We do need to work on Budget Proposals for the different facets of Bitmark. In addition, how much BTC is required to register the domain? I will contribute what I can, just let me know what the minimum requirements are.
This is an issue which is quickly having an impact on me personally. Bitmark was started with the intention of balancing my time between Bitmark, a small amount of paid work, and family life over the first year.
Bitmark has grown much quicker and faster than I anticipated and the other two are suffering badly as a consequence.
Momentum on this project feels very important to maintain.
I have discussed this in IRC and something has been proposed.
Keep the main channel of bitmark development and support under the model of unpaid work which earns value over time, things like Bitmark, Pfennig, IPM Pool, electrum client, block chain explorers and so on.
Crowd fund side projects such as 'GetMarked' which focus on adoption.
This allows me to work on bitmark full time over the first year, covers resource requirements, and caters for anybody else who wants to join the specific side project.
The crowd funding allows us to gauge whether a side project is worth doing.
Achieving the budget allows us to put full effort in to the rapid development of the specific side project.
A portion of the budget (20%) would be used to mine bitmarks and distribute them to the funders.
The side project itself would increase adoption, earn value for bitmark, and remunerate those funding by the BTM they hold.
As a practical example, 8 BTC could ensure GetMarked's success, 6 BTC would cover all of my time for a full month, allow for budget of resources, and allow to tip the people who help. The 2 BTC would generate roughly 16,000 BTM to distribute to funders.
As Bitmark grows, this approach could be used for each adoption based side project whether it is me leading it or another community member, and until such a time that the Bitmark Foundation pays for all these things with BTM directly.
I would appreciate any feedback that can be given, Bitmark progress could be far more rapid than it currently is if basic budgeting constraints were not an issue.
Some users expressed this as a worry before Bitmark began, and tried to convince me to do an IPO, even pledging large amounts to it. I refused the offer, and would do the same again. This perhaps feels more balanced, and earned.
You could use Bitcoin crowdfunding services like https://bitcoinstarter.com/ or http://coinfunder.com/browse or even both of them for that purpose
That would also attract more attention to Bitmark itself.