S.10 Ep.7 Prosperous Software: Rethinking Open Source Funding Through Licensing

Dec 23, 2025

Raymond Cheng, a software engineer and co-founder of Open Source Observer, dives into the evolving landscape of open source licensing. He highlights the sustainability challenges facing open source funding and critiques outdated licenses that fail to modern financial realities. Cheng introduces the Prosperous Software Movement, advocating for revenue-sharing licenses to support creators. They discuss the limits of public goods funding, the concept of a Public Prosperity License, and the potential of crypto to enhance funding mechanisms, painting a vision for the future of open source.

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ANECDOTE

OSO's Licensing Crossroads

Open Source Observer faced a product lifecycle choice about keeping everything open versus relicensing.
That dilemma directly inspired Raymond to explore a licensing pathway to fund dependencies.

INSIGHT

Licenses Lag Behind Economic Reality

Today's open source licenses ignore the financial reality of global software usage and maintenance.
Raymond Cheng argues a new license class should let value creators share in the prosperity they enable.

INSIGHT

Revenue Share As The Core Mechanism

The Prosperous Software Movement proposes revenue-sharing licenses to fund dependencies.
Raymond frames the idea simply: above a revenue threshold, users dedicate a percentage back to dependencies.

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New @greenpillnet pod out today! 🌐

In this episode of the Greenpill Podcast, Kevin Owocki talks with Raymond Cheng software engineer, researcher, and co-founder of Open Source Observer — about the Prosperous Software Movement and why open source licensing needs to evolve.

Raymond explains how today's open source economy underfunds its own foundations, why existing licenses fail to reflect modern financial realities, and how a new class of revenue-sharing licenses could sustainably fund open source dependencies. They explore the history of free software, the limits of voluntary public goods funding, the idea of "ProfitLeft" licensing, and how legal, technical, and social mechanisms including crypto could help open source creators share in the prosperity they generate.

A must-listen for anyone building, funding, or relying on open source software in Web3 and beyond.

Some of the materials we mention in the episode: https://tally.so/r/68LGdO https://pgf.ing/chat

🌱 greenpill.network @owocki @greenpillnet @RaymondCheng00

Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome to the Greenpill Podcast 01:00 – Introducing Raymond Cheng & Open Source Observer 02:45 – The problem: funding open source sustainably 04:30 – Why public goods funding has hit its limits 06:10 – The history of free software & open source licenses 08:10 – Open source as the bedrock of the global economy 10:30 – Why current licenses ignore financial reality 12:10 – Introducing the Prosperous Software Movement 14:00 – Why licensing is a core lever of power 16:00 – Preserving open source freedoms while adding funding 18:30 – "ProfitLeft" vs traditional commercial licenses 20:30 – How revenue-sharing licenses could work 22:45 – Crypto, smart contracts & enforceability 24:50 – Legal, technical & social power combined 26:45 – Building a founding cohort of projects 28:30 – Call to action: how to get involved 30:00 – Long-term vision: prosperity for open source 31:30 – Zero-to-one adoption challenges 33:00 – Closing thoughts & where to follow Raymond