This week, an old topic resurfaced in the Monero community. The story around 867 XMR linked to the project’s early days.
❗️If you're not sure what this is about, we recommend reading the article (Feb 24–Mar 02) on our blog
📅 The situation goes back to 2014–2015, when Monero was just getting off the ground. There was no structured funding, no steady donations, and basically no formal organization. Everything was running on pure enthusiasm from early contributors.
As the discussion picked up again, Riccardo Spagni (Fluffypony) gave a clear response, and it was pretty straightforward.
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According to him, back then many of the project’s expenses were covered personally by core contributors. Servers, infrastructure, basic operational costs, all paid out of pocket because there simply wasn’t any other option.
🤔 He also mentioned that these expenses were tracked in a spreadsheet, with the expectation that one day they might be reimbursed.
So his position is essentially this:
these funds are not “missing”, they’re a return of money that was originally put into the project during its earliest phase.
As expected, the community reaction is mixed.
👥 Some people see it as fair, without those early contributions, Monero might not have survived.
Others question whether it’s appropriate to treat these funds as reimbursement years later, especially when they’re perceived as community funds.
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