Monetizing Open Source via the Blockchain

Max Howell, creator of Homebrew, thinks he may have cracked an old problem

[ronin]

There's a well-known xkcd which ponders the economics of Open Source:

[xkcd.com...]

Max Howell - the same guy who originally wrote the Homebrew Package Manager for macOS in 2009 - thinks he may have come out with a solution to the Open Source thankless maintenance problem, utilising the Blockchain:

The Internet is predominantly composed of open-source projects and has been since its inception. Over time, many of these projects have become foundational pieces upon which all future innovation is built. And while fortunes have been made from it, open-source is mainly created and maintained without compensation.

We believe that the entirety of modern human endeavor has been stunted by relying on the smallest percentage of the world’s engineers to choose between a salary or keeping the Internet running. Open-source is a labor of love often hindered by a lack of meaningful economic incentives resulting in genuinely worthwhile projects never reaching their potential while others suffer from security issues due to the lack of incentives to maintain software throughout its lifecycle. To fully realize our potential, we need a fair remuneration system for the open-source ecosystem that doesn’t fundamentally change how it is built or utilized.

Source [PDF]: [tea.xyz...]

Max has written an introduction to tea, here:

[medium.com...]

[engine]

It's interesting that some services rely on decades old technology as part of the back-end, or worse still as part of underlying services. I came across something the other day that goes back to the '80s.

[ronin]

Fortunately I suffer from a fairly persistent (though not extreme) variant of Not invented here syndrome, so I usually tend (wherever I can help it) not to rely on 3rd party components / libraries / frameworks etc.

[en.wikipedia.org...]

But the fact that being inclined to build your own stuff which you can:

a) understand
b) fix
c) extend

has been categorised as a syndrome reveals that this inclination might be rarer than it is common.

[ronin]

If Howell's tea initiative were to achieve traction / take off, I could see the potential for a huge spike in interest in building / developing / maintaining Open Source software.

That said, I've just come across a reddit thread discussing tea and various contributors point out (not unfairly) that

- git already provides a shareable, immutable history of changes
- torrents already allow for decentralized storage
- Patreon (etc.) already allows for author remuneration

Although the fact that all these elements are already out there doesn't mean there isn't room for compelling infrastructural evolution.

After all, MP3s were around for quite a while before iPod / iTunes.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

TEA is a bad idea for the health of the "free" internet, The moment you add a tracking, 3rd party oversight and monetary system to open-source code a can of worms is needlessly opened to abuse, possibly leading to more restrictions.

BTW - that image used under the "Nebraska Problem" heading of the article, and re-posted in the OP, is identical to one from a meme that's been circling the internet for years. The text was changed. The original was refering to web browsers needing to rely on Flash, and the image wasn't black and white in color. I wonder if Medium paid a donation to use it...

[ronin]

I wonder if Medium paid a donation to use it...

For clarification (because I can see how the order of items in the post might suggest that the picture is published on Medium) the picture is published on xkcd.

Oh... I see what you mean: it's in Howell's Medium article too. :-o

Though, in the article, the image is immediately followed by a link to the xkcd page the image is copied from.

The moment you add [...] tracking [...] to open-source code a can of worms is needlessly opened

If I understand Howell's vision correctly, no tracking is added to any open-source code.

He merely intends for a package manager to monitor where and how often code is deployed.

The tracking and recording etc. is taking place within the package manager itself, not within any open source code.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Yes, I meant Mr. Medium. While admirable, the solution brings more potential problems than it solves, for more people than it helps.

He merely intends for a package manager to monitor where and how often code is deployed.

It will need to do more than that to, you know, send the author and the token stakeholders a payment. Who holds the money in the interim? the payment data? the contact data? etc...etc... it's not well thought through at this point.

Unfortunately this is the type of data that quickly gets put to other uses in 2022. Ask paypal.

If you want to assign an actual financial value to number of code deployments, and share the money with previous token backers, expect bots to work around the clock to drive up token derivatives, too. If the tracking doesn't bother you, that should.

[phranque]

There's a well-known xkcd...

which reminds me - this xkcd contains perhaps my favorite tool tip ever.

(i.e., you haven't seen the whole punch line without mousing over the image)