[Cryptech Core] Diamond Key Security status update

[Phil Roberts]

Hi folks,

I think you all know about what we’ve been trying to start with Diamond Key Security, but here’s a short summary.  We have set up a not-for-profit company in the United States to build a business that will sustain ongoing CrypTech development.  Technically our mission is broader than CrypTech, but in the near-term our goal is to get CrypTech onto a sustainable funding plan, expand the work that it does, and then add similar related technology projects.   

We have applied for 501(c)(3) status under the United States tax code.  It will be some time before we find out the result of that application, but our counsel is quite optimistic it will be confirmed.  Regardless of the response, we will end up as some kind of not-for-profit in the US.

The big question has been whether we would get funded.  The Internet Society funded Stuart and me in 2017 to do business development for CrypTech, to do fund-raising for Diamond Key and CrypTech, and in general to prepare to build a business to sustain CrypTech.  They have agreed to fund us for another year, with enough money to pay not only us, but also to hire a group of folks to help build the business.  So we intend to move ahead to build a product based on CrypTech and to get it into the market in this calendar year.

What are the implications for CrypTech?

1.      Diamond Key Security and CrypTech mission: we are committed to making the CrypTech project a long-term success.  To us, that means seeing commercial product offerings based on CrypTech.  We plan to offer one ourselves in 2018 but in the longer term we expect to be enabling other entities to build product based on CrypTech.  We want to see CrypTech used in many applications and deployments and we intend to facilitate that.  In our commercial product we anticipate adding both new software and new hardware to the CrypTech offering and making that available in the same way the CrypTech software and hardware is available today.  There may be some part of the offering that is particular to our product, but our intent is to make as much of it open-source as possible.

2.      Funding and fund-raising: the funding from the Internet Society is for building the business at Diamond Key.  Funding ongoing development for CrypTech is independent of that.  But, to that end, Diamond Key Security has hired a professional fund-raiser.  Many of you probably know Drew Dvorshak who handled fund-raising at the Internet Society as it related to the IETF.  We hired him to help with fund-raising for both Diamond Key Security and CrypTech.  The CrypTech development team is in good shape right now with respect to funding.  There is over 100k USD in the bank and we have commitments from funders for an additional 200k USD soon.  We are committed to continue to find funding for CrypTech development going forward.

3.      Staffing: we plan to hire additional staff as soon as possible.  This will mainly be support personnel but we will also be hiring some software and hardware developers.  If you know folks that are available, interested in CrypTech type work, and who you think would be good for this, please send them my way.  We are interested in folks outside the US as well as inside.

4.      Diamond Key Security board of directors: our board of directors is composed of 5 members.  Stuart and I are directors.  Tim Thompson is a third board member.  We asked him to help us initially as he has a lot of business experience with large network operators and although he has retired from his professional career he spends his time as a volunteer consultant helping not-for-profit companies succeed and excel at fulfilling their missions.  Olaf Kolkman will be a director appointed by the Internet Society who is funding Diamond Key Security in 2018.  We have a fifth board seat that we would like CrypTech to fill.  For the time being I have asked Lucy Lynch to take that seat as a representative for the CrypTech project.  She is retired and agreed to do it with the knowledge that we would invite the CrypTech community to appoint someone to our board right away. 

The one ask we have for the community at this point in time is to agree as a community on someone to appoint to the Board of Directors of Diamond Key Security to represent the interests of the CrypTech community on our board.

I’m happy to answer any questions or provide more information.  Just let me know.

Regards,

Phil

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