NLnet Funds 67 Open-Source Projects: From Flow Batteries to Causal AI

NLnet announced funding for 67 open-source projects under the Next Generation Internet initiative. The grants span three funds: NGI Zero Commons Fund, NGI TALER, and NGI Fediversity. The selection covers the entire technology stack, from open hardware to user-facing applications.

Privacy-Preserving Payments and Hosting

NGI TALER is building an electronic payment system that offers privacy for payers while enforcing transparency for sellers. Six projects were selected to contribute, including:

  • Fleetbase × Taler: Low-cost, privacy-friendly payments for logistics software.
  • Taler PoS: Point-of-Sale software integration.
  • GNU Guix integration: Package management system for Taler.
  • iOS app testing: Automated UI testing and type generation for Taler's iOS app.

NGI Fediversity focuses on easy-to-use, hosted internet services with portability. Two projects were granted:

  • Nocloud: File-hosting platform.
  • Magic Nix VFS: Transparent distribution of software on-demand from cache servers, creating a "virtual Nix store" available on demand.

Hardware and Low-Level Innovation

Hardware projects include:

  • Hybrid Flow Battery: Open-source hardware for energy storage.
  • Apicula GW5A: Open-source toolchain for Gowin FPGAs, supporting the GW5A line (60k and 138k variants). This is the second most mature toolchain after Lattice.
  • Dot Product Unit (DPU): Open-source hardware IP block for vector dot-product computation across multiple numeric formats (INT8, FP8, BF16, FP16, FP32, FP64). It uses a pipelined SIMD datapath and focuses on low latency and efficient hardware reuse.
  • Einszeit: Quantum-proof encryption device using One-Time Pad cryptography with hardware-generated true random keys.
  • CflexHDL: C-based flexible hardware/software systems design.
  • Ringdove EDA: New format importers for PCB design.
  • Fazantix: All-in-one open hardware capture and streaming box, battle-tested at FOSDEM with 30 parallel tracks.

Browsers, Operating Systems, and Protocols

Browser innovation continues:

  • Servo: Improving writing modes and multimedia support.
  • Bisque: Built on top of Servo, aims to improve desktop integration.

OS and protocol work:

  • Redox: Rust-based OS with virtualised microservices.
  • Landlock: Kernel observability for the Linux sandboxing module.
  • Island: New sandboxing solution.
  • River: Non-monolithic Wayland compositor with a new window management protocol.
  • Wayland e-reader support: Adding electrophoretic display support.
  • MultiPath TCP and microTCP: Network protocol enhancements.
  • DMRSEC: Security analysis of Digital Mobile Radio (used by emergency services).

Developer Tools and Libraries

  • AtomVM: From-scratch Erlang VM implementation.
  • Funk: Compiler for hard real-time, functionally safe systems.
  • Ribbit: Compiler from Scheme to JavaScript, Assembly (x86), C, Python, Prolog, and twenty other languages.
  • Haskell GADTs: Improving support for generalized algebraic data types in Haskell.
  • pgmpy: Software for causal AI (cause-and-effect relationships).
  • Nexus: Cross-platform GPU multi-physics simulation engine.
  • QUATT: Tool for designing solid-state quantum circuits.
  • Ovolesti: Volume computation and high-dimensional sampling integration in GNU Octave.
  • Open Instrument Control: Open-source transport-level protocols for test and measurement instruments.
  • AppBundler: Easier distribution of Julia software.

Applications and Data Commons

  • Jitsi + Collabora Online: Follow-me-slideshow integration.
  • Castopod: Podcast hosting tool.
  • Posca: Communication client.
  • Dolibarr: ERP tool gaining support for modern European e-invoicing standards.
  • SCIM Python framework: Improvements for privacy-friendly login.
  • Karrot: Social software for group coordination.
  • SelfPrivacy + Tor: New self-hosting scenarios.
  • MistServer and PeerTube: Video streaming platforms.
  • OpenStreetMap: iD-tagging and iD-presets improvements, CoMaps mobile mapping tool.
  • Open Food Facts: Data commons for food products.

Conclusion

These grants are part of the NGI Zero Commons Fund, which supports free and open-source technologies that build the digital commons. All outcomes can be freely used, studied, shared, and modified. The next steps for developers: check the list of projects, contribute if interested, or apply for future calls.