In his short speech, Odell, who serves as a board member of the open source crowdfunding platform OpenSats, stressed the importance of the community factor in Bitcoin projects, arguing that “without people, the code is just words.” He also spoke about the autonomous value of FOSS, reminding the audience that open source code “will outlive any of its creators”.
Odell’s speech inaugurated Bitcoin 2022’s Open Source Stage, new for this year. As part of the organizers’ effort to recognize the value of independent Bitcoin projects, the stage hosts speakers such as Chris Steward from Suredbits, Obi Nwosu from ₿trust, and founding managing partner at Stillmark, Alyse Killeen. Topics include Lightning payments, covenants, funding, and privacy.
Announcing the Open Source Stage, Bitcoin 2022 organizers expressed their belief that FOSS is where Bitcoin meets social responsibility.
"Open source software empowers individuals around the world while remaining independent of governments and large corporations who continuously attempt to track, censor, and control us.”
To underscore their commitment, Bitcoin 2022 gave away 30 free open source contributor tickets equaling $1 million worth of conference passes. Approved projects include the decentralized exchange Bisq, BTCPay Server, bitcoin full node implementation RoninDojo, and the Tor network.
Coincidentally, some of the projects that made the cut for Bitcoin 2022 contributor tickets are also listed on OpenSats, a crowdfunding platform built to fund Bitcoin free and open source programs, plus related education and research projects.
The platform is helmed by nine board members who vette submitted projects and distribute grants from donors. They also run continuous funding for select contributors. Besides Matt Odell, the board includes The Bitcoin Company’s Ben Price and Bloomberg opinion columnist Elaine Ou. OpenSats claims that no one on the board makes any money.
Matt Odell stressed in his keynote address on Wednesday that "we could not have the largest Bitcoin event in history without the largest focus on open source in history", signaling that FOSS and a more community-oriented Bitcoin movement were only just getting started.
