[Cryptech Core] Diamond Key Security status update

[Karen O'Donoghue]

+1!

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 26, 2018, at 5:56 PM, Leif Johansson <leifj at sunet.se> wrote:
> 
>> On 2018-01-26 15:31, Phil Roberts wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> My only comment is: great news! This is really good news for the project
> and hopefully will help us "grow up" a bit!
> 
>    Cheers Leif
> _______________________________________________
> Core mailing list
> Core at cryptech.is
> https://lists.cryptech.is/listinfo/core