Max Howell, Creator of Tea Protocol, Discusses the Open-Source Economy, Blockchain Impact Assessment, AI, and Developer Incentives | Episode 319

Max Howell, the creator of the decentralized technology protocol tea Protocol, engaged in a conversation with Cryptonews’ Matt Zahab, to delve into his widely acclaimed Homebrew system, along with the eagerly awaited tea Protocol.

He emphasized the critical need for adequately compensating developers to foster the creation and upkeep of open-source software, enabling them to dedicate themselves to it full-time, and how tea aims to support this objective.

The renowned developer also discussed commercial open-source, the challenging endeavor of reconciling open-source with capitalism, and the fundamental nature of open-source itself.

In this episode, Howell covered:

• compensating developers for creating open-source software;
• 90% of all publicly traded companies employing open-source software within their operations;
• the connection between open-source software and capitalism;
• the rise of commercial open-source;
• open-source versus closed-source AI.

You can view the complete podcast episode above or read Howell’s insights shared with Matt below.

The First Big Success

Howell accomplished a significant milestone early in his career.

He informed Cryptonews that in the mid-2000s, the online music platform Last.fm offered him a position.

During his time there, he developed Homebrew in 2009, a free and open-source software package management system that streamlines software installation on macOS and Linux. It is utilized by tens of millions of developers globally.

At Last.fm, the team was using Mac. However, the developer tools available at that time were inadequate.

“I came from a Linux background where I was accustomed to all these excellent package managers that had impressive feature sets and functioned effectively,” Howell stated.

After expressing his frustrations at the pub post-work, he resolved to “take action.”

Three months later, he made his product open-source on GitHub. Interestingly, it went unnoticed for some time, prompting him to engage in “self-promotion.”

“One day, I woke up and discovered that numerous individuals were interacting with my code,” Howell remarked.

Homebrew rapidly became “a tremendous success.” However, this led to a different career dilemma. The then 26-year-old Howell believed that everything should progress as Homebrew had, or he should abandon it.

In 2021 I found myself once more between paid employment and the desire to work on Open Source full-time. I assessed the existing options and concluded they couldn’t fulfill my aspirations. One evening, I realized that I could wait indefinitely for someone else to make my dream a reality—or I could resolve it myself. So I…

— Max Howell (@mxcl) March 19, 2024

Once Homebrew gained “immense popularity,” the developer was able to resign from his job and focus on the product full-time.

This ultimately led him to establish tea Protocol, a decentralized technology protocol that allows open-source developers to receive compensation for their software contributions.

Open-Source Software and Capitalism

Fifteen years have passed since Howell created Homebrew. Throughout most of his career, he took on jobs to earn and save money, enabling him to eventually quit and work on open source.

He expressed that “there’s something truly remarkable about working on open source. And nothing else compares in the corporate sector.”

Nonetheless, the primary challenge is that there is no viable way to engage in it full-time within a capitalist framework.

While Howell does not oppose capitalism itself, he noted that “it really doesn’t align with open source at all.”

There are individuals involved in “commercial open source” today, but it often does not meet the traditional criteria for open source. The primary aim of open source is to address a specific problem that is frequently unrelated to revenue models.

Consequently, efforts have been made to devise solutions that enable some open-source developers and maintainers to work on it full-time.

Web2 was constructed on Open Source. I created Homebrew, utilized by nearly every web2 company… yet the most compensation I ever received was a (literal) “thank you for Homebrew” blanket from Google one cold winter.

PromiseKit, another project I developed, was once employed by over 100,000…

— Max Howell (@mxcl) January 23, 2024

Significantly, not many recognize the importance of this issue. It is essential for individuals to be compensated for maintaining such widely utilized systems.

“Individuals building in Web2 acknowledged that open source was the means to bootstrap entire businesses,” Max Howell stated, adding:

“You could construct 95% of your product using freely accessible open-source solutions that are efficient and well-maintained, perfectly addressing the niche they aimed to solve. Then, you could develop 5% of your code as the proprietary component on top and generate substantial profits.”

Moreover, he noted that approximately 70% of enterprise software is constructed on open source.

This is not an issue in itself. The open-source tools are available for use. However, the reality remains that someone must adequately maintain the solutions upon which 95% of products rely.

There is Money, But Very Little Goes to Developers

Open source is now ubiquitous. It’s “been to Mars, it’s on the bottom of the ocean, it’s in every computer, every phone,” Howell remarked.

There is “a significant amount of money” in the software and internet sectors, “but very little of it has managed to flow back to those individuals maintaining these essential pieces of infrastructure.”

He added that it is common to hear about individuals experiencing burnout and quitting in frustration.

“What has occurred as a result of attempting to impose capitalism on open source is that you’ve ended up with individuals treating it like a charity, where the only expectation is the goodwill of others to contribute a few dollars for a coffee,” Howell explained.

