Coinnect
March 24, 2026 · View on GitHub
This document establishes how Coinnect is funded, how funds are allocated, and the compensation terms for the founding maintainer. It is public, versioned, and binding on any entity that manages Coinnect funds.
Principles
- Coinnect is free for end users — always. No paywalls, no affiliate fees, no ads.
- Sustainability does not compromise neutrality. Routes are ranked by cost to the sender, not by what earns Coinnect revenue.
- Compensation is transparent and rule-bound. The maintainer's salary is public, capped, and tied to organizational revenue — not granted unilaterally.
- Funding is diversified. No single donor or institutional relationship should have undue influence over the protocol.
Revenue sources
| Source | Use |
|---|---|
| Individual donations (GitHub Sponsors, Buy Me a Coffee, crypto) | Maintainer salary + infrastructure |
| Foundation grants | Infrastructure, research, working group stipends |
| High-volume API (future) | Infrastructure + sustainability fund |
| Institutional partnerships | Protocol research only — no route ranking influence |
Coinnect does not accept:
- Revenue from providers listed in its index (no affiliate arrangements)
- VC investment or equity arrangements
- Payments in exchange for favorable route rankings
Founder / maintainer compensation
Policy
The founding maintainer (Miguel Valencia, @miguelvalenciav) is entitled to a salary for full-time development and stewardship of Coinnect. The salary is governed by these rules:
Starting salary: USD 2,500/month (USD 30,000/year)
Compensation rule: Maintainer compensation is determined quarterly, benchmarked to market rates for equivalent open-source infrastructure roles, and adjusted to project revenue. If revenue is insufficient, the unpaid portion accrues as deferred compensation to be paid when revenue allows, with no interest.
Growth rule: The target salary scales with organizational size, benchmarked against the compensation of the lead maintainer of an open-source social enterprise of equivalent budget and impact. Adjustments require a public governance decision with at least 30 days of community notice.
Inflation / cost-of-living: Salary may be adjusted annually by CPI or equivalent cost-of-living index, with no governance vote required, up to a maximum of 8% per year.
No other equity: The maintainer holds no equity, tokens, or other financial instruments tied to the project. Compensation is salary only.
Rationale
Open-source infrastructure is labor. Coinnect routes billions of dollars in potential transfers; its maintainer should be compensated accordingly — but only to the extent the organization can afford it, and only transparently. This policy follows the model of organizations like Mozilla Foundation, Wikimedia Foundation, and Signal Foundation.
Budget allocation (target)
Once Coinnect has a legal entity or fiscal sponsor:
| Category | Target allocation |
|---|---|
| Maintainer salary | determined quarterly, benchmarked to market rates |
| Infrastructure (servers, APIs, monitoring) | ≤ 15% of revenue |
| Working group stipends / contributor grants | ≤ 25% of revenue |
| Research & protocol development | ≤ 20% of revenue |
| Reserve fund (3–6 months operating) | ≥ 30% of revenue |
Accepted donations
Crypto
| Asset | Network | Address |
|---|---|---|
| ETH | Ethereum mainnet | 0xf0813041b9b017a88f28B8600E73a695E2B02e0A |
| USDC | Polygon (recommended) | 0xf0813041b9b017a88f28B8600E73a695E2B02e0A |
| BNB | BNB Smart Chain | 0xf0813041b9b017a88f28B8600E73a695E2B02e0A |
| BTC | Bitcoin | bc1q7jxdfgv6gacyx5vmmnz2nekxhptxym69ducaqz |
USDC on Polygon is preferred for small donations — fees under $0.01. ETH mainnet for larger amounts.
Why USDC over USDT? USDC is issued by Circle, subject to US regulatory oversight, with monthly audited reserves. It is more appropriate for a transparent open-source treasury.
Why not privacy coins (ZCASH, Monero)? Transparency is a core value of this organization. All treasury activity is publicly verifiable on-chain.
Fiat
- GitHub Sponsors: github.com/sponsors/miguelvalenciav
- Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/miguelvalenciav
Fiat donations fund maintainer salary first, then infrastructure.
Open data policy
Historical rate snapshots captured by Coinnect are published as open data under CC-BY 4.0:
- API:
GET /v1/snapshot/daily?date=YYYY-MM-DD - Available dates:
GET /v1/snapshot/meta
This data may be freely used for research, training, or analysis. Citation requested:
Coinnect Open Rate Data (coinnect.bot), CC-BY 4.0
Fiscal status
Coinnect is currently an unincorporated open-source social enterprise maintained by Miguel Valencia. It is seeking a fiscal sponsor (e.g., Open Source Collective, NLnet, or a dedicated legal entity) to handle formal grant management and treasury governance.
During beta, the governance and legal structure may be adjusted as the project evolves.
Until a fiscal sponsor is established, all funds are managed transparently and reported publicly.
Questions or proposals
Contact: hello@coinnect.bot
For institutional funding discussions, include "Funding proposal" in the subject line.
Last updated: March 2026 · Version 1.0 · MIT License