Jack Kubinec

Sam Altman-backed Worldcoin has met skepticism for its eye-scanning Orb, a device it uses to create biometrically unique accounts for its more than four million users. But in a show of transparency, Worldcoin is making the core software undergirding the Orb open source to the public, they announced in a blog post Friday morning.



The Orb’s transition to open source has been a gradual one. Worldcoin had previously released details on the device’s hardware and made its iris recognition component open source, but hadn’t given the public details about its main software.&nbsp;



This latest open-sourcing of the Orb’s core functionality gives a peek into how the Orb converts iris scans into unique verifications within the Tools For Humanity-created World App. However, the Orb’s main application does have some code removed from the internal version. The removed bits of code relate to fraud checks, the blog post said.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-kenya-regulators">Worldcoin to continue working with regulators after international controversy</a>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/worldcoin">Worldcoin</a> was co-founded by Altman alongside Max Novendstern and Alex Blania in 2019. The project, whose tokens are currently unavailable to US residents, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-not-in-us">launched in July</a> worldwide. Although US residents can’t access Worldcoin’s WLD tokens, part of the project’s eventual plan to create a global basic income, they can still have their eyeballs scanned and create a World ID in the app.



Worldcoin’s Orbs scan individuals’ irises to create unique IDs. It also <a href="https://worldcoin.org/blog/worldcoin/what-is-worldcoin-how-does-it-work">distributes</a> its WLD token to users “just for being a unique individual.” Altman and Blania <a href="https://worldcoin.org/blog/worldcoin/introducing-worldcoin-alex-blania-sam-altman">cast</a> Worldcoin last summer as a potential path to an <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/artificial-intelligence">AI</a>-enabled scheme for universal basic income.&nbsp;



2,000 Orbs exist, and they are manufactured in Europe, according to a spokesperson for The Worldcoin Foundation, a non-profit supporting Worldcoin’s development. The Orb is built with the NVIDIA Jetson, a popular computer board for embedded applications.&nbsp;



Worldcoin faces a challenge in convincing lawmakers it can be trusted, in the project’s ideal scenario, with biometric data for most or all adults in the world.&nbsp;



Speaking with an Orb engineer over the summer, one Blockworks journalist <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-eyeballs-scan-brooklyn">discovered </a>that if you cut off someone’s face, including gouging out their eyes, and then draped it over your own face, you could register as them with a Worldcoin scanner and steal their identity. The Orb engineer promised that the team had not tested this particular edge case, but said that it would work.



Regulators from several governments have raised <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/privacy">privacy</a> concerns regarding Worldcoin. Spain began a temporary block on Worldcoin data collection <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/world-coin-temporarily-blocked-spain">earlier this month</a>. Worldcoin <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-taking-legal-action-against-spain">retaliated with a lawsuit</a> over what it says is an unjustified ban.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Worldcoin emphasizes that its World IDs are kept private from developers through <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/zero-knowledge-proof">zero-knowledge proofs</a>, which can verify someone’s ID is real without needing to reveal their identity. Individuals’ data is also encrypted in such a way that only they can decrypt it from within the World App, Worldcoin has said.



With most of the Orb’s software being made public, the main components of the Worldcoin ecosystem <a href="https://worldcoin.org/open-source">yet</a> to be open-sourced are the World App where World IDs are stored, and the uniqueness service, a piece of the Orb that verifies only unique humans are added to the platform.&nbsp;



Along with the core, Worldcoin also released some of the code for its secure element, which stores a private signing key that protects user data. The secure element is cryptographically paired to the NVIDIA Jetson during manufacturing.&nbsp;



With the code behind Worldcoin’s Orb and iris scanning technology being made open source, Worldcoin’s foundation is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-patents-open-source-ethos">fine with the tech being built on by others</a>.&nbsp;



“The Worldcoin Foundation welcomes additional, responsible development of proof of humanness verification hardware which is in part why hardware and software components of the Orb have been open-sourced,” the spokesperson said.



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Worldcoin continues gradual open sourcing by sharing Orb core code

Cameron B. Pick

ENS’ <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ens-unstoppable-domains-paten">feud</a> last year with Unstoppable Domains has brought to light the prevailing skepticism many open source developers harbor toward the patent system.&nbsp;



While concerns over the potential misuse of patents are valid, the decision by organizations in the crypto space to abstain from the patent system altogether might inadvertently limit the advantages available for safeguarding their innovations.



Unstoppable Domains (UD) was awarded a patent on “<a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US11558344B1/en?oq=11558344">Resolving Blockchain Domains</a>” at the end of 2023. This <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ens-unstoppable-domains-paten">irritated</a> the lead developer of its largest competitor, ENS. In an open letter, ENS’s Nick Johnson argued that UD’s patent is “based entirely on innovations that ENS developed and contains no novel innovations of its own.” He criticized UD for pursuing patents,  even after they stated support for open innovation. While Johnson recognized that UD then did pledge its patent to the Web3 Domain Alliance, he expressed skepticism about the pledge being legally binding.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-name-service-godaddy-partnership">ENS partners with GoDaddy to enable users to link wallets to domains</a>



However, companies do pursue patents for many reasons other than to initiate lawsuits against potential infringers or to stifle innovation. Patents serve as powerful signals to investors, which recognize a company&#8217;s development of groundbreaking products or processes.&nbsp; They can also be used to recognize inventors for their efforts.&nbsp;



