Crowd funding for innovation includes distributing a proposal with a description of a project idea, an amount of funds requested, and a time frame for raising the funds. Ownership of the project is transferred to an entity, which receives contributions from contributors and for each of the received contributions converts the contribution to a corresponding amount of virtual coin and adds the contribution to the funds. If the funding goal is complete within the time frame, the entity converts the coins to actual money and releases the money to the requestor. After completion of the project, the entity determines if the project is successful and can commercialize successful projects. For certain successful projects, the entity can also distribute funds to the contributors.