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A bit off-topic, but I really wish we had a system where we could make bets to pit public companies that develop closed source software against its FOSS alternatives.

In the example here: people would bet by either buying $100 worth of Figma shares, or they could buy $50 worth of put options and give $50 to the developers of Penpot.

Would something like that be legal or does it violate any type of trading regulations?






Don't we have that system? Post IPO you can absolutely buy puts on FIG while donating to Penpot.

(I do not recommend this)


Doing that as separate actions are of course possible. My idea is to have a system to let people do this and track the results in a single place.

But people can already buy $100 of Figma shares (upon its IPO). Why would people who want to buy Figma share use your hypothetical platform?

My idea is more about a system that can track and mediate support for the pro-FOSS than anything. For the pro-commercial side of the bet, showing ownership of the shares would be enough I guess.

it’s only illegal if you start beating the rich

I would love to be a reverse—VC


This is one of the many things where I have a good chunk of the backend code already written but couldn't find the time or urgency to work on an MVP.

Should I make a mock system, see how many people would be willing to sign up and make a pledge to their favorite projects?




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