The Economics of Open Source
JA: オープンソースの経済性
Hello, this is Aggre.
The Dev Protocol is a decentralized protocol that brings economics to an open asset that has lacked economic valuation.
There are many open and shareable assets outside of open source, such as open access and creative commons, and the Dev Protocol be able to support them as add-ons. Open source, open access, creative commons share many philosophies. I’m only referring to open source here, but it should also apply to all open and shareable assets.
An infinite number of people are using open source. If you erase open source from history, if you delete the idea of co-creation, it’s hard even to imagine what’s left.
But on the other hand, the sustainability of open source is also in issue.
83% of the projects have come to a virtual end after less than a year (*1), and 54% of the prominent projects are earning only below the poverty threshold (*2).
Almost everything is an unpaid activity because open source is open and, therefore, not be able to pricing. You may be able to rely on donations, or if you’re lucky, you may be able to generate sales through some kind of business. However, from my experience, more than 99% of open source does not have the characteristics to be commercialized.
While open source has proven that “being open” is the best way to accelerate growth, provide sound options, and autonomously correct misdirection, sustainability has yet to find an answer.
Is an open-source fund workable?
When someone starts a new challenge — like one that won’t get profit for a while, but has a high potential impact and eventually get significant returns — a fund has the role of supporting the project by injecting risk money at the beginning.
The existence of a fund to invest therein in a category means clear evidence of the acknowledged that economic of the category.
Now, I’ll search to see if there are any open-source funds…..
There are a lot of grants and foundations. I also find news that companies have donated large sums of money. I can also find some investment in businesses that are handled by open source.
But you won’t find a fund that invests in the open-source itself.
The economic efficiency in which possible to exists the fund is more important than the fund itself.
If an open-source be able to economically viable, it changes the whole premise of the sustainability issue.
Fewer projects get died due to busyness, and full-time open source developers as a way of working become the norm.
Big projects that used to require the backing of a company, now come up from individuals and small autonomous organizations as well.
As a result, funds that invest in an open source may also emerge.
How?
We’ve been thinking about this issue for a long time because fundamentally open source doesn’t generate revenue.
The Dev Protocol is one conclusion.
Simply put, the Dev Protocol makes finance, which approximates that of an existing company, available in open source as well. Open-source developers can mint new tokens “DEV.” Supporters can reduce the distribution amount by staking (locking up) the DEV and the ability to mitigate future inflation rates. Supporters pay the risk of temporarily being unable to handle the DEV through staking, but expect some reward from the open-source developer in exchange. Supporters also receive a portion of the DEV earned by the open-source developer in exchange for staking. This works like pseudo-interest; the Dev Protocol behaves decentralized to generate income gains and capital gains by open source.
In other words, it’s a new protocol that allows for “contribution as an investment” through staking, not donations.
For more information, see the whitepaper and policy proposals.
The Dev Protocol be able to support other open and shareable assets as well as open-source. This is because it has room for users to expand with add-ons.
The Dev Protocol still has its challenges, and some people are asking, “Is Dev Protocol a DeFi (Decentralized Finance)?”, we aim to bring the same economics as MakerDAO and other big projects to all open and shareable assets.
We’d love to have you join our community for feedback and questions.
Dev Protocol🌐 https://devprtcl.com/
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