In the world of technology, open source refers to software which is made publicly available, and is free for anyone to use or modify. It is a very popular approach to software development, enabling an open and community engagement to building software projects.
One of the main advantages of open source is transparency, a property that is widely embraced by tech enthusiasts. Open source code means that anyone can inspect the code before usage, meaning that anyone could spot malicious, or broken, code. This is a perfect example of the mantra “Don’t trust, verify”, which is popular in various technology spaces.
One of the main drawbacks of open source is considered to be lack of interested involvement from external developers. Many projects typically start with one, or a few, developers – and this base can struggle to grow, leading to a low “bus-factor” (dependency on too few developers) for the majority of open source projects.
This can lead to developer burnout or exhaustion, and can eventually cause the ultimate abandonment of projects. Alongside this, funding can also play a crucial role; many of the most successful projects are backed by some degree of funding from organizations and/or non-profits, effectively supporting developers throughout the time required to maintain the project.
Thankfully, while these issues are very much real there are several examples of successful and pioneering projects in the open source space which have overcome these obstacles. The Linux Foundation is the most prominent example, and there are also some interesting ones in the cryptography space, a field that can particularly benefit from adapting the open source approach. Let’s take a look at some of them individually below.
The Linux Foundation
The most notable example of a successful open source project is the open source development of the Linux Kernel. Originally published in 1991 under a custom license which did not allow commercial usage, this was quickly shifted to an open source-friendly license (GPL), to enable developers to collaborate on the code and ensure wide and free availability of the software.
The open source version which can now be found on Github, is one of the most contributed projects in the history of open source. With over 15,000 contributors, this project has clearly been a huge success. Whilst only ~4% of Desktop computers worldwide are now running Linux, it is still the platform of choice for many computer scientists and cryptographers.
Let’s encrypt
In the cryptography space, a popular example is Let’s Encrypt. Let’s Encrypt is an influential open source certificate authority (CA) which helps enable secure communication via HTTPS over the web. This project was started by the Internet Security Research Group (ISG), which is a small non-profit launched in 2015 and backed by various industry players.
Since their launch in 2015, HTTPS usage on the internet has risen from ~40% to ~90%+ today. This, of course, is not down solely to Let’s encrypt, but their mission to “democratize HTTPS by making SSL/TLS certificates free, automated, and easy to obtain” has clearly had a major impact on this. Today, Let’s Encrypt powers secure communications for millions of sites, APIs, and services and is viewed as a major success in the cryptography space.
Open science
Open science is a similar idea which draws influence from open source. The goal of open science is to make academic publications (as well as any associated source code, data, etc) public and free for anyone to view or build on. Particularly in the cryptography space, this is something that academics tend to view as a must-have for their work: all experiments should be reproducible with available code. The website collects works which open-source their code in the Machine Learning space.
Such an approach can be critical for successful outcomes in science and research. Attempting to build on something “closed” is almost impossible, which may lead researchers to either completely rebuild something from scratch, or giving up entirely.
An additional element that can help promote this collaborative approach is the promotion of platforms like events and conferences that aim to gather experts and researchers and foster exchange. In the world of cryptography – and of Fully Homomorphic Encryption in particular – FHE.org is one such community, hosting regular online meetups and an annual conference to bring together the best and brightest minds.
Looking forward
The next frontier in this space, in my view, is AI. AI is an area showing immense growth over the past few years; there is a tangible improvement in models. OpenAI recently closed the largest funding round in history (40b at a 300b valuation). There is currently an AI-arms race between big-tech firms, and specialized start-ups who are vying to release the best model (Polymarket is currently backing Google, at the time of writing).
Clearly, this is a sector where open source principles could be applied well, with collaboration encouraged to ensure correct management of ethics, as opposed to control by a single organization or board.
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