Open Market

In my last post —Why Open Source isn’t Profitable—, I explain the Curse of Competition as a sort of Tragedy of the Commons: because open-source intellectual property is free to access, all economic agents will exploit it without giving back (a.k.a. as the free riders issue). If the resource is finite, then its value will tragically be destroyed by this unrestrained consumption. With the same analysis, we can explain how and why our current dominant economic system will eventually consume all of the available natural resources and destroy all living species. That is, unless proper regulations were to be globally adopted (Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Elinor Ostrom, 1992). ...

In a Capitalist economy, Open Source has no (direct) value. Open source is not profitable Let’s start with a few definitions: the price is the exchange value of a good or a service in a socio-economic context, the production cost is what it costs to build a good or deliver a service, added value is the price minus the production cost. Open-source software delivers an added value close to or below zero. As the price for using it is zero so is the added value, no matter the production cost. ...

All we are doing is investment. Taking the bus to meet a friend? That’s an investment. Quitting your job to work at another company? That’s investing. Skipping the gym? Bad investment, but still one. Going to bed early? Probably a good investment. So let me give you my best investment advice: spend your time wisely. Imagine you are a millionaire and you are placing your entire fortune into 24 chunks of money every day. ...

Welcome to the maze of ideas that’s been occupying my mind, only now finding their way to the surface, and to you. I believe that Open Source is now facing an existential crisis and requires a sustainable funding model, and that a decentralized crypto market can provide that solution. This upcoming series of posts truly fits with the vision of the Mind the gap blog. I’ll be writing about a topic close to my heart —Open Source funding—, and directly contributing to my own mission: enhancing individual and collective human intelligence. The series will be a complex puzzle made up of many pieces and deep reflections I’ve been nurturing for a while. ...