Projects with bigger problems [LWN.net]

Projects with bigger problems

Posted Apr 28, 2026 12:13 UTC (Tue) by marcH (subscriber, #57642)
In reply to: Projects with bigger problems by pizza
Parent article: Dependency-cooldown discussions warm up

> Their sheer size/scope means they'd be the only ones able to meaningfully implement this trickle-down payment mechanism; anyone else trying to replicate it won't have anywhere near the reach to build a competitor after the fact. A classic example of network effects.

I agree there would be significant network effects but I don't think they would be as bad as for music for instance. If only a few artists you like are missing from your favorite streaming service, then you're unlikely to subscribe to an extra one just for those. I bet most people just _buy_ that particular music instead of streaming it in that case. Whereas with a voluntary donation system, you can split your donations anyway you like any time you want. It seems quite different from that perspective.

Also, artists are getting ripped off because there is yet another indirection layer / middlemen: record labels. Not sure why these are still dominant in our Internet age (getting off-topic) but there's no rip-off equivalent for FOSS and I don't see why there would be any there.

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Projects with bigger problems

Posted May 1, 2026 9:16 UTC (Fri) by massimiliano (subscriber, #3048) [Link] (1 responses)

IIRC, the Radicle (https://radicle.xyz) project was attempting to build a "trickle" system to transfer funds from projects to dependencies.

It was all blockchain-based, so it would not give power to monopolies.

I do not know what happened to it...

Projects with bigger problems

Posted May 1, 2026 9:50 UTC (Fri) by liw (subscriber, #6379) [Link]

I believe you mean Drips, drips.network.