Detalhes da Discussão
OSC Budget Proposal - Paid Open Source Model for Sustainable Development
intersectosc
Descrição
The Open Source Committee in conjunction with the Open Source Office (OSO) seeks to enact a Paid Open Source Model for Sustainable Development in Cardano. A budget proposal of ₳5,885,000 (approx. $2.94M USD), designed to ensure the long-term sustainability of open-source development within the Cardano ecosystem. This initiative will be managed by the Open Source Committee (OSC) pending approval by the DReps, and seeks to address the critical funding gaps that hinder the maintenance, security, and growth of essential open-source projects.
Key Objectives & Strategic Impact
- Sustainable Open-Source Development: Funding for 50+ key projects via the Maintainer Retainer Program ensures continuous innovation and maintenance of mission-critical repositories.
- Developer Onboarding & Retention: Programs like Cardano Summer of Code, Code For Us, and Developer Advocates provide clear pathways for new and experienced contributors to engage in Cardano development.
- Security & Infrastructure Reliability: Investments in Bug Bounties, Incident Monitoring, and Tooling Sustainability safeguard the network and strengthen ecosystem resilience.
- Commercialization & Ecosystem Growth: The Accelerator Research Program and Expanded Project Support Services transition promising projects from incubation to sustainable businesses.
- Community Engagement & Governance: The OSC ensures transparent fund allocation, performance monitoring, and open participation for contributors across Cardano.
Declaração do Problema
The Challenge Cardano’s open-source ecosystem is critical to the network’s long-term success, yet it lacks structured funding to support its growth. Unlike other blockchain ecosystems that provide clear financial backing for maintainers, contributors, and security efforts, Cardano’s open-source projects often rely on ad-hoc funding or volunteer efforts.
This has led to several challenges:
- Unmaintained Core Infrastructure: Key open-source repositories, including those used by dApp developers and the broader ecosystem, lack dedicated funding for long-term maintenance.
- Loss of Contributors: Without clear incentives, experienced developers leave for other ecosystems, making it harder to sustain projects and onboard new talent.
- Security Risks: A lack of structured funding for bug bounties and incident response leaves Cardano exposed to vulnerabilities that could otherwise be proactively addressed.
- Slower Ecosystem Growth: The absence of stable funding for new tools, developer education, and strategic project support makes it difficult to keep pace with industry advancements.
Why This Matters
If Cardano wants to remain a competitive, developer-friendly blockchain, it must invest in the sustainability of its open-source infrastructure. Without structured funding, key projects will stagnate, developer engagement will decline, and security risks will increase.
A well-supported open-source ecosystem ensures:
- Reliable infrastructure for wallets, dApps, and developer tooling.
- More engaged developers who have clear pathways to contribute and earn.
- Stronger security with funding for bug bounties and incident response.
- A faster-growing ecosystem where teams can build with confidence, knowing key tools and services are actively maintained.
Benefício da Proposta
The Solution: The Paid Open Source Model
This budget proposal introduces a Paid Open Source Model to ensure that essential open-source projects receive structured funding. It includes:
- A Maintainer Retainer Program to fund developers maintaining critical repositories.
- Bug bounty and security initiatives to identify and fix vulnerabilities.
- Developer advocacy and engagement programs to onboard and retain contributors.
- An incubation framework to support promising open-source projects and help them scale.
By implementing this model, Cardano will create a predictable, transparent, and sustainable funding mechanism that supports long-term open-source development, improves security, and accelerates ecosystem growth.
Principais Entregas da Proposta
Key Objectives & Strategic Impact
- Sustainable Open-Source Development: Funding for 50+ key projects via the Maintainer Retainer Program ensures continuous innovation and maintenance of mission-critical repositories.
- Developer Onboarding & Retention: Programs like Cardano Summer of Code, Code For Us, and Developer Advocates provide clear pathways for new and experienced contributors to engage in Cardano development.
- Security & Infrastructure Reliability: Investments in Bug Bounties, Incident Monitoring, and Tooling Sustainability safeguard the network and strengthen ecosystem resilience.
- Commercialization & Ecosystem Growth: The Accelerator Research Program and Expanded Project Support Services transition promising projects from incubation to sustainable businesses.
- Community Engagement & Governance: The OSC ensures transparent fund allocation, performance monitoring, and open participation for contributors across Cardano.
