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Comment by megamark16 | Hacker News Reader

I would love to see this as a Kickstarter project. This is the kind of movement that I feel could really benefit from having a community behind it, and I for one would love to be a part of that community. Shoot, I'd even offer to donate my services to help see it become a reality.

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The fellow in the article said on Reddit that Kickstarter won't allow his project, but he's started one on an alternative site.

http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/s479x/this_inter...

http://www.indiegogo.com/calyx

I would love to see this guy succeed, but can anyone enlighten me as to why Kickstarter won't allow his project to be funded?

His pseudo-kickstart page is unlikely to generate anywhere near the amount of funding it would on the KS site. I'm wondering why they wouldn't allow it to be funded there.

Is there something dubious about this project that the typical tech blog cheerleaders are ignoring, or is there some reason this kind of project is not allowed on Kickstarter in general?

> This project’s goal is to raise funds for my nonprofit organization, Calyx Institute, which will launch a privacy-focused Internet Service Provider and mobile phone service using end-to-end encryption technology.

http://www.indiegogo.com/calyx

> A project is not open-ended. Starting a business, for example, does not qualify as a project. No charity or cause funding.

http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines

I don't really see it that way. The startup cost for a new business is a one-time, finite "project" (in my mind) that would adhere to the concept of Kickstarter well.

The problem Kickstarter has with this project (and, similarly, when I tried to do the same thing) is that it's not an "artistic" endeavor. That is to say, they don't allow small business projects, unless you plan on producing a short story or documentary about the process as you do it. (Here's an entrepreneur who used this exact loophole: http://kck.st/rtglLo)

Totally agree. Also worth a mention is the JOBS act. Though controversial, the crowdsourcing part would help Merrill's ISP start-up grow much quicker and would be, IMO, more effective than Kickstarter, since your average Joe would be investing into something that could potentially be big.

I, for one, will be keeping my eye out for this guy and will definitely invest into his idea for customer privacy.

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