1. Data center
The hardware that hosts everything: servers, racks, power and connectivity. It will be the base of the organization's own cloud and its main source of commercial income.
The Start
You are not funding promises: you are funding infrastructure
To start, Altepetl requires a series of vital projects that are the minimal base to gather resources and manage them publicly. This page details them, together with their legal framework and their real cost.
Infrastructure
The three vital projects
2. Payment gateway
The collection infrastructure that captures resources from outside. Every transaction passing through it will fund the Cause.
3. Blockchain + financial oracle
The public, immutable record of resources: who contributed, how much, what it was spent on, how it was distributed. The bridge between the real economy and programmed, transparent distribution.
Regulatory framework
The blockchain operates when the law allows it
Altepetl's token will be redeemable at par against pesos, which by economic substance makes it an electronic payment fund under Mexican Fintech Law. Operating it with real resources requires authorization from the CNBV as an electronic payment funds institution, a process that takes about a year.
That is why blockchain development advances, but without top priority until the authorization is obtained. The Start runs on two priority projects — data center and gateway— and, while the process concludes, commercial developments are built on that base: payments app, physical payment terminal, and the core of a point of sale. Immediately after, in the near future, come the own social networks: they require no legal authorization, run on the data center and will be the organization's communication media.
The complete legal analysis is public: Blockchain Legal Framework on GitHub (Spanish).
Structure
Two entities, one single Cause
Altepetl cannot operate as a single entity: a non-profit organization cannot sell commercial services without compromising its authorization, and a company cannot receive tax-deductible donations. The solution is two coordinated entities:
The civil association (donataria)
Captures donations, dedicates them to its mission and generates knowledge: software, architectures, protocols.
The commercial company
Takes that knowledge, productizes it and sells it: IT services, licensing, hosting. It owns the hardware.
One licenses technology to the other at market value, with royalties returning to the civil work. This architecture respects a donataria's fiscal limits (capped administration expenses) from day one.
The complete detail is public: Organizational Legal Framework on GitHub (Spanish).
Budget
The launch budget
Reference estimate with market costs in Mexico (2025–2026):
| Item | Estimated range (MXN) |
|---|---|
| Incorporation of the donataria civil association (bylaws, notary, registry) | $25,000 – $65,000 |
| Contracts and advisory between the two entities | $37,500 – $106,000 |
| Initial operation: salaries and recurring costs (6–12 months runway) | $852,000 – $4,800,000 |
| Technical infrastructure: data center hardware | $100,000 – $1,000,000+ |
| Launch scenario | Estimated total |
|---|---|
| Minimum viable | ~$1,062,000 |
| Medium | ~$2,940,000 |
| Ambitious | ~$6,100,000+ |
The largest category is not legal incorporation: it is technical infrastructure and the salaries of the team that will build it.
Order-of-magnitude figures for planning; they do not replace formal quotes. The full breakdown is in Required Initial Capital on GitHub (Spanish).
The sky opens
This is day one
All this infrastructure exists only on paper —and in these documents— until initial capital makes it real. Your donation is the difference between a plan and an organization.