Reverse Capital Risking as a Business Model Environment for Copyleft Projects Development


Definition of the model


Consider the following transaction between 3 partners (that can be individuals, businesses or any type of organization) A,B,C:

A has a new idea for an open-source project, that needs 50 k$ to be implemented.

B comes with 100 k$, betting that the result will become popular

C comes with 100 k$, betting that this project will be a waste, and won't reach popularity.

Based on this, A will spend 50 k$ to implement the project.

Of two things one:

Either the projects turns out to be popular, then, B takes back 150 k$, while C takes back nothing.

Or, the project does not gain popularity, then B takes back nothing, and C takes back 150 k$.

Remark : possibly A=B.

What makes it interesting

If you are a businessman or an inventor, or you know about (or you could know about someone who has) a great idea of technological or other development that you believe in, and you have some money, but you don't want to ruin yourself for sure by investing this money in something you will give away for the benefit of all humanity without them saying thanks. Then you don't need to go for any copyright or patents system: you can just decide to let it free and open source from the start, and take the role of B.

If you are a businessman and you hear that someone has a project, even it it sounds unconvincing at first, it can always be worth taking a closer look. Well, more especially if there has already been a candidate to take a share in the role of B. Then you will choose to take the role of B or C depending on whatever you will believe about it.

If, on the other hand, you just want to be a generous donor for free software development or other resesearch in general, but you acknowledge your total incompetence as to what projects can become useful and popular, you don't need to invest in any bureaucratic troubles of studying candidate projects in more details: you can just decide to pick up any project and play the role of C for them. The more you find stupidly failing projects where someone can be found to play the role of B, and you contribute in the role of C, the more you get profit that you can reinvest in the same way, until it will become the chance to let useful things find the light of day.

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