A brief review of OpenSats:
This is from the public record.
2020–2022 → OpenSats says it was founded in 2020 → 2021: Ben Price listed directly as director → 2022: Ben Price listed as officer/director; Lisa Neigut as director
2023 → May: $10M #startsmall gift → $5M earmarked for Nostr → NVK + Gigi join the board → fiatjaf + NVK named in Nostr evaluation → July: first major Nostr grant wave → September: board minutes discuss “setting up LLCs for board members”
2024 → March 26: board unanimously approves LLCs as board members → May 4: another $21M #startsmall gift → another $5M earmarked for Nostr → Nostr LTS rolls out
FY2024 Form 990: → 9 voting board seats → 9 reported independent → $0 board compensation
Director entities listed:
Freedom Tech LLC BigRebase LLC Necessary Trouble LLC Full Disclosure LLC IB Cypherust LLC Orange Coin Good LLC X0F Corp Innocuous Widgets LLC Stay Humble LLC
PUBLIC ROLE OVERLAPS
Ben Price → OpenSats + The Bitcoin Company
Lisa Neigut → OpenSats + The Bitcoin Company + Base58 + Ego Death Capital
Gigi → OpenSats + The Bitcoin Company + Sovereign Engineering
Matt Odell → OpenSats + Ten31 + Bitcoin Park
NVK → OpenSats + Nostr evaluation + Coinkite
Dread → OpenSats + Education Initiative + Flash
James O’Beirne → OpenSats board + funding-candidate assessments + Bitcoin Core/NYDIG
2025 → Nostr LTS: 13 people → 12 returning → 1 new → 92.3% returning
Q1/Q2 minutes: → discuss “making Ben obsolete” through automation/distributed responsibility
September 25: → one unidentified board member auto-recuses from ALL Nostr applications → approval threshold drops to 4/8
WHO? Unknown. WHY? Unknown.
2026 → Q1: OpenSats reports 3,000+ application evaluations → James O’Beirne’s grant application discussed while he remains on board → June 24: James drops grant plan + resigns → same meeting: board votes to restructure “with natural persons” → August: NVK’s board tenure ends → September: OpenSats describes technical committees + majority board approval
UNRESOLVED
⬜ exact human behind each of the 9 director LLCs ⬜ identity/reason for blanket Nostr recusal ⬜ exact relationship behind FY2024 Form 990 “YES” family/business relationship disclosure
Just the timeline, the relationships, and the gaps.
People can decide what they think.
#FollowTheSats #FollowTheFiat #FollowTheHumans #FollowTheEntities #Nostr #OpenSats