adopting a Swiss non-profit structure provides additional security, which a corporation cannot achieve. Because Proton has no venture capital investors, we can take this additional step to secure the future. Swiss foundations do not have shareholders, so Proton will no longer be dependent upon the goodwill of any particular person or group of persons. Instead, Swiss foundations and their board of trustees are legally obligated to act in accordance with the purpose for which they were established, which, in this case, is to defend Proton’s original mission.

Proton is locking itself into its original mission of privacy and a free Internet in the long-term. VCs can dump all the money they want into the project. Decisions will still be made based on core objectives, not the influence of assholes pushing more advertising.