= Sponsor Ciro Santilli's work on OurBigBook.com
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<Ciro Santilli> is actively looking for donations and contracts so he can continue to work full time on <OurBigBook.com> sustainably, and develop free hardcore university-level <STEM> education for all ages!
For \b[300k <USD>] I will quit my job or not get a new job and work on <OurBigBook> full time for a second year to try and kickstart \b[The Higher Education Revolution]. Status: \b[~44k / 300k USD]. At \b[2M USD] I retire and work on open STEM forever.
I first quit my job 1st June 2024 to work on the project for 1 year after I reached my initial 100k goal mostly via a <sponsor/1000 Monero donation>. In this first year I improved project tech, but didn't go and solve university courses to create super targeted content, and didn't obtain a single contributing user except myself, see a summary at <Updates/OurBigBook Project Update March 2024>{full}.
For a followup, it would be an interesting experiment to spend on year full time solving as many courses as I can from a world class university in the city where I live in the UK, and adding that as content to the platform to see if that would attract interest, and reaching out directly to course takers at their university environment to try and help them. I intended to do that in year one but my got distracted by tech. It is quite possible that no one has ever done that before in history: a highly motivated technical person with the time and opportunity to do one single thing: help top university students learn their STEM courses better and have more fun doing so. I have in particular identified one course where this would be particularly feasible: the mathematics course, given that much of their course materials, and also their building are quite open. I do sometimes wonder if doing this would be just a waste of my life. But part of me tells me it could generate big interest and is worth a try.
For a second follow up year, I increased my requirement to 300k USD to give me more peace of mind. So the total donation so far is \b[244k], and if I reach a total of \b[300k USD], then I'll work on the project for a second year.
At \b[2M USD] I retire and work on open STEM projects forever. At these timelines, I can't guarantee it will be specifically on education technology specifically all the way, but I guarantee that whatever it is it will be open and extremely well explained as usual.
> It's necessary to be slightly underemployed if you are to do something significant - <James Watson>
Total donations to date \b[~244k USD]. Donation breakdown:
* 2024-03-18: \$126,352 (!!!): anonymous 1000 <Monero> donation to self-custody wallet. Further comments: <1000 Monero donation>{full}
* 2024-03-13: \$1,375: anonymous 10 <Monero> donation to self-custody wallet
* 2023-11-20: \$14.563: anonymous 100 <Monero> donation to <Binance> wallet
* 2023-09: \$810: anonymous 0.032 <Bitcoin> donation to <Coinbase> wallet
* subscriptions up to 2024-01: \$143,795
More details: <Accounting method>{full}
\b[How to give]:
* one time donations:
* \b[<cryptocurrency>]: note that Ciro is not a regular crypto user, so you might want to make a smaller test donation and confirm that it worked by <contact>[contacting] Ciro before going for colossal amounts (one can dream):
* \b[<Monero>] address: \b[4A1KK4uyLQX7EBgN7uFgUeGt6PPksi91e87xobNq7bT2j4V6LqZHKnkGJTUuCC7TjDNnKpxDd8b9DeNBpSxim8wpSczQvzf]. Secret view key: 7ccaf885ff5540b0ff18927e6ac5da30130afb1eaee09ad95d3c4536a6337e0f. This is a self-custody wallet on a <Ciro Santilli's hardware/Dell Inspiron 15 3520>["clean" dedicated Monero laptop connected the Internet]. I check for incoming transactions from my dirty main laptop via a view-only wallet each weekend. The cash out method used is latest simplest thing that wasn't yet blocked in my country on a given week, the last time that was centralized <Cryptocurrency swapper>[swappers]https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1771900725649371240{ref}. The fact that the cash out method changes weekly confirms that <Monero> privacy hadn't yet been broken by countries and that Monero is still one of the most useful cryptocurrencies: <Are cryptocurrencies useful?>{full}. For transparency, I announce all non-trivial transactions on social media, and the full list of transactions can be seen by anyone with the secret view key provided. I previously had different addresses, so pre-existing donations on older addresses will not be visible there.
* \b[<Bitcoin>] address: \b[3KRk7f2JgekF6x7QBqPHdZ3pPDuMdY3eWR]. This is a <Coinbase> wallet, <off-chain transactions> with no transaction fees accepted from other <Coinbase> users. This method has been tested, I have been able to receive funds from this address in 2023. Fees: non-fixed trading feeshttps://help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/trading-and-funding/pricing-and-fees/fees{ref} + 0% withdrawal fee on top of any Bitcoin network for on-chain transactionshttps://help.coinbase.com/en/exchange/funding/withdrawing-with-a-uk-bank-account{ref}
* \b[<Ethereum>] address: \b[0x44cF8C9C015F46d3b2Df730b6492823FD7A91044]. Test transaction recommended.
* \b[#Solana] address: \b[DjdaGawoVFdqxJEqpBGsSWuR4G4MVFNiNkAEu89HuKcE]. Test transaction recommended.
* \b[<TransferWise>] tag: https://wise.com/pay/me/cirod3[]. It shows as "<Ciro Duran Santilli>" and that's correct. No fees apparently? Love it!
