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Introducing the Open Source Hardware Central BankIntroducing the Open Source Hardware Central BankPosted Mar 9, 2009 4:05 UTC (Mon) by inthebitz (guest, #57047)In reply to: Introducing the Open Source Hardware Central Bank by wtogami Parent article: Introducing the Open Source Hardware Central Bank
@wtogami - hey, it's me, matt (inthebitz) and i just saw this comment! it definitely took me a while to create an account and post here, but i tried... anyway, yes good point. right now it's just the illuminato that's getting built, and so i thought it was kind of going out on a limb asking for anyone to believe that it could work without seeing it happen or testing it out first. i was sure there was something i had forgotten, and in exchange for some folks taking a risk, i wanted to personally say that yes, it's an experiment, but at least while the amount of stuff getting built is still manageable, and while i'm "proving" or "disproving" the bank's model, i couldn't possibly have guarenteed all of the illuminato's personally (or else i just would have funded it all myself if i could have!), so andrew and justin said they'd help to, and be willing to see that no one could possibly lose out in the experimental stages. i suppose i could have just followed the traditional model and pooled just andrew, justin, and my money, but that wasn't the point :) it's a little tricky, because the goal is to try to reach an equilibrium, where no one is really "risking" nor "profiting" on the hardware built - it's just trying to reach a middle ground. anyway, it looks to have worked in isolation, so now i'd really like to see it work for a few more oshw projects... one project at a time ! :)
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Introducing the Open Source Hardware Central Bank Posted Mar 9, 2009 10:15 UTC (Mon) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501) [Link]
Sorry, I don't get it. What's in it for such a bank?
It is obviously risking money that could have been invested in a mosre profitable way - you're not guaranteed to sell all 50 units of yours (or even first 25 units) even with the reduced price.
And if people in such a bank do work, somebody is going to have to pay for it. Which means that an equilibrium is just not good enough.
Unless you're looking for some sort of charity that supports small businesses or hobbyists.
Introducing the Open Source Hardware Central Bank Posted Mar 9, 2009 11:52 UTC (Mon) by Zack (guest, #37335) [Link]
>It is obviously risking money that could have been invested in a mosre >profitable way
These days there seem to be no guarantees regarding money, even with established and renowned banks.
>- you're not guaranteed to sell all 50 units of yours (or even first 25 >units) even with the reduced price.
No, but he obviously knows how to build hardware, and probably has some sort of feel as to what is a viable idea and what isn't. In a way it would be like having your own investment advisor in the small-scale electronics market, and it's all open hardware to boot.
>And if people in such a bank do work, somebody is going to have to pay for >it. Which means that an equilibrium is just not good enough.
On a small scale it could be manageable by volunteers. On a larger scale it should be profitable enough.
>Unless you're looking for some sort of charity that supports small >businesses or hobbyists.
In the comments on the linked article kiva.org is mentioned. From what I could see at a quick glance it operates under the same principle, and seems to be sustainable.
Introducing the Open Source Hardware Central Bank Posted Mar 9, 2009 16:29 UTC (Mon) by ajross (subscriber, #4563) [Link] Sorry, I don't get it. What's in it for such a bank? It's not clear how the financials are going to work from the blog post, but one assumes that it'll simply be making a loan. If you can front the cash for X units, they'll loan you enough to increase that initial order to 2X units. With hardware, or really any manufactured item that requires tooling or configuration of an assembly process, there's a very steep slope in per-unit costs at the bottom of the range. And that's where hobbyist stuff lives. So at least in principle, this bank could with comparatively small investments reduce the overall cost of open hardware by a significant amount. Cheaper hardware means more sales, which means that the vendors will be able to repay the loans. Again, in principle. The idea seems sound (if tricky to administer) to me. I guess a lot of the details depend on what hardware they're going to be funding.
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