Patents can also be used defensively.&nbsp; If a company is sued by a competitor for patent infringement, the company may use their existing patents that the competitor appears to infringe in a countersuit. This can be an effective negotiating strategy to reach a favorable settlement.&nbsp;&nbsp;



It is important to note that a company can make its software open-source under an open source license while still patenting the software. Typically, anyone who complies with the terms of the open source license is protected from a patent lawsuit. This gives patent holders another avenue to go after those who do not abide by the terms of the open source license. Therefore, crypto companies can still remain open source while filing for patents without using them to inhibit innovation.&nbsp;



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/we-need-to-stop-forcing-use-cases-on-blockchains">We need to stop forcing use cases on blockchains</a>



For example, a company may want to protect themselves against a competitor who modifies open source code and seeks to protect it themselves. In this scenario, the competitor may try to sue the company who initially developed the code. If the company does not have a patent or other avenues of protection, it may be vulnerable to these unfair tactics.



Additionally, organizations that develop open source code may encourage others to freely use and improve the code. However, with a patent, these organizations can protect themselves against competitors who make similar products but do not use their code.&nbsp;&nbsp;



For example, Litecoin was a fork of the Bitcoin code. If Satoshi Nakamoto had patented a decentralized network for recording transactions using a blockchain, they likely would not have been able to go after Litecoin due to the open source license included in the <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/COPYING">Bitcoin code base</a>. However, if another entity developed a similar system without using the Bitcoin code, Nakamoto may have been able to prevent them from competing in this space.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Allowing others to use and modify the original code while preventing competitors from profiting off their own version of the same concept does not go against the ethos of the crypto community. Instead, a combination of open source licenses and patent protection encourages open innovation and allows developers to build off each other’s software. This approach discourages the proliferation of numerous versions of similar products, promoting a more cohesive and collaborative community.



In light of these considerations, companies in the crypto space should feel empowered to explore patent protection without fear of alienation. If a company decides to patent its open source software, it should make it very clear that anyone who properly uses the software also has a license to the patent —&nbsp;it may be pursuing patent protection simply to raise funds and formally recognize inventors’ creations. And, if someone runs afoul of the license terms or independently creates a similar product without using the company’s code, it now has a way to protect its business.



In conclusion, the coexistence of open source and patents in the crypto space encourages a healthy ecosystem of innovation. Companies can strategically leverage both, fostering a community where developers can build upon each other&#8217;s work without compromising on protection and recognition.&nbsp;



The ENS and Unstoppable Domains argument likely won’t be the last time that someone in crypto is critical of a competitor’s patents. Nonetheless, the crypto community would benefit by being open to multiple strategies for encouraging, pursuing and protecting innovation.



DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice or a substitute for obtaining legal advice from an attorney. Views expressed are those of the author and are not to be attributed to Marshall, Gerstein &amp; Borun LLP or any of its former, present, or future clients.



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<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Cameron B. Pick is a partner and patent attorney at the Chicago-based intellectual property boutique law firm Marshall, Gerstein &amp; Borun. He prosecutes patents for emerging technologies, including blockchain and crypto, among other innovative areas. He may be reached at cpick@marshallip.com. </div>


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Crypto can benefit from patents without losing its open source ethos 

Bessie Liu

Gitcoin, an open-source software funding platform, has announced it will shift focus away from public goods funding and towards enhancing grants infrastructure designed for the Ethereum ecosystem.



Since its launch in May 2021, Gitcoin&#8217;s organizational hierarchy has been relatively flat, with no CEO calling the shots. Workstreams, or focused groups dedicated to specific tasks or projects within the organization, have always required budgets to be approved through community voting — an often time consuming process.



As the DAO has evolved, however, it morphed from an impact-focused organization to something more technology-centric. Gitcoin executive director Kyle Weiss told Blockworks in an interview that this did not align well with the existing DAO structure.



“It was too disjointed,” said Weiss. “In a DAO environment where everyone is fully remote, we have folks contributing from nearly every continent — stability, operations, and software development is really important, you need a core group of individuals who have context.”



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/gitcoin-kevin-owoki-returns">Gitcoin’s co-founder wants to return from the sidelines</a>



As part of the new restructuring plan, two business units have formed within Gitcoin. One unit will focus on coordinating product-specific work, while a subDAO will manage matters of community and governance.



Weiss noted that over the years, the company has experimented with various products. He said that some of these have been distractions, while others have been valuable to its growth.



“A lot of 2024 is focusing on grants. We want Gitcoin to be much more associated with grants, whereas right now, our narrative has been around public goods funding, and that shift is because we’ve moved from being an impact organization to a technology organization,” Weiss said.&nbsp;



For this reason, Weiss explained the DAO will transition from independent workstreams towards a structure more akin to a “Labs” structure. This is something that is common among existing protocol development teams, similar to how Uniswap has Uniswap Labs or how Optimism operates with OP Labs.



“We want to make sure there is stability in the software development side and then give the DAO material scopes of work to own,” he said.



Weiss says that by granting software development teams greater leadership and more defined decision-making powers, the community can remain concentrated on achieving results through the grants programs via token voting.



“I don&#8217;t know if the token holders are the right people to decide on multi-year roadmap decisions on the technology side,” Weiss said. 



