Vitalik: We should talk less about public goods funding and more about open-source funding

BlockBeats News, March 29th, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin today published a lengthy article titled "We should talk less about public goods funding and more about open source funding," highlighting the following key points:

The traditional concept of "public goods" is easily misconstrued as "government-provided projects," leading to a vague or even abused definition (such as commercial projects claiming to be public goods to obtain resources). On the other hand, "open source" has a clear definition in the digital domain (following FSF and OSI standards) and inherently possesses public goods attributes (such as blockchain protocol research, open-source software, etc.), which can more accurately reflect the public value of a project. Public goods funding is often criticized for lacking rigor and being susceptible to "social games" (such as insiders using the term to package projects). In contrast, open-source projects, through transparent code and open collaboration, can reduce such manipulation and make it easier to assess real-world utility.

The open-source model is not only applicable to the digital domain (such as Ethereum clients, educational materials) but can also extend to physical infrastructure (such as clean air technology, decentralized agriculture), promoting global deployment through open standards, while traditional public goods are often limited to localized services. Open source is not "open source for the sake of open source" but should focus on projects that maximize human welfare (such as defensive technology, disaster resilience infrastructure), aligning with the goals of public goods funding. However, through open-source mechanisms, high-value projects can be more efficiently screened.