What comes after open source? — Denis Nazarov

As crypto networks evolve, they are likely to provide strong incentives to unlock further state and create open services in many areas dominated by closed ones today. Open services powered by crypto networks will present unprecedented opportunity for a new generation of developers and entrepreneurs to innovate.

It is not surprising that most services are primarily constructed out of open source components. Anyone can attempt to copy a service or even re-instantiate the actual codebase, but an existing service with more users will have more useful state, and will be more desirable to new users. This creates a feedback loop, where more users beget more stat... See more

To understand the evolution, it is important to to distinguish between the logic (code) of a program and its ability to remember (state).

Next, as connectivity to the internet became commonplace and the web started to pick up steam, the focus of software innovation shifted from digital productivity tools to programming communication and interactivity between computers. Software edged toward offering new capabilities of being collaborative, multiplayer, dynamic, and social, in turn pr... See more

Combinatorial innovation is a cultural process for invention by which existing ideas are combined in novel ways to create new ideas. The resulting output is fed back into the process to generate more new ideas, ad infinitum. As more ideas are explored, more possibilities present themselves.

Crypto networks rely on open source code, but also instantiate global services that depend on open state. Open state is a critical requirement for cryptographic verification and provides the lynchpin of trust in blockchains. In addition, tokens create a new incentive model for sustaining crypto networks that is aligned with their open nature.