GitRoyalty

A new solution to Open Source sustainability using git

1 follower

A new solution to Open Source sustainability using git

1 follower

GitRoyalty doesn't rely on complex licenses, support promises, issue bounties, or donations to pay open source developers. Instead it uses the power of git to add a paywall to open source projects, putting money in contributors' pockets for the first time.

Launch tags:Open Source•Software Engineering•Developer Tools

Launch Team

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Promoted

The very nature of git is decentralized, this makes no sense. This claims to still allow permissive licenses, but by putting a price tag anywhere it inherently changes those licenses -- otherwise someone could clone and rehost the project without repercussions.

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7yr ago

GitRoyalty

Maker

@human_compiler Hey Matthew! You're right that anyone could create a 'free version' fork of GitRoyalty repositories, but the very nature of software is that it's always changing–bug fixes, security updates, feature additions. Sure you can just create a new free fork any time you want to use a new version, but can you do that for every one of your hundreds of dependencies? At some point that becomes a security risk, and I think paying a small subscription fee as little as $0.50/month for the convenience of not having to make free forks over and over again is worth it, especially for tech businesses that can usually afford it.

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7yr ago

I'd personally much rather see this platform as a donation-based platform rather than a subscription-based platform. The subscription model forces people, who currently use the software, to pay, even if they don't want or aren't able to pay. By allowing for donations people can still use the software regardless of their financial situation and all the contributors would still be rewarded according to the amount of effort they put into the software. If this was donation-based, I'd very likely use it for my projects, but with the current subscription model in place I sadly won't be making use of it.

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7yr ago

GitRoyalty

Maker

@stefvanschie Hey Stef! I get where you're coming from–sometimes people just can't pay. But the majority of open source consumers are businesses that can certainly foot the cost, especially prices as low as $0.50/month. Open source developers have tried 'decision-based' donations–Patreon, Open Collective, GitHub Sponsors. And while extremely famous project owners get paid, the majority of open source contributors don't see a dime. GitRoyalty ensures each and every developer gets a share of the earnings, which I'm hoping will motivate more people to contribute to open source projects, taking the burden off of project owners. Before you completely dismiss GitRoyalty, how about you try it out with one of your own side projects? I'm sure you have some source code lying around that you never really had a reason to open source–well now you do, you can get paid! Chat with me on https://gitroyalty.com and let's make it happen!

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7yr ago

OMG, nice!

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7yr ago

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