142 sats \ 3 replies \ @elvismercury OP 17 Nov 2023 \ parent \ on: The Lack of Compensation in Open Source Software is Unsustainable bitcoin
I like the V4V idea, but my guess is that it will never amount to anything substantial, because it violates @k00b's favorite kind of determinism.
If the incentives allow people to free-ride, they will. Free-riders, like the poor, you will always have with you.
You will always have free-riders and I'm not suggesting V4V is the answer for everything. I guess I'm saying it isn't even being tried effectively. Think about it this way.
A single ad impression for Google or any ad supported platform is very small. Sometimes fractions of a penny. But at scale it is a huge amount. What I'm suggesting is that if we used bitcoin's layer two systems we could more effectively support open source. It isn't feasible to use the fiat layer twos for this. Nostr and SN are good examples of how micro payments can work.
You could also require people to pay to use the software using the same tech. Really, the only solution for burned out devs is for devs to set their own expectations and boundaries. There are probably more burned out dev blog posts than there are bitcoin obits. If you write OSS code and don't realize it can be thankless work then I don't know what to tell you. We have tools and people ready to help you monetize it.
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You will always have free-riders and I'm not suggesting V4V is the answer for everything. I guess I'm saying it isn't even being tried effectively.
That makes sense -- I agree that LN in particular makes entirely new ways of relating economically possible; SN is a case in point, as you mentioned. It will be cool to watch it unfold.
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Basically, when you have a revolutionary tool like bitcoin it flips the world. Support models that didn't work might work now. Ad models might work in new ways. Pay per use might work. Pay per download might work. There are other models we probably haven't even considered.
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