Episode 14: Funding Open Source With Gitcoin

The special guest for this episode of Sustain our Software is
Kevin Owocki. Kevin is the founder of Gitcoin, a service that
links up freelance developers with people who need them and pays
these developers in crypto currency. Gitcoin is a blockchain
forward brand that is built on open source software and currently
uses Ethereum as its crypto currency of choice rather than
creating their own. They like Ethereum because of its relevance
as the 2nd most popular cryptocurrency at the time of this
episode. By incentivizing open source contributions, Gitcoin has
become an important contributor to the funding of open source
software. 


Pia begins the discussion by asking Kevin how the bounty system
is governed for Gitcoin and Kevin shares some of their structure,
process, and philosophy on the subject as well as Gitcoin’s
desire to make it easy for developers to find work on their
platform. The panelists then discuss how they think the future of
the job market will change with the emergence of blockchain. The
discussion starts with stating that bounties are the current
popular system but Eric says he would look to see a blockchain
based paycheck network among other ideas. Pia questions how
Eric’s ideas can scale to the larger open source ecosystems and
how to have a conversation with a company to open a wallet with
Ethereum. Eric responds with some of his ideas on how to make
this work as well as some roadblocks they might face. One of the
biggest challenges is that the technologies involved are newly
emerging and this brings along some skepticism with it. 


Richard then asks what Kevin’s long term view is that goes beyond
the current system even though things are working really well
right now. Kevin shares his aspiration that Gitcoin becomes a
network that is owned, built by, and built for coders. This means
that they find a way to distribute Gitcoin’s equity to the
community and sustain open source through those means. Kevin
shares that he does wish to go beyond the bounty system and some
of his thoughts on how he hopes to accomplish that.  


The conversation then moves to networks and peer communications.
Pia raises a concern that some people who don’t have an aptitude
for communication often get left behind. She asks Kevin how
Gitcoin helps to overcome challenges for those who struggle to
get involved. Kevin shares some thoughts on why certain
demographics struggle and makes the point that a difference could
be made in how those in the field prioritize diversity.


Kevin talks about the sustain conference and some of the great
opportunities he had when he attended the prior year. He had the
opportunity to talk to other professionals and share ideas on
web3, blockchain and sustaining open source. The final topic
covered by the panelists is who the big contributors are that are
making a big difference to sustain open source. Kevin names a few
companies that he feels has made a difference and a high level
view of what they have done.
Panelists



Pia Mancini




Eric Berry




Richard Littauer


Guest



Kevin Owocki


Sponsors



Adventures in .NET




React Round Up




Adventures in Blockchain


Links



Gitcoin




Ethereum




Web3




Sustain OSS Conference




Codefund




Oscoin




Moloch DAO


Picks

Richard 




Refined github chrome extension




Using CSS to hide the github notification icon




Four Tet




Eric Berry




Pipedrive




Oss fund




Pia




Woop recovery tracker




Open collective climate strike




Octobox




Kevin




Advantage kinesis 2 keyboard




Gratitude journaling




Deep Chord by Echo Space


Special Guest: Kevin Owocki.