Gitcoin co-founder Kevin Owocki shared this sentiment.



“It’s not proven that DAOs can develop software, so the Labs team is designed to recognize that in our organizational structure, and make sure that we’re building world-class software.”



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Gitcoin is restructuring to focus on grants for the Ethereum ecosystem

Macauley Peterson

Veteran members of the Algorand proof-of-stake blockchain ecosystem have banded together to launch a new iteration of the open-source code, called Voi, which is currently in testnet.



Leading the new project is Chris Swenor, co-founder of both Reach, a blockchain development platform and the Algorand decentralized exchange (DEX) HumbleSwap.



Work on Voi began in 2022, with a premise that the blockchain should better align incentives with its community of developers and users, and motivated by Swenor’s frustration with perceived shortcomings within the crypto industry.



“I looked around and I was so frustrated that I saw that [venture capitalists] and the early builders owned over 90% of all tokens, and the people that are actually still there during the bear market really didn&#8217;t own the chain, but they&#8217;re still there pouring their heart into it,” Swenor told Blockworks.



Voi is only forking the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/algorand">Algorand</a> code, but not the chain’s state. So, unlike the failed <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-pow-fork-suffers-its-first-smart-contract-hack">EthPoW fork of Ethereum</a>, for instance, Voi will have its own crypto token, but one with no connection to ownership of <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/algo">ALGO</a>.



In software development, a repository <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/glossary#fork-software">fork</a> is essentially a copy of a repository that allows you to freely experiment with changes without affecting the original project. That&#8217;s what&#8217;s happening here, in contrast to an Algorand blockchain fork, which is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030439751930091X">not possible</a>.



Algorand has struggled to attract users in recent years. Its seven-day dex volume, for example, is currently less than $10 million, <a href="https://defillama.com/dexs/chains">according to</a> DeFi Llama, placing it 38th by that metric.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/algofi-defi-algorand">Closure of largest DeFi destination underscores Algorand’s struggles</a>



Swenor’s critique is not specifically of Algorand or its development stewards Algorand Technologies and the Algorand Foundation, with which he said he maintains good relations.



Blockworks reached out to both Algorand entities to learn more.



As a long time developer within the Algorand tech stack, Swenor said it was natural to remain focused on the Algorand consensus engine.



“The thing that was very clear is that the Algorand tech is literally the best tech that we&#8217;ve ever worked with, as far as speed and what it can deliver,” he said.



One of the chief differences is that Voi’s developers have earmarked 75% of its entire market cap for “ecosystem growth.” That includes node runners, and the testnet has attracted nearly 500 nodes according to its <a href="https://voi-node-info.boeieruurd.com/">explorer</a>, though it’s not apparent how many of those are independently operated.



“This means that a very small percentage of the overall network [token] is earmarked for operations and the core team,” Swenor said.



Voi intends to concentrate on a smaller vertical of applications as part of its go-to-market strategy, emphasizing “membership infrastructure,” in contrast to Algorand’s institutional focus.



But Swenor also expects to contribute to Algorand development by bringing in developers, and improving tooling such as wallet and node software.



The new network counts original Algorand investor Arrington Capital among its seed investors along with Sonic Boom Ventures, founded by former Algorand, Inc. CEO Steven Kokinos, who sees it as complementary to Algorand.



“I think what is exciting about Voi in particular is that they&#8217;ve done a lot of work to be able to connect Voi back to the Algorand mainnet and be able to exchange assets using tech like state proofs that was built into Algorand for that express purpose,” Kokinos told Blockworks.



The remaining Algorand team was initially skeptical of Voi, Swenor said, but that changed over time.



They&#8217;re seeing now that this is actually beneficial for Algorand as a whole…because we&#8217;re kind of at different missions and we&#8217;re going after different things, I don&#8217;t see them seeing it as a threat by any means,” he said.



Updated Dec. 18, 2023 at 11:14 am ET, with additional context related to forks.



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Algorand fork Voi tries a blockchain reboot

Code, a Solana-based crypto wallet, has fully open-sourced its code.



This move will make Code one of the first Solana-based applications to completely open-source its application using the MIT License.



The MIT License enables users to copy software code and its associated files “as is,” meaning that anyone can now use, copy, modify and distribute Code’s software without limitation.&nbsp;



Tanner Philp, the chief operating officer of Code, told Blockworks in an interview that the MIT license is one of the most permissive licenses today.



“The Bitcoin code base is also an <a href="https://opensource.org/license/mit/">MIT license</a>, so adhering to Satoshi’s vision, it is the most permissive and open license, and that’s what we’re going with,” Philp said.



