Why Is Funding Needed?

Privacy-preserving software is controversial and highly technical. Many State agencies, particularly within the USA, are hostile toward the use and development of software that can protect individual privacy. Many CoinJoin services have been shut down and operators arrested under the pretense of 'money laundering'. This has had a chilling effect on the development software like CoinJoin.

At the same time, creating software that allows users to protect their privacy is highly technical, and there are State actors looking to exploit any vulnerability in the software. Working on the software requires a lot of technical knowledge, and blockchain companies are not free to fund this work due to the chilling effect mentioned above.

The Collaborative CoinJoin project is unique, in that it has been funded by the Bitcoin Cash community through a censorship-resistant fundraising method known as Flipstarter. Developers who are funded in this way are rendering a service of software development, which is an act of speech, protected in the USA under the first amendment.

The software is executed by users, on their own computer, under their own free will. There is no 'service' or third party involved, which would provide legal areas of attack. The protocol is trustless, allowing participants to coordinate without needing to know or trust one another.