* \b[<PayPal>]: https://paypal.me/cirosantilli[]. Note that <dots in Gmail address> are ignored, and it is perfectly normal if the <email> you see has some extra dots in it. Fees: 2.9% + 0.30 GBPhttps://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees#fixed-fees-donation{ref}.
* monthly subscriptions of 1<Dollar>[\$]/month or more on either:
* \b[<GitHub Sponsors>]: https://github.com/sponsors/cirosantilli[]. Fees: 0% for individuals, up to 6% for organizationshttps://docs.github.com/en/sponsors/getting-started-with-github-sponsors/about-github-sponsors{ref}
* \b[<Patreon>]: https://www.patreon.com/cirosantilli[]. Fees: 8% pro plan + 1% <PayPal> withdrawal capped at 20 USDhttps://support.patreon.com/hc/en-gb/articles/11111747095181-Creator-fees{ref}. We are waiting to reach the cap to withdraw!
Symbolic 1 dollar/month donation are extremely welcome to signal your interest! This way if a certain critical mass of sponsors is ever reached (~100?), Ciro can start to more actively asking slightly higher amounts to really try to achieve full time self sufficiency.
* larger grants/contracts from filthy rich individuals or organizations: contact Ciro as mentioned at: <contact>{full} to discuss.
Ciro is interested in contracts/voluntary work that would be compatible/synergic with the <OurBigBook.com> project. Some possibilities include:
* interacting directly with classes of university students to help them learn the class subject, while at the same time spreading the university knowledge outside of the university walls
* one-to-one mentoring of individuals of any age that are looking to make an impact in the world, and not just pass their <exams>
* fixing specific bugs in related projects Ciro has experience in. These could be either via one-off contracts, or on platforms such as:
* https://www.bountysource.com/people/25676-ciro-santilli
And if you have a different preferred payment mechanism not listed above, please <contact>[contact Ciro], and he will set it up.
Ciro's current ambitions require him to remain in developed countries, because Ciro wants to <what poor countries have to do to get richer>[document advanced science and technology] by liaising with top universities, and there is not nearly as much high technology in poor countries. Remaining in developed countries is also a required due to family reasons.
\b[Note to potential anonymous crypto donors]: for huge one off donations that would tip me over the "I quite my job" treshold, I need to ask my wife for permission to accept your donation. Anonymous donations incur a regulatory risk, and I cash out most of such donations and announce it very clearly to the Internet, the government of where I live and my bank, and for example at one point <1000 monero donation/Barclays regulation>[Barclays froze my UK account], so understandably my wife is not fond of those. So unless you are giving the "I retire amount", please don't huge "one year off" amounts anonymously. For the "I retire level"... erm, I'll take it I think? But beware that if all banks reject my money or if the government decides to take it, I will write off the anonymous donation at zero. Such anonymous donations do serve as a fun test of the financial system, but I've got a family and can't risk that much anymore.
\b[If you would like public acknowledgement for your support, Ciro will very gladly give it, just let Ciro know how you'd prefer it]. Due to <Ciro Santilli's campaign for freedom of speech in China>, many supporters have chosen to be anonymous, and that is totally fine, not everyone is interested in politics, or has a situation where going public is acceptable, so we don't have a standard setup yet, let's build it together. A acknowledgement section at the bottom of this page would be a minimum, but I for larger donations we could add a your advertisement in a locations such as:
* near the top of of the <accounts controlled by Ciro Santilli>, e.g. one of <Ciro Santilli's Twitter accounts>, https://github.com/cirosantilli or https://stackoverflow.com/users/895245
* near the top of https://cirosantilli.com
100k USD/year is a semi arbitrary amount that sounds nice. My last day job total compensation as of 2024 was about 150k USD/year.
\Video[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JOJYx0mmhg]
{title=Intro to the <OurBigBook Project>}
{height=500}
\Video[http://youtube.com/watch?v=MRhAljmHq-o]
{title=<OpenGL> GPU GLSL fragment shader real time v4l2 Linux webcam <computer vision> box blur vs <CPU>}
{height=500}
\Image[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cirosantilli/media/master/Ciro_Santilli_in_lab_coat_playing_with_pippete.jpg]
{title=<Ciro Santilli> playing with a <pipette> at the <University of Cambridge> circa 2017}
{description=
Although totally disqualified for it, Ciro would really like to understand and explain cool scientific experiments in insane detail <Ciro Santilli's Stack Overflow contributions>[much as he does with computer software], related:
* <Doing physics means calculating a number>{full}
* <When in doubt, choose the course that has the most experimental work>{full}
* <Videos of all key physics experiments>{full}
* <Oxford nanopore river bacteria>{full}
Maybe if he ever gets enough credibility, such opportunities would actually materialize. It could be a bit like <Periodic Videos>, but for <molecular biology> and <physics>, and backed by <OurBigBook> text/tree with minimal openly licensed videos. The fact that such opportunities are essentially impossible outside of the boredom of the university system is something we should really change about education.
}
{height=700}
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