Philp notes that the team at Code subscribes heavily to Satoshi’s vision of creating a truly peer-to-peer electronic cash system, enabling anyone to validate and build upon the infrastructure itself.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/dydx-ethereum-open-source">DYdX steps closer to v4 by open-sourcing code</a>



Traditionally, many apps built on the Solana blockchain have been built privately, with very few projects choosing to open-source their software.&nbsp;



This is likely because the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/solana">Solana</a> blockchain attracts many developers who have built consumer products in Web2, Philp notes.&nbsp;



“A lot of these developers land in the Solana ecosystem because it’s the most performant chain and gives you the best opportunity to build slick consumer experiences, but from an engineering culture perspective, that means a lot of people are coming from <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/web2">Web2</a>, where open source is not usually the norm,” he said.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-gets-roasted">Solana ‘roast’ reveals painful truths</a>



Philp adds that this move to open-source Code is important for the Solana ecosystem as a whole, as it can allow the network to take on more of a leadership position. He also notes that open-sourcing software tools show conviction in the tooling that has been built.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="400" height="400" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/TIEXRgu-_400x400.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-74528" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/TIEXRgu-_400x400.jpg?w=400 400w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/TIEXRgu-_400x400.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/TIEXRgu-_400x400.jpg?w=150 150w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/TIEXRgu-_400x400.jpg?w=257 257w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/TIEXRgu-_400x400.jpg?w=261 261w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/TIEXRgu-_400x400.jpg?w=219 219w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/TIEXRgu-_400x400.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Code CEO Ted Livingston</figcaption></figure>



The Code team was founded by the team behind the Canadian messaging app, Kik. After struggling to find an appropriate business model to sustain its operations at Kik, the team launched its own cryptocurrency, Kin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/kin">KIN</a>).



On the Lightspeed podcast (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/0DkQrKb9hYJYWTGAUasvXd">Spotify</a>/<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/micropayments-are-cryptos-untapped-use-case-ted-livingston/id1697548240?i=1000636782136">Apple</a>/<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aePdACgrhdQ&amp;ab_channel=Lightspeed">YouTube</a>), Code CEO Ted Livingston discusses Code’s announcement and crypto’s micropayments opportunity.



<iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="0" height="200" scrolling="no" src="https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=BWG8207413857" width="100%"></iframe>







KIN was used to raise an initial coin offering (ICO) totaling $100 million for Kik, but after being <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-262">fined $5 million by the US Securities and Exchange Commission</a>, Kik — now under new ownership — is no longer associated with KIN.



Updated Nov. 28, 2023 at 10:40 am ET: Included photo of Code CEO Ted Livingston.



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Can ‘Code’ open up Solana’s closed culture?

Decentralized crypto derivatives exchange dYdX has taken a key step towards launching its decentralized v4 by open-sourcing its code.



DYdX first revealed its intentions to transition from being an Ethereum layer-2 to becoming an appchain using the Cosmos SDK in June last year.



By open-sourcing its code, the dYdX team is hoping to receive community feedback and come to a consensus between its third-party validators and node operators before launching the dYdX mainnet.



According to information on <a href="https://defillama.com/protocol/dydx">DeFiLlama</a>, dYdX currently has a total value locked (TVL) of $364 million, and the protocol’s token commands a market cap of $404.35 million. It has a fully diluted valuation of $2.27 billion and is one of the largest crypto derivatives exchanges today.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/decentralized-exchange-dydx-to-build-its-own-blockchain">Decentralized exchange dYdX to build its own blockchain</a>



In an interview with Blockworks, Antonio Juliano, founder of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dydx">dYdX</a> said that the team has been taking a progressive approach to decentralization.



“For a long time, we’ve been hybrid centralized and decentralized, meaning that we’ve had smart contracts that custody all the user funds, but the order book and matching engine, the trading infrastructure generally has been centralized until this point,” Juliano said.



A key feature of dYdX v4 will be that the dYdX chain will be fully decentralized, and its code will be completely open source. This means that dYdX trading will not collect trading fees from v4, and community members and stakeholders will be solely responsible for decision-making. Fees accrued will be redistributed to the dYdX stakers.



“We’re going to become just the software developers, and we will no longer be operating the network anymore,” Juliano said.&nbsp;



The dYdX exchange that exists today will still be operating for an undisclosed period of time, even if the dYdX app chain passes the on-chain vote for mainnet launch.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Challenges</h3>



One of the biggest challenges in creating a decentralized exchange, Juliano notes, was looking at ways to create a decentralized order book and matching engine systems.



According to Juliano, roughly 1,000 orders are placed on dYdX every second and the team wanted to design infrastructure that could support that level of scalability.&nbsp;



“When we started this project a year and a half ago, we looked at a bunch of different things, different [layer-2], and ultimately came away with the answer that no blockchain (at the time) could support the level of throughput that’s needed for an order book based product. What we did based on that is we built a decentralized off-chain order book,” he said.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pantera-metaverse-decentralized-exchange">Crypto funding: A focus on decentralized orderbook exchanges in $66M week</a>



This means that the order book itself, though not on the blockchain and not in consensus, is run by the dYdX validators.



“This is similar to the mempool of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a>, but a very specialized mempool, that is an order book and all of the nodes themselves will run that. Only once an order gets matched does it actually go on-chain,” he said.&nbsp;



dYdX v4 has been audited by Informal Systems. The team has also completed internal security audits with engineers over the past few weeks, Juliano told Blockworks.&nbsp;



Over the following weeks, the team will look into migrating <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/dydx">DYDX</a>, the chain’s native token, onto v4 and stake to validators before officially launching mainnet.&nbsp;



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DYdX steps closer to v4 by open-sourcing code

Daniel Dob

Crypto has always worn its open-source ethos as a badge of honour. Permissionless means just that — anyone is permitted to add to the creative commons, and novel entrepreneurship is never monopolized by a centralized power holding all the cards.&nbsp;