Detalhamento de Custos
Initiative Funding (ADA) Funding (USD) Paid in
Maintainer Retainer Program ₳1.8M $900K ADA Tooling Sustainability Program ₳2M $1M ADA Bug Bounty Program ₳600K $300K ADA Developer Advocacy ₳160K $80K ADA Incident Monitoring & Security ₳175K $87.5K USD Cardano Summer of Code ₳400K $200K USD Code For Us Community Bounties. ₳250K $125K ADA Events, Travel, and Conferences ₳250K $125K USD Accelerator Research Program ₳100K $50K ADA
Total Allocation ₳5.885M. $2.94M
Recursos & Duração
Maintainer Retainer: 100+ Community developers (6 months)
Incident Response: 1 experienced developer
Bug Bounty: 10-50 Community developers (per task stipend)
Code for Us: 10-50 Community developers (per task stipend)
Open Source Committee: 8-10 Seated/Voting Members
Developer Advocate Program: 4 Community Developers (new cohort)
Tooling Working Group: 6+ experienced and active working group members
Accelerator: 7-12 SME Facilitators for scheduled growth/advice sessions
Experiência
committees.docs.intersectmbo.org/intersect-open-source-committee
Fully recorded meetings with regular community contribution.
Supportive Open Source Office staff. Policies, frameworks, programs consistently reviewed and regularly released.
https://493748844-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FLBdnzp0eZpGri9sVpseI%2Fuploads%2FvuisqFT8uCyKSDgpNmyW%2FPaid%20Open%20Source%20Model-%20LIVE.pdf?alt=media&token=577c8bd1-c9df-43a0-8b57-e883ddb1254a
Manutenção & Suporte
Governance & Delegated Authority
This proposal requests that the OSC in conjunction with the OSO be granted delegated authority to manage the entire allocation, ensuring: ✅ Project Selection & Funding Oversight – Strategic deployment of resources to maximize ecosystem impact. ✅ Contract & Vendor Management – Efficient execution of agreements to support development and security initiatives. ✅ Facilitation of Broad Community Participation – Open collaboration channels for developers, maintainers, and ecosystem stakeholders.
Endosso Suplementar
Cardano Forum post: Cardano Core Budget Proposal - Governance / Budgets 2025 - Cardano Forum: https://forum.cardano.org/t/cardano-core-budget-proposal/143047
Open Source Office YouTube: youtube.com/@osointersectmbo/playlists Open Source Committee meetings have been recorded and are shared in a playlist. With open meetings the community is and always has been welcome to provide feedback.
Alinhamento com o Roadmap
Governance Model
This budget proposal asks that the Open Source Committee (OSC) be granted delegated authority by DReps to manage the ₳5,885,000 allocation. This means the OSC will be responsible for:
- Selecting and funding open-source projects that align with Cardano’s ecosystem needs.
- Managing contracts with maintainers, vendors, and contributors.
- Allocating funds efficiently across key initiatives, including maintenance, security, and developer growth.
- Overseeing security programs such as bug bounties and incident monitoring.
- Ensuring community engagement by keeping funding decisions transparent and performance-driven.
By giving the OSC direct oversight, this approach avoids bottlenecks while keeping decision-making close to those who understand open-source development.
Scope of Work
The proposal covers a range of open-source funding needs that are critical to Cardano’s long-term success, including:
- Maintainer Retainer Program – Funding 50+ open-source projects, split between Core Cardano and community-selected initiatives.
- Security & Incident Response – Running a bug bounty program and 24/7 security monitoring to mitigate vulnerabilities.
- Developer Growth & Engagement – Supporting developer advocates, mentorship programs, and bounties to expand the contributor pipeline.
- Ecosystem Expansion – Backing early-stage open-source projects through incubation and accelerator programs to drive adoption.
- Operational & Community Support – Funding project support services, infrastructure improvements, and legal or educational initiatives as needed.
Sua proposta se alinha com algum dos Comitês da Intersect?
Open Source Committee
Esta proposta está alinhada com o Roadmap do Produto e os Objetivos do Roadmap?
It supports the product roadmap
Administração e Auditoria
Você gostaria que a Intersect fosse seu Administrador designado, incluindo atuar como auditor, conforme a Constituição Cardano?
Sim
Informações de Propriedade
Enviado em Nome de
GroupNome do Grupo
Open Source Committee (OSC)Tipo de Grupo
Intersect CommitteePerfis Sociais
open-source-committee@intersectmbo.orgPrincipais Dependências
DRep Approval for OSC to fully oversee and administer this budget.
