I'm Ryan Brewer, a software developer in the US. The tools I develop are intended to broaden access to computation in a decentralized way.

Languages like Rust (perhaps counter-intuitively) lower the barrier to entry for software development, because machines that were limited to C++-adjacent languages due to hardware limitations can support a much higher-level language that automatically checks memory usage and other possible errors at compile-time. That is, Rust lowers the financial barrier to entry for computing.

I want to extend programming language development in this direction, helping people who are writing software for inexpensive hardware, and supporting a future with much cheaper hardware. To that end, I'm developing SaberVM, the Saber Virtual Machine. SaberVM is a carefully designed abstract machine that can be implemented on many different platforms/hardware-architectures in many different ways, and can guarantee memory safety and software reliability. It's a bit like Uxn, but with more guarantees. Programming languages need only add SaberVM as a backend to benefit, and the source code of those languages doesn't need to change at all, meaning that existing codebases in these languages can benefit. I plan to personally add SaberVM as a backend to commonly-used languages, especially functional ones, in the long run. I also want to write some languages that can really take advantage, as SaberVM won't magically make, say, Python fast enough, and that's what the Saber project is about. These will also make it easier to target SaberVM, just like how BEAM-based languages can choose to target Erlang or the BEAM itself.

With your sponsorship, I can eventually start working full-time on this project, and produce at a rapid pace. In the event SaberVM becomes quite successful, I will need to handle all the pull requests as well. The need to financially support myself and this project, and partially support my partner, means that I can only spend so much time on this per week. Help me out!