The open-source approach, rooted in principles of collaboration, security and transparency, promises a world where our tech-bureaucracies remain transparent, with anyone able to view, audit and modify code.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Yet “open-source” has a dark underbelly, where great innovation is lifted wholesale, rebranded and put out to tender with barely a backwards glance (or credit) given to the original creators. In the crypto realm, far more intellectual effort and productive zeal is expended on marketing than on advancing the baseline technology that brought us all together. Not so much standing on the shoulders of giants, but sometimes breaking their backs as you crawl up to seek starry riches from the promontory.&nbsp;



We’ve seen it countless times. New layer-1/layer-2 ecosystem getting hot? Quick, fork any DEX that’s seen moderate success, splash on new paint and claim you’re the first DEX on the hottest new chain. And it’ll work. While forking makes the dream work and we wouldn’t be here without open-source — innovation remains paramount to stop crypto from ossifying into a game of quickfire copycat.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Where open source began</h2>



Open-source traces its roots back to the mid-90s, an evolution from the “free software movement” of the 80s. Spearheaded by visionaries like Richard Stallman, it championed the belief that software&#8217;s use, reproduction and editing are fundamental human rights. Think of it as the digital age&#8217;s &#8220;freedom of speech.&#8221; This gave rise to licensing practices emphasising that software should remain free and distributable.



In contrast, not all open-source licences share this ethos — for instance, the permissive MIT licence is neutral, focusing less on ideological standpoints and more on the pragmatics of code distribution. It&#8217;s a blessing and a curse.&nbsp;



On one hand, a developer can repurpose Uniswap&#8217;s code, re-theming a DEX around, say, &#8220;PastaSwap,&#8221; potentially improving upon the initial. On the other, there’s nothing stopping this innovator from sealing their code in secrecy, also known as close-sourcing, even if 95% of their project stands on the shoulders of the original.



The sad truth is that in many cases, open-source has melted into a marketing buzzword. Many projects claim they claim they are “open-source” when really, only the basic code they copied under the MIT or Apache licence is truly open-source and auditable by all, with plenty of proprietary behaviour happening on the backend, hidden from view under the claim of protecting users from “day zero” vulnerabilities.



And let&#8217;s not even start on meme coins. While some might argue these tokens embody the spirit of decentralized fun, these candy-coloured trojan horses often conceal dubious intents. For every sincere project that forks open-source, innovates and improves the interchain thesis, there&#8217;s a horde of malicious actors plotting in the background.&nbsp;



The more mundane, but no less insidious to crypto’s health, is the rampant regurgitation of any successful project under a hundred aliases. V3 liquidity announced? Everyone is suddenly about v3. Who cares what it means or what it does, just copy the code and put it in. This race leads to poorly implemented products that adhere to no real vision, but rather just create mass user fatigue and diversion from the progress being made.



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-passion-nfts-adoption" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Crypto is lost at sea, but I’ll be the lighthouse</a>



Which, of course, is a massive shame. Web3 is all about being open. Crypto is just a part of a much larger social, philosophical and technical movement towards enshrining free roam of our virtual worlds, digital ownership and protection against censorship.&nbsp;



So how do we strike a balance with the open source question?&nbsp;



The holy trinity is providing the right incentives, mentorship and nurturing a culture of recognition.&nbsp;



Rather than relying on mercenary liquidity incentives, ecosystems can establish grant and bounty programs, where devs are rewarded for improving code and introducing features that benefit the greater good. Often though, this can’t be done without mentorship, since many founders mistakenly believe that repackaging a product and relying solely on existing open-source code is easier and provides the same end result: These same founders fail to account for the long-term consequences of just creating yet another copy.&nbsp;



Crypto needs to develop a decentralized social conscience. Yes, not everyone will play fair. But founders, thought leaders and crypto-focused institutions must understand that to make the tide rise and lift all boats, we must add new water to the sea.



Ultimately, copycats are here to stay. But those who adhere to a genuine, open source ethos should benefit most. Respect OGs, review code, give credit and make tangible improvements. Crypto could then transform from a nascent asset class into a global, permissive and inclusive internet financial system, with network effects that revolutionise the micro and macro economies of our modern world.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Ex-journo, legal ace, comms lead, and narrator of new-age net tales, now at the helm of GM Factory, where he helps digital neophytes beam beyond the daybreak. </div>


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Crypto has a copycat problem

Six months ago, StarkWare promised to open-source their STARK prover.&nbsp;



Now the team is making good on the pledge. The prover is a core piece of technology underpinning the Starknet zk-rollup, which StarkWare <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/starkware-valuation-hits-2b-after-50m-series-c-round">released on mainnet</a> in 2021, and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/starknet-quantum-leap">gave a major upgrade</a> in July.



Ethereum’s scaling roadmap relies on moving transaction execution off of mainnet onto <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rollups">rollups</a>, which bundle bunches together. Zk-rollups submit proofs of transaction batches, thus saving scarce blockspace on the Ethereum network.



The prover is “a vital component within our tech stack,” <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/starkware">StarkWare</a> president and co-founder Eli Ben Sasson told Blockworks. “We view it as the magic wand of STARK technology, [that] plays a key role in helping to scale Ethereum.”



The company said the move “is a major step forward in decentralizing Starknet” in <a href="https://medium.com/starkware/open-sourcing-the-battle-tested-stone-prover-1fe71aaab3b7">a blog post</a> published Tuesday.



