I saw a comment recently -- I forget where I had read it, but it was for someone who was (yet still to this day) bitching about BitcoinTalk's raising of 6,000 BTC way back in the day and how the project that the money was supposed to be for never got built as intended.

I didn't verify that amount, but there was indeed a crowdfunding done for the purpose where they would create new forum software (or do a fork and a major rewrite, whatever), with the aim of integrating bitcoin tipping, wallet services (so user A could send BTC to user B), and then extensible to accommodate modules (subs / Apps) that could be added later for things like a marketplace (e-commerce/storefront), P2P exchange trading, and such. I didn't really follow the project, or the story as it progressed, but I think it ended up where contractors were hired and work was started, but then they ran out of money long before anything useful had resulted. Or something, I don't know, don't care. It was a long, long time ago.

But seeing that yet made me think ... Stacker.news kind of does much of the core of what this newly developed forum software was supposed to do. Tipping, competitive bidding for rank/position, and with Lightning Address, SN essentially has wallet service too (i.e., I can send sats to you from my BlueWallet LN wallet, for example, by simply knowing your SN nym).

And all that got built for a lot less than 6,000 BTC, eh?