The revolution will not be copyrighted. Everyone from billionaire moguls to anonymous coders working in the digital equivalent of their parents' garage is betting on a future where more of the computer code running the world is free and open-source. Open-source software is nothing new. But with coding know-how and tools for collaborative software development more plentiful than ever, more code is being given away for free, for a mix of altruistic and strategic reasons. The trend is shaping recent developments across fields like AI, social media and private communications. An online landscape that increasingly runs on open-source code presents a number of regulatory challenges, though. Open-source tools have the potential to evolve more rapidly than code housed in private companies since anyone is free to take the code and develop it. The added level of transparency allows users to ensure a piece of software does not contain secret encryption backdoors that are sometimes used for government surveillance. And open-source code is also more difficult to ban since new instances can pop up if regulators attempt shut down a website or tool that uses it. Combined with other decentralizing features, these open-source projects have the potential to disrupt not just Silicon Valley’s business model, but the governance models of Washington and Brussels. In some cases, open-source code could accomplish regulators’ goals for them, for example, by disrupting software monopolies by offering free alternatives. In other cases, open-source tools are making it harder for law enforcement to monitor private communications, and could stymie efforts to enforce limits on the uses of artificial intelligence. The latter issue reared its head earlier this month when a memo leaked from Google that reportedly bemoaned the success of open-source large language models in keeping pace with tech companies’ privately owned AIs. Open-source, decentralized social networks are also gaining steam — following censorship controversies at Twitter and Elon Musk’s chaotic takeover last fall — as alternatives to those owned by tech giants. On Thursday, MeWe, a social network with 20 million users, announced it was beginning to give new users a “universal handle” as part of its migration to a Web3 setup that uses Frequency, a blockchain, and DSNP, an open-source protocol for social networks. According to MeWe, the universal handle is used to create people’s social identity and give them control of their own data. Both Frequency and DSNP are products of real estate developer Frank McCourt, former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. McCourt argues that his open-source protocol, developed by his Project Liberty nonprofit, is more compatible with American values than the existing business models of social media giants, because it gives individual users greater control over their data and online identity. Amplica Labs, a part of McCourt’s family company, McCourt Global, contributed to the development of both Frequency and DSNP. “You can’t have democracy with autocratic technology,” he told DFD during a sit-down last week. Other decentralized, open-source social media projects have seen user growth in recent months on the back of Twitter’s controversies and discontent with other social media giants. They include NOSTR, an open-source protocol created by a pseudonymous developer that is favored by Jack Dorsey and popular among Bitcoiners, as well as Mastodon, which is popular among academics and journalists. Following its rollout to Android users last month, the invite-only beta version of BlueSky has been getting online buzz as celebrities test-drive the platform. The decentralized social media project was started by Dorsey while he was still at Twitter. These alternatives remain tiny, but the success in recent years of disruptive open-source projects like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the popular encrypted messaging app Signal have inspired grand ambitions. While Google famously adopted an unofficial motto of “Don’t Be Evil,” moguls today are incorporating open-source ideas into more elaborate statements of philosophy, like Dorsey’s “Web5” concept. In December, crypto exchange Bitfinex, sister company of stablecoin issuer Tether, released its “Freedom Manifesto,” which touts the development of distributed, open-source software to further the libertarian ideas of Austrian School economists and cypherpunks — the philosophical forerunners of Bitcoin. To that end, Tether and Bitfinex have funded the development of HolePunch, an encrypted, peer-to-peer communication platform that made its code open-source in December. “This technology is actually the Bitcoin of communications,” Paolo Aordino, the Lugano, Switzerland-based chief technology officer of Bitfinex and Tether, told DFD. Open-source code can make software tools freely available and open to audits, but it is not a silver bullet for improving the internet. “Open-source allows for a modicum of transparency,” Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, which oversees the messaging app, told DFD. “That can be good. It is not an end in itself.” Whittaker said there are limits to the transformative potential of freely available code, such as the need for servers to host the code/infrastructure, and the fact that the tech ecosystem is dominated by massive private companies. “It’s really important to not conflate open source with outside of the tech industry,” Whittaker said. Indeed, while open-source projects tend to employ lofty rhetoric, their designers often look to build for-profit companies on top of them. While that fact deals a blow to the dreamers, it may also offer a point of entry to regulators worried about how they will get a handle on an open-source world.
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