When Richard Stallman published the GNU manifesto and founded the Free Software Foundation back in 1985, it was difficult for many to imagine the impact it would have in the modern world and the way software interacts with users and developers alike.
Detractors of this project had multiple objections ranging from the “absurdity” of expecting developers to collaborate for free with such a project, the relationship between proprietary software and an advantage over the competition, and the security concerns that could arise when sharing the source code with a community without restriction.
The Birth of a Technological Revolution
History has proven detractors to be in the wrong, as most servers nowadays run on one of so many Linux distributions.
About 70% of all smartphones run in Android (which uses the Linux Kernel), the United States government requires its agencies a 20% of its software to be commissioned as open-source.
Proprietary software provides some degree of access via APIs to developers, and the big tech companies are acquiring open-source projects while changing their models.
Innovation and History Don’t Wait for Anyone
The idea of development through the community seems to be unstoppable nowadays and its main advantage is clear: innovation.
This community support provides more insight, ideas, testing, and security assessment that any in-house team could contribute due to how a compartmentalized development such a team is, which usually results in a tunnel-vision effect where each team knows only a part of the final product.
Blockchain: The Natural Consequence of the Status Quo
One of the most recent technologies we have seen resulting from the innovation started by the open-source movement is blockchain. It is not difficult to see the similarities between both movements, as they both start on the same basic premise: decentralization.
The blockchain movement focuses its efforts on the decentralization of data and control over systems while the open-source movement was worried about the development of such systems. Both movements represent the “Anarchy” of unstoppable technological evolution.
Power Politics
Why is it then that companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Google, JP Morgan, Facebook, and other giants seem to be supporting both movements and assimilating it?
These companies for the most part don’t seem to be interested in the ideology itself (it sure makes good publicity) but the competitive edge it brings to the table.
This can be demonstrated by the huge increase in the use of the Android operating system in the mobile market: it is not the selling of a license that represents a gain for Google, but the software it can push and the presence it represents by itself.
Hyperledger and Ethereum could be the big next win for these companies to invest in the blockchain technology.
Asking the Real Question
Will blockchain skeptics be proven wrong just as open-source critics were? History has taught us that when it comes to collaborative efforts in technology trying to shake the status quo and bring more power to the user, skeptics are usually in the wrong.
The role the community plays in software development is going to keep evolving and blockchain is most likely here to stay. Just as open-source software is everywhere these days, blockchain is being seen in financial systems, Decentralized Apps, gaming, and security software.
What can we expect to see once both the development and data control are powered by users? What will be blockchain technology’s successor?