Introduction

So it came to pass that Microsoft acquired GitHub for 7.5B$.

Open Source has officially become Corporate Source.

But how can anyone buy or sell Open Source? Why aren’t projects and developers (who do most of the actual work) being paid? Or perhaps more pertinent: Why is Open Source hosted on a closed sourced platform?

The year is 2018 (9 After Nakamoto), money itself has been decentralized, but Git platforms have not. This is a ridiculous state of affairs, but not one without a solution. But what would a solution look like?

Open Source Today

GitHub is a coordinator for Open Source, a complex web of relationships between 3 different parties:

1. Developers (Who build the projects)
2. Open Source Projects (Controlled by Admins and Maintainers)
3. Users (Individuals, organizations and Enterprise)

Open source today is digital volunteerism:

Individuals, organizations and enterprise use open source projects free of charge, while developers and project admins work without compensation.

“Don’t programmers deserve a reward for their creativity?”
-The GNU Manifesto by Richard Stallman, MIT

We believe the Open Source process can be improved by focusing on the foundations of great software: developers.

Cryptocurrency based crowdfunding lets developers explore projects that are otherwise unfeasible with traditional funding mechanisms. (eg. ICOs and cryptocurrency projects) Smart Contract based organizations (See DAO and Aragon) enable novel ways organization.

Everyone benefits when good developers and projects are supported. So why not bring the blockchain revolution to software itself?

Source: a decentralized future for Open Source

Source is a decentralized platform for developing software projects.

Source is the traditional code repository platform reimagined for Web 3, where development is incentivized through platform token issuance (Think Steemit), and the repository itself is redesigned around smart contracts.

Taking notes from the experiments in Web 3, decentralized protocols and cryptocurrency, we designed Source to improve life for developer teams while alleviating the two main issues in the development process: finding those with domain expertise, and aligning incentives between developers, projects and users.

We envision a future where:

1. Open source projects become sovereign digital entities with transparent rules of compensation and engagement
2. Enterprises, organizations and individuals fund open source projects used in their stack directly
3. Contributing to open source becomes a viable full time career option

In future weekly updates, we will deploy other features that are currently under development. We anticipate features like funding mechanisms, (Think Patreon, etc), smart contract repositories, and empower projects to implement transparent issuance schemas and incentive mechanisms.

Join the Development

We invite you to participate in our closed alpha (at alpha.source.lol), squash some bugs and give us your feedback. (Reach out at the telegram group for the sign up code!)

Our prototype is clunky, and our incentive model is untested, so why are we making Source public now? Because we think “Worse is better”: It’s better to have a half baked solution and quickly iterate instead of aiming for perfection. (Move quickly and break things)

See Also: How to migrate your Git project to Source

Build Source with us!

We realize that we can’t build Source alone. We are facing problems that extend far beyond our knowledge domain. Problems that stand on the cutting edge of blockchain research, like:

1. Ascribing value to code
2. High performance distributed storage
3. Sybil attack vectors
4. Crypto-economic design
5. And more…

We are, after all, 4 mere NYU CS undergrads. Not one of us has a single degree.

If you are intrigued by these topics, we invite you to join us directly in our development process.

The problem we are tackling is difficult, the implementation will be complicated, and development tedious. But the view from the summit will make the struggle worthwhile. This is an opportunity for all of us to take back open source, and define its future.

Sincerely,

The Source Team

Reach out to us at one of the channels below:

Email: [email protected]

Sign up for the Mailing list at: www.source.lol

Telegram for bi-weekly developer community calls: https://t.me/joinchat/EbiqAxL2g2baSz4fulFeHg

Follow our Medium or Steemit for weekly development updates!

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