Everything is a public good
Hi frens,
Since I started exploring Ethereum ecosystem, I’ve heard about “funding public goods” a lot.
What is a public good?
What comes to your mind when talking about public goods? For me, it’s public parks, free roads, street lighting, etc., mostly public constructions that everyone can access.
In economics, a public good is defined as non-excludable and non-rivalrous, which means unlimited use for everyone.
It sounds that open source software is inherently a public good, right? Anyone can use open source software, in accordance with the license.
Major blockchains are built upon open source software and are available to the general public. So, it is reasonable to view those projects as “public goods.”
Why funding public goods
In the real world, the government usually pays the bill for constructing public goods, and the funds mostly come from taxes.
However, in the blockchain world, there’s no such thing as “government”, but what about “tax”? People pay “fees” for transactions. But that’s for blockchain validators who run the software, not those who develop the software.
So in my opinion, it’s more like asking enterprises to fund public goods in the real world.
Why should I care? It seems none of my business.
With Gitcoin Passport and quadratic funding, people vote for projects that deserve funding. That helps better distribute funds to useful projects.
What is a public good, anyway?
There are Gitcoin Grants, Optimism RetroPGF, etc., to fund lots of projects. Many of them aren’t doing open source software, including our Web3Matters Weekly. We’re just making public curation newsletter. Is it a “public good”? If yes, all public articles are public goods?
I’ve heard a broader definition of public goods:
Projects with positive externality.
Simply put, anything that’s “good” for the world.
However, who gets to define “good” for the world? John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil, believed monopoly was good for the society. Some people argued “human species become a cancer on the planet.” On the contrary, everything is good for ourselves, e.g. social media connect people, every product benefits its consumers. Everything is a public good.
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It’s really hard to have an objective definition of public goods, in my opinion. So rather than defining public goods or even using the term for marketing, I’d prefer just talking about what we’re doing, and being more pragmatic.
That’s what I’ve learned from Steve Jobs talked about “design”:
Design is a really loaded word. I don’t know what it means. And so we don’t really talk about design a lot around here. We actually just talk about how things work.
Rather than getting bogged down in terminology, the focus should be on taking actions that have more positive impact and conversations.
Your friend,
Denken