Polygon was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-and-matter-labs-compete-on-zkevm-rollups">the first to open-source their prover</a>, albeit using the AGPL v3 open-source license. Matter Labs has pledged to follow-suit with its zkSync version.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-and-matter-labs-compete-on-zkevm-rollups">Polygon and Matter Labs compete on zkEVM rollups</a>



A spokesperson for Polygon declined to comment on StarkWare’s latest initiative. Matter Labs couldn’t be reached by time of publication.



Starkware has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/defi-is-betting-big-on-zero-knowledge-is-the-technology-ready">previously been criticized</a> for having a closed-source prover, although open-sourcing this component was always a goal. In February 2023, StarkWare’s commitment became more concrete, as the company <a href="https://starkware.co/resource/open-sourcing-the-starknet-prover/">stated</a> it would use a more permissive Apache 2.0 license.&nbsp;



“Open-sourcing the Starknet Prover will allow more eyes to review the code, improve its quality, help detect bugs, and provide transparency,” StarkWare wrote at the time.



By following through on that aim, StarkWare lays claim to having “the most decentralized rollup stack,” including key infrastructure components, such as its programming language, Cairo, and multiple implementations of full nodes.



Starknet’s new sequencer “will also be open-sourced” according to the blog post, although a StarkWare spokesperson did not have a timeframe for that next step as yet.



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StarkWare moves to open-source its prover

Sebastian Sinclair

A dispute has erupted in the open-source community, with the Polygon Zero team, a branch of the Polygon project, accusing rival Matter Labs of appropriating significant amounts of source code without adequate attribution.



The crux of the disagreement centers around the <a href="https://mirror.xyz/0x70DF15b0208eFCeFaA541Da9A0ED6C4A884554Fc/gNi8coqXjd1ybFsQBAG7QARUkPHZECu7ihIRkpiVx2Y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">new proving system</a> developed by Matter Labs called Boojum.&nbsp;



Polygon alleges that the system incorporates a considerable amount of code from Plonky2, their open-source library designed for optimizing zero-knowledge-proof systems, according to a <a href="https://mirror.xyz/0x70DF15b0208eFCeFaA541Da9A0ED6C4A884554Fc/gNi8coqXjd1ybFsQBAG7QARUkPHZECu7ihIRkpiVx2Y">blog post</a> published by Polygon Zero on Thursday.



They further claim that Matter Labs has misrepresented the origin and performance of Boojum, both in attributing the original developers and in claiming superior speed to Plonky2.&nbsp;



Matter Labs is known for the development of zkSync, a trustless scaling solution for Ethereum based on zero-knowledge proof technology. The pair first announced their <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-and-matter-labs-compete-on-zkevm-rollups">public testnets</a> based on zero-knowledge tech back in October with Polygon first out of the gate.



Alex Gluchowski, co-founder of Matter Labs, dismissed Polygon’s allegations as &#8220;unfounded, misleading, and extremely disappointing,&#8221; in a detailed rebuttal on <a href="https://twitter.com/gluk64/status/1687263207860166656?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">social media</a>.



Gluchowski also outlined several key points to refute the allegations, underlining that only about 5% of Boojum’s code is based on Plonky2&#8217;s.



&#8220;The reader of the Polygon Zero post is left with the impression that Boojum is largely using Plonky2 code with little innovation, and that we allegedly re-used this code without providing any attribution to the original work.&#8221; These claims &#8220;could not be further from the truth,&#8221; Gluchowski stated.



The co-founder further clarified that Matter Labs&#8217; team introduced <a href="https://eprint.iacr.org/2019/1400.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">RedShift</a>, the cryptographic proof system on which both Plonky2 and Boojum are based, three years prior to the former’s release paper, something which he has publicly <a href="https://twitter.com/gluk64/status/1680878564072103936?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">noted</a> before.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Both Plonky2 and Boojum are implementations of RedShift (Plonk + FRI). We borrowed some dope ideas from Plonky2, but did many things differently (see README). At the end, Boojum is more than an order of magnitude faster (see <a href="https://twitter.com/CelerNetwork?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CelerNetwork</a>&#39;s benchmarks).<a href="https://t.co/k93qYyZW8B">https://t.co/k93qYyZW8B</a>&mdash; Alex G. ∎ (@gluk64) <a href="https://twitter.com/gluk64/status/1680878564072103936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



A clear attribution for the reused code is provided in the main file of the module, Gluchowski added, with additional acknowledgments to Plonky2 made in the README file and the introductory post.



Polygon had earlier stressed the importance of maintaining integrity in the open-source ecosystem, per the post.



Disregarding open-source norms can damage innovation and collaboration among developers, especially for smaller teams heavily reliant on the benefits of open-source contributions, Polygon Zero argues.



Starkware co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson, whose company is a competitor to both Polygon and Matter Labs, appeared to <a href="https://twitter.com/elibensasson/status/1687162808071307264" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">weigh in</a> on the side of Polygon, <a href="https://twitter.com/ukolodny/status/1687163140742529032?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">as did</a> Starkware CEO Uri Kolodny.



