Why a $10,000 FOSS Grant Still Leaves cURL’s Creator Barely Rich

cURL Overview and Technical Scope

cURL provides a library ( libcurl) and a command‑line tool for data transfer over a wide range of protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, Gopher, IMAP, Kerberos, LDAP, MQTT, POP3, RTSP, SCP, SMTP, SMB and many others. This breadth makes it a fundamental component in operating systems (Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android), game consoles (Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation 5), media players (Roku, Apple TV), IoT devices, printers, smart watches and automobiles.

As of 2022, cURL supports roughly 110 operating systems and has been compiled into 197 released versions . It implements 26 transfer protocols , has fixed 6,787 bugs , grown to about 170 k lines of code , and attracted ~2,300 contributors .

Adoption Scale

The maintainer estimates that cURL and libcurl are present on over 10 billion devices worldwide. If each device contributed just US$0.01, the implied value would be US$100 million.

Funding History

July 2022: Microsoft FOSS Foundation awarded a US$10 000 grant, paid over ten months.

2004: Swedish Internet Foundation grant for development time.

Adobe: Funding for SFTP support.

Ongoing: Donations via Open Collective with tiered sponsorship levels (Backer US$5/mo, Supporter US$25/mo, Silver US$100/mo, Gold US$500/mo, Platinum US$1 000/mo).

Based on publicly listed sponsor counts, the monthly donation income is roughly US$9,055.

Cost Structure

cURL’s expenses include infrastructure hosting, security bounty programs, conference participation, developer travel reimbursements, and hardware replacement (e.g., laptop upgrades after eight years of use).

Open‑Source Sustainability Models

Four typical pathways for open‑source projects are identified:

Small utilities that provide résumé value.

Domain‑specific libraries that become essential infrastructure (e.g., cURL, log4j, OpenSSL).

Projects that evolve into commercial products with paid support.

Foundational projects that attract corporate foundations and large‑scale backing (e.g., Linux).

The cURL case illustrates the mismatch between critical global impact and modest financial support, highlighting the need for more sustainable funding mechanisms for core internet infrastructure.