Iconic hackerspace Noisebridge is saved by donation of $150K bitcoin – San Francisco Chronicle

There arent many rules at Noisebridge, the pioneering 10-year-old hackerspace in San Franciscos Mission District. The first one: Be excellent to each other. The second: If you let someone in who hasnt been there before, you have to give them the tour.

There is plenty to see. Spread out over the entire third floor of its Mission Street building, the space is a playground for creative makers. Theres a woodshop stocked with tools that smells sweetly of sawdust, a mini recording studio complete with guitars and keyboards, 3D printers, a laser cutter and a ceramic kiln. All of it is open to the public and available to use by anyone, free of charge.

I think this place is sort of perfect, says Noisebridge regular John Backus. Its a creative home for lots of people.

Its also in jeopardy.

Since 2017, Noisebridge has been the subject of a complaint with the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection for converting the space into a workshop without proper permitting. Violations included installation of a ventilation system and construction of walls and bathrooms without permits. According to members of the hackerspace, they now need to install a full sprinkler system on the buildings lower floors to be in compliance. A rough estimate prices those upgrades at $150,000.

In an email provided to The Chronicle, the buildings owners wrote that they are not interested in doing the construction: The requested upgrades likely go over 150K and wont even be the last of the citys requests.

The hackerspace also didnt have the funding for the project. It would have been a little more than our entire bank account, says Noisebridge treasurer Tyler Maran. We run entirely on month-to-month donations. Were not piling up cash over here.

The only option would be to pick up and move.

Then at 8:24 a.m. Thursday morning, Maran received an email that the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken had deposited $150,000 worth of bitcoin into Noisebridges account. The only acknowledgement of the donation was a tweet from Kraken about the sprinkler requirement: Sounds like a subtle way of saying ya'll neckbeards need a shower. Anyway, we got you. @noisebridge

Within the hacker community, Noisebridge is an icon. Its been on Mission since 2009, open to anyone who rings the doorbell and walks up the rainbow-painted stairs. Theres no entry fee or membership charge, no official leadership or management running the show. Its open daily from about 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and hosts regular events from classes on 3D printing to the SF Stupid Sh*t That No One Needs and Terrible Ideas Hackathon 7 (March 28). About 1,000 people pass through the space every week and around 600 donate monthly via Patreon or a cash box affixed to the wall.

It operates according to do-ocratic principles: If you want to do something paint a mural, put up a piece of art, build yourself a wooden storage locker because the metal ones are full youre free to go ahead, provided youre accountable to anyone impacted by the change and willing to talk about it. A set of shelves for hands-off works-in-progress is tagged with signs that say Do not hack.

I started going to the space because I knew it had the equipment I wanted to use, but I stayed there because of the cool people, says Ruth Grace Wong, a Noisebridge regular whos on the board.

The vibe inside Noisebridge is really motivating, really encouraging, really inspiring, she says.

Its an iconic part of SF tech culture, Backus says. Its something that I think inspired a trend all around the world that this is how to cultivate a culture where people can be creative and do things just for the fun of it.

The space is infused with the humor and inventiveness of its community. iZac, a Futurama-inspired bartending robot with a bucket for a body, overlooks the main workspace opposite a pastel portrait of Nikola Tesla on one wall. The Flaschen Taschen, a 10-by-9-foot video display made up of 1,575 beer bottles (that people from Noisebridge actually drank) each capped with an LED, blinks out colorful patterns.

The tech industry, and the wealth it has brought to San Francisco, has both threatened and aided Noisebridge. The hackerspaces landlord has raised the rent twice over the past few years, from about $4,000 per month to $7,000 monthly, an increase Noisebridge was only able to handle thanks to a $100,000 donation from Handshake, a decentralized service for domain names with its own crytocurrency.

There have been previous scares about Noisebridges finances and future such as whether it can afford building updates or make rent. Right now, the elevator that serves the third floor is broken.

We pride ourselves on being ADA compliant, Maran says, referring to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Weve lost members of the community.

This time around, it took Maran and other members of the Noisebridge community a while to understand how much it might cost to upgrade the buildings sprinkler system and allow Noisebridge to stay in its home of 10 years. The $150,000 estimate is just that, a guess at the price tag to modify a building that the hackerspace doesnt own.

After Noisebridge reached out to its immediate community for donations, on Wednesday Backus tweeted a thread about the importance of the space and the threats to its future. Nothing I've seen better captures **pure SF hacker culture** than Noisebridge, he wrote. It's *surrounded* by companies and VC firms that brand themselves as loving the values that define Noisebridge. I wish they helped fund it.

The next day, Kraken made its transfer. CEO and co-founder Jesse Powell quote-tweeted his companys response and added his own: Thanks for calling attention to this. Hopefully, were good.

What the influx of bitcoin means for the future of Noisebridge is still up in the air, but the money opens up options.

It was kind of a lost cause at first because we didnt have that kind of cash, Maran says. Were going to have to start talking to the landlord about it; were going to go to our upcoming hearing with the building department. Its a lot of work weve got to do now, if that means that we can stay, or if it means that we use that money to support us moving to another space.

Already Maran and others have been looking into the latter, touring spaces designed and permitted to house the kind of work that happens within Noisebridges mural-covered walls.

Weve always been searching for a forever home, Maran says.

Leaving the Mission building, if thats what the community decides to do, will be bittersweet. The layers of paint and posters and clever signage and circuit-board chandeliers that cover the walls and hang from the ceiling form a physical history of a place that means a lot to a lot of people.

Itll be really sad. Well have to have a party, says regular and board member Wong. Theres really a lot of beautiful murals there that well have to leave behind, but coming to a new space with a lot of blank walls, thats also really beautiful.

Sarah Feldberg is San Francisco Chronicle Culture Desk editor. Email: sarah.feldberg@sfchronicle.com

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Iconic hackerspace Noisebridge is saved by donation of $150K bitcoin - San Francisco Chronicle