Devon Zuegel: Misaligned open-source incentives cause corporate centralization
Devon Zuegel · Cryptonetworks and Cities: Analogies · Jul 26, 2018 · at 26:26
Devon Zuegel is a software engineer and writer. She is discussing open-source software funding dynamics on an a16z podcast panel about cryptonetworks and cities.
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“The irony behind open source is it's supposed to be this big decentralized thing where everyone can democratically participate, but because the incentives aren't nicely tied to the contributions people make, all of the funding ends up coming from massive companies which is, it's wonderful that they're willing to contribute, but the reason they're willing to contribute is because they actually do capture enough of the externalities that it makes it worth their while. So this results in huge centralization and The projects that do get done, that do get completed are just the ones that the really large companies want or that the government or the NSA wants”
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