Open Arsenal

Where Science Infrastructure Begins.

The Shared Infrastructure Fund (SIF) is an open platform designed to enable transparent, accountable funding of physical scientific infrastructure. It focuses on supporting the real-world foundations of research and innovation, including laboratories, data centers, fabrication facilities, and specialized scientific equipment. Unlike traditional funding systems that rely on centralized institutions, SIF is built to allow distributed participation from communities, researchers, and investors who want to directly support the creation of shared infrastructure.

At its core, the platform is built around radical financial transparency and verification. Every contribution, expense, and transaction is recorded in a public ledger. The system requires a Proof-of-Expense verification process, meaning that no funds are released without supporting documentation such as invoices, vendor records, and approval checks. This ensures that all spending is traceable and auditable, reducing ambiguity and increasing trust in how infrastructure funding is used.

SIF also introduces a milestone-based funding model, where projects receive funding in stages rather than as lump sums. Each milestone—such as land acquisition, construction, equipment procurement, or operational launch—must be independently verified before additional funds are released. This structure helps ensure accountability throughout the entire lifecycle of an infrastructure project while reducing risk and improving oversight.

In addition to transparency and verification, the platform supports a shared ownership and surplus distribution system. Contributors can receive proportional participation in any surplus generated by funded infrastructure, such as facility usage fees or service revenue. Combined with governance mechanisms that allow contributor participation in decision-making, the Shared Infrastructure Fund aims to create a system where infrastructure is not only funded openly, but also governed and sustained collaboratively over time.

This specification is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+) and may be used freely with required attribution under Section 7. A Specification Branding License is available for attribution-free deployments, with fees based on usage, scope, and deployment size.