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mawalu | 5 years ago

But keybase still has their server software that people depend on and that isn't open source. Worst that could happen with New Vector is that they stop paying developers to work for the Matrix.org foundation but that would not prevent anyone from continuing to use the existing software

discuss

Arathorn|5 years ago

Yeah, we (Matrix) have a fundamentally different model to Keybase. The Matrix.org Foundation (https://matrix.org/foundation) is an independent neutral entity that safeguards the protocol and ecosystem, with the mission to protect it from being sabotaged by any actors in the ecosystem (including New Vector - https://vector.im, the startup founded by the team who created Matrix).

Even if New Vector did go evil (e.g: bought by EvilCorp; coerced into adding backdoors; tried to monetise user data/metadata; tried to relicense opensource stuff as proprietary; tried to add core functionality as paid-only) then both the Foundation and the wider ecosystem would fight back; rejecting the obnoxious changes to the spec, or simply going and supporting an alternative provider.

Meanwhile, if New Vector did implode, the team could still go elsewhere and keep working on Matrix if they wanted to - and there are an increasing number of folks who might hire them to do so. <plug>e.g. Automattic's new Matrix job opening! https://automattic.com/work-with-us/matrix-integrations-engi...

edit: the monetisation strategy for New Vector is selling Matrix hosting (https://modular.im) and helping out big folks like Governments who want to jump on board Matrix. While the company is certainly not profitable yet, it certainly has a path to being sustainable (otherwise folks like Automattic wouldn't invest!)

Boulth|5 years ago

> the monetisation strategy for New Vector is selling Matrix hosting (https://modular.im) and helping out big folks like Governments who want to jump on board Matrix. While the company is certainly not profitable yet, it certainly has a path to being sustainable (otherwise folks like Automattic wouldn't invest!)

Thanks for this info! Exactly what I was looking for.

unknown|5 years ago

[deleted]

Boulth|5 years ago

Nope, worse is that investors subtly want to extract value from them e.g. utilizing user data from identity server on vector.im or so.

Even if they just "went Keybase" not having people outside of the org working on it would slowly bring them the XMPP fate (irrelevance).