Developers relying on donations, Patreon, or GitHub sponsors do not receive substantial amounts either. In discussions with many prominent developers, Howell discovered that the highest-earning individual makes $24,000 annually. This individual worked on very popular packages.

TEA is stepping up to highlight these contributors. We’ve identified a significant gap—a large one—between the immense value open-source developers provide and the recognition they receive. It’s time for a change!

— tea Protocol (@teaprotocol) March 19, 2024

A few years ago, Howell was once again seeking something new in the space regarding full-time open-source work. He was unable to find anything that would guarantee that.

“So in a moment of inspiration, I realized that perhaps the person who needed to solve the problem had to be me.”

He began exploring technologies he had not previously considered and recognized an opportunity with blockchain, smart contracts, and cryptocurrencies.

These could serve as tools to create a new open-source model that does not conform to a conventional capitalist framework.

While commercial open source introduces agendas to establish a revenue model, Howell aimed to develop a system that “acknowledged what is open source, why it functions, and then didn’t alter anything about that.”

The only requirement for the system was to address the issue of providing adequate rewards.

Max Howell approached several crypto venture capitalists in 2022 and subsequently raised 17 million for tea Protocol, with Binance Labs as the primary investor.

10.5 Million Projects Over Multiple Decades Ranked

Tea Protocol unveiled its Incentivized Testnet on February 21. It intends to launch the mainnet on June 12.

Regarding how and which developers are incentivized on tea, Howell clarified that there is a system known as Proof of Contribution.

This is an innovative consensus mechanism designed to measure the impact of all projects across various open-source ecosystems.

An oracle evaluates all 10.5 million projects created over the past 20-30 years and assigns them a teaRank ranging from zero to a hundred. “Everything above a teaRank of 25 will receive automatic rewards if they onboard to our system,” Howell stated.

In the three weeks following the testnet launch (between the launch date and the podcast recording), tea saw over 5,000 open-source projects onboard. The onboarding process is intentionally designed to be straightforward.

Max Howell informed viewers that “we’ve had over half a million people sign up at this point. Consequently, we have over half a million wallets created on the tea Protocol, and thus far, 89% of them are active on the protocol as well.”

We surpassed 400,000 sign-ups to @teaprotocol this morning—we’ve been live for less than 3 weeks.

tea Protocol’s mission is to reward Open Source developers for their invaluable contributions to all modern digital infrastructure.

Sign up! https://t.co/WuFqvGLWO0

— Max Howell (@mxcl) March 9, 2024

The objective is to empower developers to engage more in open-source projects, and if feasible, even full-time.

In terms of tokenomics, the gas fees are settled using TEA tokens. Paymasters facilitate this process.

There is also a staking mechanism, allowing individuals to “identify a project that you find intriguing, […] stake some tokens, and then earn rewards from the project.”

Thus, the initiative is transforming the perception of open source from charity to “an incredibly valuable ecosystem that supports the entire internet.”

Incentivizing Open Source Security

Another significant aspect, according to the developer, is that until now, the incentives for open source to maintain the security of their technologies have been insufficient.

What tea is implementing is incentivizing whitehats to confidentially report any security vulnerabilities they discover via the smart contracts available on the protocols.

If a vulnerability is verified, the project must address it within a specified timeframe. Otherwise, they risk a slashing event affecting those staking against that project.

‘Proof of Contribution’ is tea’s unique feature, accurately rewarding projects based on their impact. Being built on Base ensures a fair, transparent reward system.

— tea Protocol (@teaprotocol) March 4, 2024

It is noteworthy that many projects are significantly underfunded. Often, those who require funds the most receive the least.

However, tea aims to introduce an incentive for open-source maintainers to ensure their projects remain secure.

“I believe that what we’re constructing here is for open source and governed by the open source community,” Howell stated. “Thus, in terms of governance, open source maintainers will hold the most influence. In the long run, I hope that the governance committee of the tea Protocol itself will be entirely composed of leaders from the open source sector. Therefore, we will actively engage with them over the next few years,” he concluded.

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About Max Howell

Max Howell is the founder of tea Protocol, a decentralized technology protocol that allows open-source developers to be fairly rewarded and compensated for their software contributions.

Howell previously established Homebrew, a free and open-source package management system that simplifies software installation on macOS and Linux.

Since its inception in 2009, Homebrew has emerged as one of the most widely utilized open-source projects in history.

He has also worked as a Senior Xcode Developer at Apple and as the Chief Product Officer at MyHealthily, an open-source healthcare technology platform.

Howell continues to be an active open-source software developer and contributor.

The post Max Howell, Founder of Tea Protocol, on Unlocking the Open-Source Economy, Measuring the Impact of Blockchains, AI, and Incentivizing Developers | Ep. 319 appeared first on Cryptonews.