Open Source Committee: staffed at 80+% (minimum 8/10 members) Community Involvement
While the OSC will oversee funding, the broader Cardano community will play an active role in shaping open-source growth. The proposal ensures: ✅ Open participation – Developers, maintainers, and contributors can engage through funded programs, bounties, and mentorship. ✅ Transparency & accountability – The OSC will report on funding allocation, project milestones, and impact. ✅ Performance-based funding – Projects will be held to clear milestones and deliverables.
This approach keeps funding structured while maintaining an open, collaborative process where the community has a say in how Cardano’s open-source development evolves.
Links de apoio
Comentários (9)
This overlaps with a large number of core proposals. I am voting for this as a professional set of centralized eyes acting as gatekeepers will be better than individual requests for the treasury evaluated by DReps often without the technical expertise to judge.
However, how will we deal with the duplication of efforts assuming this passes, while projects that should be within the scope are also likely to pass with their own requests.
I would request that the priority ranking of which projects SHOULD be in that 50 be ranked and transparent. And if those projects have submitted a separate winning proposal then an equal amount is removed from the OSC spending and treated as-if funded by OSC, and that amount is returned to the treasury.
Next year we can assume/hope that OSC will be able to do the job directly, and any direct competing proposals would be outliers exposed to high scrutiny.
We support this OSC budget because it not only covers the maintenance of previously developed open-source tools but also includes grants for building new tools, which we believe makes perfect sense.
Comments by Sri Lanka hub budget workshop 20th April 2025 : OSC Budget Proposal - Paid Open Source Model for Sustainable Development -
- What stands out? The proposal’s alignment with Cardano’s long-term goals is a major strength. It tackles critical risks like open-source stagnation by funding over 50 key projects through the Maintainer Retainer Program, alongside initiatives like bug bounties, Cardano Summer of Code. This wide breadth of programs incentivices developers, supports community-driven projects, and future-proofs Cardano’s ecosystem. The focus on onboarding new contributors. The point about using this program in to retaining experienced developers was particularly appreciated by the attendees.
Concerns: Many raised questions about financial risk associated with a committee managing these funds. The members also had questions about how the committee would be reducing personal risks that could befall on key members in the committee as they could attract unwanted attention as a result of managing a large sum of money in cryptocurrencies.
The lack of clarity on KPIs and independent oversight beyond the OSC was a concern raised by multiple participants.
- What’s a tradeoff to consider?
A key tradeoff is balancing the ambitious scope of the proposal with financial prudence. Allocating such a large sum could be a much needed stimulus to Cardano’s open-source ecosystem, but it risks straining the treasury if funds are mismanaged or underutilized.
A phased approach starting with a smaller budget and scaling based on proven outcomes was suggested as an alternative. Another tradeoff is the OSC’s centralized control versus involving Intersect to appoint an auditor. While ssome also agreed with centralized management ensuring efficiency others argued if a decentralized approach could better suit this situation. These two points were a highly debated and finally (by a narrow margin), the group agreed involving a auditor appointed by intersect to be their recommendation, as it would provide the benefit of having funds centrally managed while the ones in charge of the money will not be the ones who are in charge of executing the processes.
- What’s one question you’d want to ask the proposer? What specific KPIs will be used to evaluate the success of funded projects and how will the OSC ensure independent review to avoid bias in prioritizing and assessing initiatives?
Cardano's paid open source model is promising because it's designed to be customizable and adaptable to anyone's specific environment. What's particularly exciting is its high compatibility with Web3 ecosystems, making it a flexible solution highly recommended for achieving sustainable open source development in the future.
https://www.intersectmbo.org/news/the-paid-open-source-model
I have a major concern having a member-elected Intersect committee having M of N control over such a large sum of ADA. Here is why:
-The highest number of votes during OSC election was 227. -The Intersect membership fee is $10. -Therefore, buying one seat on this committee would cost $2,270. -Buying majority control in this committee would cost $9,080. -The amount requested to be controlled by this committee is $2,940,000.
Furthermore, the potential for social engineering named members or physically threatining them (i.e., $5 wrench attack) is alarming.
While I understand the need to continue funding open-source ecoystem development, I cannot in good conscious vote to have such off-balance incentives for the OSC to be Sybil attacked and funds stolen. Even with smart contracts, a vendor could perform this attack to have the funds sent to them before work is completed. Until this is addressed or a better non-custodial solution is discovered, I have to vote against this proposal.
FYI https://x.com/ADAFrog_Pool/status/1909844886867616187
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