Generally, and directly from the Open Source site – “open source software is software that can be freely accessed, used, changed, and shared (in modified or unmodified form) by anyone.  Open source software is made by many people, and distributed under licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition.”

Recently, a new decentralized communication application was launched on the Blockstack browser home page.  The new dApp is called Stealthy and it uses open source software to build its application.  Additional information on stealthy can be found here. 

Like Blockstack, there are many software programs that are open source.  A couple of great resources for finding open source software and programs might be Github, NPM and React.

Github

GitHub is a development platform inspired by the way you work. From open source to business, you can host and review code, manage projects, and build software alongside millions of other developers.

NPM

NPM opens up an entire world of JavaScript talent for you and your team. It’s the world’s largest software registry, with approximately 3 billion downloads per week. The registry contains over 600,000 packages (building blocks of code). Open-source developers from every continent use npm to share and borrow packages, and many organizations use npm to manage private development as well.

React

React is a declarative, efficient, and flexible JavaScript library for building user interfaces from facebook open source with an MIT license.

A general premise is that open source is used to share freely with others.  And, when you share something, it perhaps – makes it easier for others to learn and/or building something e.g. bootstrap the learning curve or building curve.  In addition, open source provides transparency and promotion of the same.  One should not reinvent or need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak.  In other words, a developer can develop from scratch or bootstrap with software developed by someone else.

Now, in connection with above, we recently learned that stealthy made substantial use of an open source project to bootstrap its application to a user-ready level.  And, remember, Blockstack is open source and provides a foundational infrastructure for all dApps that are built for use on its internet network. 

The particular program stealthy used to complete its dApp – along with Blockstack’s libraries – was from a developer and computer scientist named Feross Aboukhadijeh.  The program Mr. Aboukhadijeh wrote is called 📡 Simple WebRTC video/voice and data channels.  And, like stealthy, Mr. Aboukhadijeh used an open source project called WebRTC. 

WebRTC – is a free, open project that provides browsers and mobile applications with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities via simple APIs. The WebRTC components have been optimized to best serve this purpose.

An open source (WebRTC), being used in an open source (Simple WebRTC), being used in an open source (Blockstack), being used to bring stealthy to fruition. Now, is stealthy open source?  Not sure but assume that it is or will be.  Hopefully, stealthy will disclose that and declare its license chose very soon.  Please stayed tuned for more on that here. 

But, the stealthy project shows sharing of open source to the n^th degree – the bottom line for open source. 

And, along with being open source, the open source project can use a license e.g. MIT license to help outline the parameters or criteria for its use.  In connection with the above, the following licenses are attached to the following projects:

📡 Simple WebRTC – uses an MIT license

WebRTC – license at this link

Blockstack – uses a variety of license e.g., MIT, MPL-2, GPL-3.0 …

For more on the various licenses and some brief information on each, please see this link.

The open source license community is very active and provides a wonderful resource and vehicle to spread information.  It needs to be supported.

With regard to Mr. Aboukhadijeh, we are providing below some basic information in an effort to support his efforts.  Thanks again Mr. Aboukhadijeh for your code.  And, please see his new page (shown below) – Thanks – which is a vehicle to help support all of the open source community contributors like Mr. Aboukhadijeh.

Mr. Aboukhadijeh’s website

Mr. Aboukhadijeh’s twitter page

Mr. Aboukhadijeh’s github page

Mr. Aboukhadijeh’s Thanks page for support of the open source community – another way to help support the open source community

WebRTC’s website

We are glad to spotlight open source and Mr. Aboukhadijeh, and hope that this brief overview on the same is helpful and informative.  In addtion, another way to support the efforts of Mr. Aboukhadijeh – along with Thanks shown above – is to support him on Patreon!

Other helpful links for more information on Blockstack include:

Blockstack – the new decentralized application platform and ecosystem for the decentralized/re-decentralized internet (dApp, dApps, blockchain, bitcoin, distributed and Web 3.0)

Blockstack’s Forum

@Blockstack

Note: If you do not have the Blockstack browser, please see this link (note – to enable the full functionality of any dApp built for the Blockstack ecosystem (e.g., building a new internet, decentralized, a decentralized internet, distributed, bitcoin, distributed, blockchain, re-decentralizing the internet) you need to use the Blockstack browser).

For more on All things Developer^TM, see this link here. For more on the engineering meeting at Blockstack, please visit the forum. Blockstack makes the internet you use better!^TM

Thanks again for visiting The Stack Cafe^TM and we look forward to hearing from you. Please help us put out the word on Web^3.0 by posting a comment below and signing up for e-mail notifications for future updates (right side-bar). Let’s help build the new internet | The Decentralized Way^TM. A decentralized internet | The Way The Future^TM.

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