Transparency and Funding

Transparency

The Trustless Computing Association is a non-profit association within the meaning of Articles 60 et seq. of the Swiss Civil Code (“CC”). It was created on May 21st, 2021 in Geneva.

  • Founders' Meeting, of May 21st 2021 (pdf)

  • Current Statute, revised on May 9th 2024 (pdf)

  • Minutes of the General Assembly and Board Meeting of the Trustless Computing Association of May 23rd, 2023 (Available on qualified request). Includes:

    • Annual Activity Report (May 2021- May 2022)

    • Annual Activity Report (May 2023- May 2023)

    • Financial Report (May 2021- May 2022)

    • Financial Report (May 2022- May 2023)

    • Programme of Action (May 2023- May 2024)

    • Budget (May 2023- May 2024)

  • A General Assembly and Board Meeting of the Trustless Computing Association will be held on May 9th, 2024 to approve Annual Activity and Financial Report of the past year and the Programme and Budget for the next.

  • Swiss Registration: For Geneva-based associations, it is not required to register with the Chamber of Commerce, unless they perform commercial activities. Yet, we plan to register and request for "tax-exempt status" as soon as we receive our first donations. 

Funding

So far, TCA has been mostly self-funded via cash and time contributions by its founders, advisors and team members. 

Between 2015 and 2017, the association, under the name of Open Media Cluster, received about €35,000 in funding to organize editions of the Free and Safe in Cyberspace from EIT Digital Privacy and Security Action Line and ECSEL-JU, two EU governmental agencies promoting IT research for the public good.

From 2019 to 2023, it received about CHF 150,000 in funding in expenses, time and office space from its spin-off startup TRUSTLESS.AI. Such spin-off was, in turn, funded CHF 130,000 by six angel investors from Zurich, Luxembourg and Munich, and about CHF 600,000 in cash and “sweat equity” by its two cofounders Rufo Guerreschi and Alexandre Horvath. The spin-off and TCA received office space and consulting services from three accelerator programs: Hardware.co (Berlin, 2016), Fintech Fusion (Geneva, 2019), MACH37 (McLean, 2021).

In 2021, as we move the association's HQs from Rome, Italy,  to Geneva, the spin-off was turned into a "spin-in" of TCA, i.e. bound to be owned by it and its planned globally-representative participatory intergovernmental governance, in a group architecture similar in structure and intentions to that of the OpenAI. TRUSTLESS.AI was closed in October 2023.

Since March 2023, as our focus moved on the Harnessing AI Risk Initiative, we’ve been entirely self-funded via volunteer work. In late March 2024, we started raising $ 50,000 to 5 million in grant funding for the Harnessing AI Risk Initiative and Summit, as well as fees from state and non-state partners.

Management

Currently, the association is run primarily by its Executive Director Rufo Guerreschi and its Director of Fundraising Marta Jastrzębska, both working volunteer and full time. For such reasons, management is very lean and informal. As we'll receive sizable funding, we hire part-time and full-time staff and implement Finance Policy, Procurement Policy, Ethics Policy, Conflict of Interest Policy, Records Retention Policy, Gift Acceptance Policy, Whistleblower Policy, Fundraising Policy, Employee Manual. In addition, we will have detailed Reports for Donors on a Monthly and Trimonthly basis.