5M in cash will lose significant purchasing power.

[TypoTonic]

2. Considering whether some BTC should be donated to relevant 501(c)(3)s, such as Brink (as one possible example).

Would you consider OpenSats as one of possible candidate, https://opensats.org/? I never do deep/serious research about them, but it seems they donate to many kinds of developer and project.

I would also like to suggest Tor as another possible option. They're currently having their annual fundraising campaign -- https://blog.torproject.org/tor-is-powered-by-you/
That made me remember this quote:

Obviously a little off-topic, but, I think a lot of Bitcoiners underestimate how important Tor (or something like it) was to Bitcoin's whole story (the below snip is about Satoshi):

(Though he always used Tor, as far as I can tell.)

[snipie]

The forum is not lacking people here and a competition from time to time about applications, innovation, creativity, utilities related to bitcoin mainly could be discussed under certain rules.
I am not against donation, at the opposite. I just tend to encourage people showing their skills and making something useful for their local community and the open source world.

[theymos]

is there any thought keeping some funds 10% in cash.

The problem is that almost 100% of any proceeds from selling forum BTC is capital gains. So selling some just to keep it in cash is extremely tax-inefficient, especially if a lot of forum BTC is destined to eventually be donated to charities (which is not subject to capital gains tax). I think buying a lot of USD would only be a good idea if non-discretionary spending was a lot higher, such that falling BTC prices would be more catastrophic; or maybe if the expected future return from non-BTC assets just became unbelievably attractive.

Moving the asset holding to regions of zero capital gain jurisdiction

That's not legally possible, at least not in a way that'd make financial sense.

Would you consider OpenSats as one of possible candidate, https://opensats.org/?

Yes. I haven't looked into the matter closely enough, so I don't have a strong opinion on which would be best. But a 501(c)(3) focused on Bitcoin development like that or Brink would be very good candidates. I'd also love to donate to a 501(c)(3) focused on creating a decentralized, anonymous, censorship-resistant forum, but I'm not aware of a good one working on that.

Tor is too far from the forum's mission, I think, as would be political organizations like the EFF or Coin Center.