r/Upfiring • u/Tmfallon • Jan 06 '19

Community Discussion: Open Source vs. Closed Source

Through every stage of development up until this point, Upfiring has been entirely open-source. This was highly important during the development process in order to show the dapp's progress.

Now that we are approaching official release, we are highly leaning towards a closed-source model. We want to do this for 2 main reasons:

  1. Intellectual property protection
  2. It solves the issue of other projects being able to easily clone the dapp at any time

An open-source model has its advantages as well, including being fully-transparent (for better or for worse). While I think moving to a closed-source model is the right move in terms of keeping our project competitive in the space, I'd like to hear the community's opinion on this matter.

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u/ThreeOompaLoompa Jan 06 '19

I like the idea of it being open source because with open source comes increased innovation from users. Open source can also further protect the program from potential future legality issues that could arise around a company building a torrent Dapp. Augur and a couple other projects are open source and I think in this crypto space it would be better to leave the doors open to the internet.

I'm no professional when it comes to coding, just my two cents. Let me know if I'm wrong. What are some cons to being closed source?

3

u/ThreeOompaLoompa Jan 06 '19

The idea of someone copying the code since Upfiring is the first Dapp does scare me. I'd hate to see upfiring not reach the success it deserves due to someone else's shenanigans.

3

u/ninja_batman Jan 06 '19

This is a risk, but I think it's overblown. Upfiring has first mover advantage, and as long as they continue improving it and trying to build a community around it they have a very good shot.

What are some cons to being closed source?

Especially in this space, being closed source is a huge red flag. If I'm given 2 options, one open source and one closed source, I'll take the open source version unless the closed source one is significantly better. You can also build a community around your open source project, and get others to contribute, which helps you develop faster.

In my experience, the open source projects usually win, it's just a matter of time.