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FrogNet Open Source · Self-Forming Mesh

Sponsor the Open Source Launch

$10,000 stands between
here and open source.

The technology works. Ten nodes across Seattle, New York, and Amsterdam. 93.8% compression measured in production. A second set of hands completed the end-to-end closed-loop demo on April 17. The code opens the day the patents are filed and the Foundation is formed. This is the last barrier.

$0 raised of $10,000 0%
$1.8K
$3.6K
$5.4K
$7.5K
$10K

Every dollar moves the bar. $25 is 0.25% of the goal. Every marker unlocks a real filing. If the bar still reads $0, you can be the first to move it.

Sponsor as an individual ↓ Sponsor as an organization ↓

A letter from John Fawcett · Seattle · April 18, 2026

I am 67 years old. My wife and I live on social security. I have spent more than $500,000 and over a decade of my life building FrogNet — money I did not have, borrowed against a future that was supposed to include taking this to market. Build the technology. Prove it works. Find investors. Build a company. Pay back what I owe.

Then Anthropic announced Claude Mythos, and I could no longer in good conscience keep this proprietary. The architectural vulnerability Mythos exploits — private data sitting on infrastructure reachable from the public Internet — is precisely what FrogNet removes. If there is a window in which this matters, it is now.

I don’t know how I will pay the mortgage next month. I have been in that position more than once during this project, and I am asking for help not to save myself but to give this away properly. The barrier is $10,000: four provisional patent filings ($7,500) to prevent bad actors from patenting the core innovations, and 501(c)(6) Foundation formation ($2,500) to hold them on behalf of the community. Same structure as the Linux Foundation.

This is not tax-deductible. It will not buy you equity. It will not get you a product. What it will do is remove the one remaining barrier between a decade of work and a public release under Apache 2.0, owned by a Foundation that cannot close it again.

Whatever you can give — $10, $1,000, or the call you make to an engineering VP at your company — lands on the same bar. I read every email. I will tell you exactly where your money went. And the day the repo opens, you will be named as a Founding Supporter in the Foundation’s charter.

— John

Individual Supporters

Pick a number, or invent your own.

Each tier below is a pre-filled PayPal link. Everyone at every amount is listed as a Founding Supporter when the Foundation’s charter is written, unless you opt out.

Vote of confidence $25

Your name on the Founding Supporters list. Every $25 is 0.25% of the goal — and 0.25% is the difference between “we tried” and “we did it.”

Send $25 →
Supporter $100

Named Founding Supporter. A personal thank-you from me. Access to the pre-launch update list (one email per filing, maybe four total).

Send $100 →
Charter Supporter $500

Named Charter Supporter in the Foundation’s founding documents. A Founding Supporter digital badge for your site or LinkedIn. Early access to the repo two weeks before public launch.

Send $500 →
Fund one patent $1,800

One complete provisional filing. Named as the sponsor of that specific patent in the Foundation’s records. A call with me if you want one — or correspondence if you don’t.

Send $1,800 →

Want a different amount? Send anything to PayPal, or email me to arrange check or bank transfer.

Corporate Founding Sponsors

Put your organization on the founding wall.

The CNCF / Linux Foundation playbook: corporate founding sponsors are named in the Foundation’s charter, carry logo placement on this site and in Foundation materials, and at the Platinum level receive an invitation to the inaugural board. Every dollar lands on the same progress bar above — corporate sponsorship is not a separate pot.

Silver $500 – $2,499

Logo on the sponsor page and in the Foundation’s founding documents. Named as a Founding Silver Sponsor in perpetuity. Quarterly update briefing between launch and first public release.

$2,500 funds the entire Foundation formation.

Contact to sponsor →
Gold $2,500 – $9,999

Everything in Silver, plus prominent logo placement on the home page and Foundation page. Named as a Founding Gold Sponsor. Technical briefing with me before public launch. Invitation to join the Foundation’s technical advisory group.

$7,500 funds all four patent filings.

