Zcash Orchard relicensed under MIT

I made the announcement on Twitter, linking here for any discussion.

Cheers!

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Fantastic news! :tada:

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Thank you for sharing here for people not on Xitter.

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Great news, thank you for that. It makes things a lot easier on my view.

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I have mixed feelings!! I don’t know whether this step will be in my side as a 6 years holder of Zec coins or not! I have experienced how most projects used zero-knowledge techniques without benefiting anything… I hope it will be different this time.
Good luck

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THANK YOU. This is fantastic. The only thing that weird licenses achieve is to basically make sure no one uses the software. I’m glad it’s gone.

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I understand this concern. By licensing Orchard under MIT, we’re at most benefiting other projects by the cost of developing an Orchard-equivalent without any IP infringement. In my view, a need to restrict IP is a sign that the technology’s originators aren’t able to out-compete the competition without such restrictions. In other words, if we need to rely on IP restriction, we’re doing something wrong, and the IP restriction isn’t going to be enough to help us succeed.

So I see licensing Orchard under MIT as (1) an admission that we need to out-compete anyone else who would copy the technology, by developing and marketing better products and (2) removing a barrier to entry to the Zcash ecosystem that’s inhibited multiple projects over the years.

It’s a risk, to be sure, but I think it’ll make our community more efficient, and if we were ever relying on the license, it would mean we’d have failed anyways. So, it provides the right incentives for us to do the right things, and it unblocks things that will give Zcash a better future.

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Make sense…
Ty.

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I’ve been developing software professionally for 15+ years or so. One easy rule of thumb that I learned early: make sure all dependencies are MIT/BSD compatible permissive licensing. Why? Then, you know everything is going to be fine and you never have to talk to legal about software licensing. If legal comes asking, you just tap the “everything is MIT/BSD” sign and they give you a thumbs up and leave you alone.

I could go on and on with pros and cons of BOSL - it’s an interesting thing to ponder and I do have mixed feelings. But, I’ll spare you and just say: Right On!!

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