Louis Guthmann, ecosystem lead at StarkWare, clarified to Blockworks that the issue is Matter Labs&#8217; &#8220;did not have attribution in the right place, which is breaking the license.&#8221;



But Michael Lewellen, a security solutions architect at OpenZeppelin, which has an ongoing auditing contract with Matter Labs, <a href="https://twitter.com/lewellenmichael/status/1687164201800777740" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> any shortcoming in attribution was “unintentional.”



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">It&#39;s important to call out proper attribution when borrowing open-source code but this appears to be a genuine mistake, not intentional. Plonky2 was previously mentioned in docs and in public tweets by the <a href="https://twitter.com/zksync?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@zksync</a> team. <a href="https://t.co/LkGFFGTqzy">https://t.co/LkGFFGTqzy</a>&mdash; Michael Lewellen (@LewellenMichael) <a href="https://twitter.com/LewellenMichael/status/1687164201800777740?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



&#8220;They didn&#8217;t include ALL the information that an official attribution should have: original license, link to original code, etc.,&#8221; Lewellen, told Blockworks.



Gluchowski acknowledged the deficit but suggested a more cooperative approach, saying, &#8220;If the Polygon Zero team wanted additional credit, the easiest way would have been to submit a pull request which we would have happily accepted.&#8221;



A Polygon spokesperson told Blockworks that Polygon had indeed submitted a pull request on Github.



Macauley Peterson contributed reporting.



Updated, Friday Aug. 4, 2023 at 9:40 am ET with additional comments and context.



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Polygon Zero and Matter Labs square off over open-source norms

Ben Strack

The share of US-based blockchain developers is shrinking, according to a recent study, though the country has a chance to regain a lead as an upcoming boom of such jobs is expected over the next decade. 



The US has lost 2% of its share of the blockchain developer market per year for the last five years — sinking to 29% market share, venture capital firm Electric Capital found.



Europe is also currently home to 29% of blockchain developers, the data shows, while Asia accounts for 13%.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The number of active open source software engineers grew to 23,343 by the end of 2022, according to Electric Capital, despite crypto prices declining. The <a href="https://www.developerreport.com/developer-report-geography" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> estimates that ​​one million new blockchain-related open-source developer jobs could be created by 2030, giving the US a chance to catch up. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2400" height="1320" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-50544" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=2400 2400w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=2048 2048w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The USA&#8217;s blockchain developer share has shrunk 2% per year since 2017, according to Electric Capital</figcaption></figure>



Regulatory clarity could go a long way to attracting a chunk of that talent, though some industry participants have said they aren’t particularly optimistic. In the absence of a comprehensive crypto framework, the SEC and CFTC have launched enforcement actions against crypto companies and executives in recent months, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/binance-cftc-damning-quotes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">including Binance</a>.



“Providing clear and supportive regulations for the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries will encourage more innovation and foster growth within the country,” the report states. “This will make the US an attractive destination for both new and established developers.”



Coinbase, an industry player <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-serves-coinbase-in-latest-alleged-crypto-securities-violation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the SEC has targeted</a> recently, said in a blog post Wednesday that “regulation by enforcement” in the US was indeed pushing tech innovation to other parts of the world. 



CEO Brian Armstrong said the company would be “happy to go to court” if necessary to offer some clarity to the industry.&nbsp;



“The US is now losing market share to regions with more regulatory clarity and openness to crypto innovation like Europe and Asia, as well as emerging markets like LATAM, India, and Africa,” the crypto exchange’s <a href="https://www.coinbase.com/blog/new-report-shows-1m-tech-jobs-at-stake-in-us-crypto-policy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog</a> post states.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2403" height="1335" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-50548" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=2403 2403w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=2048 2048w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 2403px) 100vw, 2403px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Where will the next million Web3 developers go?</figcaption></figure>



While the US, Europe and Asia have the most blockchain developers, India’s share of such professionals has grown more consistently — from 2% in 2017 to 6% in 2022.



“Still the United States has amazing builders, but then India is another ecosystem that is coming on line in the last couple of months and years in a really really big way,” said Ruben Amenyogbo, head of partnerships for Protocol Labs.



Ukraine has been a standout European country in terms of growth, as its share of blockchain developers rose 2% in the last three years.&nbsp;



Macaulay Peterson contributed reporting. 



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US Losing Ground on Blockchain Developer Share: Study

Ethereum has a new scaling solution reaching public mainnet, going live Friday. ZkSync’s EVM-compatible zero-knowledge proof-based rollup is open to the public from 10:00 am ET.



The zkEVM, which <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/matter-labs-rebrands-zkevm">rebranded to zkSync Era</a> last month, has been open to developers-only <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zksync-sharpens-role-ethereum-200m-funding">since October 2022</a>. But now the proverbial training wheels are coming off and the public will have their first chance to interact with dapps on the platform.



ZkSync Era was previously known as zkSync 2.0, and its 1.0 cousin, launched by developer Matter Labs in December 2020, remains live as zkSync Lite.



A rival zkEVM from Polygon was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-zkevm-beta-live-on-ethereum">announced in mid-February</a> and its equivalent offering, which the team calls “Mainnet Beta,” is expected to go live on Monday, March 27.



So, the zkSync folks can lay claim to being “the world’s first zkEVM mainnet,” if only by a weekend.