Contact to sponsor →
Platinum · Inaugural Board $10,000+

Everything in Gold, plus an invitation to a seat on the inaugural Foundation board — a real governance role in defining how this community runs. Premier logo placement. Named perpetually as a Platinum Founding Sponsor.

$10,000 funds the entire launch. One sponsor could end this today.

Contact to sponsor →

Board-seat invitations to corporate Platinum sponsors are real, but the Foundation is not yet formed. We will confirm the exact bylaws and seat mechanism with you before accepting funds, not after. Commitments made to Silver, Gold, or Platinum corporate sponsors before Foundation formation are documented in writing.

Milestones · where the money triggers real events

Every dollar threshold is a real filing date.

  1. $1,800 raised

    First provisional patent filed

    The single highest-priority defensive filing. Filed with the USPTO within two weeks of reaching this threshold. Targeting completion by June 30, 2026.

  2. $7,500 raised

    All four provisional patents filed

    Defensive coverage across the four highest-priority patentable inventions in the FrogNet platform. Core innovations protected from bad-actor patent filings targeting the community. Targeting completion by August 31, 2026.

  3. $10,000 raised

    501(c)(6) Foundation formed

    Articles of incorporation, bylaws, contributor license agreements, governance structure, and the legal framework for accepting contributions. The Foundation takes ownership of the four patents and, subsequently, the codebase. Targeting completion by September 30, 2026.

  4. After $10,000

    Code opens under Apache 2.0

    The entire core platform — semantic proxy, semantic daemon, BLDC-1 codec, FNW1 wire protocol, transient database, WireGuard broker, node installation scripts — published under Apache 2.0. Charter Members get repo access two weeks before public launch. Target: Q4 2026.

Dates are targets, not guarantees. If the goal isn’t met on schedule, money already received funds whichever filings it can, in priority order. Full shortfall behavior is covered in the Q&A below.

Questions you might have right now

Three honest answers — right here, not three clicks away.

Is this tax-deductible?

No. The Foundation will be 501(c)(6), not 501(c)(3) — the structure used by the Linux Foundation, CNCF, and Eclipse. That structure is appropriate for industry-coordination infrastructure, but contributions to it are not tax-deductible as charitable donations for U.S. donors. Some corporate contributions may be deductible as ordinary business expenses; ask your accountant.

What if we don’t reach $10,000?

Money already received funds whatever it can reach, in priority order: first the single most important patent at $1,800, then the next at $3,600, and so on. Any shortfall comes out of my pocket as I am able. I do not pocket unreached funds. If you’d prefer a refund because the goal wasn’t met by a specific date, PayPal supports that and I will not contest it.

Can I get a refund?

Yes, if any of the following happen: (a) the goal isn’t reached by your defined deadline, (b) you change your mind within 30 days, or (c) you believe I misrepresented what the money would fund. PayPal has a refund process; I will not contest a request. Email me and I’ll process it on my end even faster.

PayPal Sponsor now or Email me directly →
Verify before you give: Live system Architecture papers Patent list Founder background Full FAQ

Founding Members

The wall.

Every supporter who contributes before the Foundation is formed is named here and in the Foundation’s charter, in perpetuity, unless they prefer anonymity. Once the Foundation closes its founding documents, this list is fixed. You cannot become a Founding Member later.

Corporate Founding Sponsors

The first corporate sponsor at any level takes the top of this wall. Reach out.

Individual Founding Supporters

Be the first. Every name that appears here is here permanently.

Other ways to help

If you can’t give money, you can still move the bar.

Make the ask on my behalf

One email from you to the right person at your company is worth more than ten donations. The corporate sponsorship tiers exist specifically so you have something to hand them.

Run a pre-release node

Spare Raspberry Pi, a cheap VPS, a MacBook sitting idle — any of it. Join the live mesh and help harden the system before the repo opens. Email me to get onboarded.

Review the architecture

Four papers. Push back on assumptions. Save me from myself before the decisions are public. Start here.

Share the project

LinkedIn, Mastodon, HN, your group chat, your Slack, your engineering all-hands. If you have a platform and this resonates, use it.