Matter Labs’ co-founder and CEO Alex Gluchowski told Blockworks the timing is coincidental, and Era’s alpha launch milestone is arriving right on schedule, following the completion of a second public <a href="http://code4rena.com/contests/2023-03-zksync-era-system-contracts-contest">security contest</a> via Code4rena.



“Now we feel completely safe to launch,” Gluchowski said, stressing that the testing of the product has been extensive.



The developers spent $3.8 million on testing and auditing, according to a statement shared with Blockworks, including seven independent security audits — <a href="https://blog.openzeppelin.com/zksync-layer-1-audit/">one</a> with leading auditor OpenZeppelin — and an open-ended bug bounty program <a href="https://immunefi.com/bounty/zksyncera/">with Immunefi</a>.



“You really need this layered approach to security,” Gluchowski said, adding, “Now we feel comfortable, but I mean it’s still Alpha — people have to understand it’s still brand new technology.”



He pointed to the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/euler-bounty-defi-flash-loan-attack">recent exploit of Euler Finance</a>, whose smart contracts were audited by a reputable firm and were live for the better part of a year, as an example of how audits alone aren’t enough.



The combination of external and internal audits, public security contests and bug bounties and a developer gated release, Gluchowki thinks should be industry standard practice.



The zkSync Era code is also fully <a href="https://github.com/matter-labs/zksync-era">open-source</a>, including the prover, which the team <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zksync-sharpens-role-ethereum-200m-funding">sees as a competitive differentiator</a>.



“We open-sourced everything the moment we opened the network to developers — as we promised — under a permissive MIT Apache 2 License,” Gluchowski said, explaining the rationale is that they “believe it’s fundamental to crypto have the code open-source and forkable, because that’s tied to the ethos and values of Ethereum.”



Another key feature is native <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-are-smart-contract-wallets">account abstraction</a>, which will allow Era users to pay transaction fees in any token or even let dapp developers pay users’ fees.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Looking forward: Decentralization</h2>



There remain guardrails in place, such as a delay period for withdrawals, initially set to 24 hours, but which will be reduced gradually, Gluchowski said.



“In the initial phase, we will be still running the sequencer [and] we have the right to upgrade the contracts — it’s not yet fully decentralized,” he said.



The plan is to follow a similar approach to that of zkSync Lite, which has a <a href="https://blog.matter-labs.io/security-council-2-0-2337a555f17a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">security council</a> that supervises protocol upgrades.



“We can’t guarantee that there are no problems, we encourage people to experiment slowly,” Gluchowski said.



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ZkSync’s zkEVM ‘Era’ Opens to the Public

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_61f7ed2931b78" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>“Meta joining COPA means crypto is not a niche,” Max Sills, general manager at COPA, told Blockworks. “It’s a technology that will be depended on by every industry&#8221;</li>
 <li>The non-profit community was founded by Block, formerly Square, Inc. and consists of over 30 members, including MicroStrategy, Kraken, Uniswap, Chaincode Labs and OKCoin</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>





Meta, formerly known as <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/zuckerberg-says-facebooks-new-name-will-be-meta/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook</a>, has joined a nonprofit community focused on making digital assets open-source in big tech’s latest move into the crypto ecosystem. 



The social media platform joined the board of the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), which is working to assemble a pool of crypto patents that all members can use in an effort to encourage innovation.&nbsp;



“Meta joining COPA means crypto is not a niche,” Max Sills, general manager at COPA and counsel at Square, told Blockworks. “It’s a technology that will be depended on by every industry.”



Through COPA, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/facebook-parent-meta-reverses-crypto-ad-ban/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Meta</a> pledged to not enforce its core cryptocurrency patents against any individual or company, except for “defensive reasons.” This effectively makes its patents freely available for all to use. 



Some of those patents include Meta’s technology that enables the creation, mining, storage, transmission, settlement, integrity or security of cryptocurrencies, Sills said. 



The non-profit community was founded by <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/jack-dorseys-square-to-change-its-name-to-block/">Block</a>, formerly Square, Inc., and consists of over 30 members, including <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/microstrategy-buys-1900-more-bitcoins/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MicroStrategy</a>, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/kraken-acquires-staking-platform-staked/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kraken</a>, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=uniswap#:~:text=Uniswap%20Delegates%20Consider%20Liquidity%20Mining%20to%20Kickstart%20Ethereum%20Layer%2D2%20Adoption" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Uniswap</a>, Chaincode Labs and OKCoin.



Meta representative Shayne O’Reilly, who manages the company’s licensing and transaction group, will join board members from Block and Coinbase. It’s not known who the representative for both companies is.&nbsp;



Overtime, the board will be governed by a board of nine members: three members from crypto companies and six members from other companies.



COPA is a cross-industry effort with a mission of uniting large technology companies like Meta, with financial services organizations, government agencies, crypto-native companies and others to protect crypto innovation.



“Crypto technologies are a public commons that eventually everyone in the world will depend on for transacting value,” Sills said. “Protecting that commons is paramount to its development.”&nbsp;



Here’s how it works: members pool their crypto patents together to form what the organization calls a “shared patent library.” Any member is then free to use the technology behind a patent.&nbsp;



Over the next 12 months, COPA will continue to outreach to big tech, banks and payments companies, Sills said.



“COPA’s goals over time are to double down on minimizing [intellectual property] risk in cryptocurrency, and create more patent protection for our members,” Sills said. 



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