Two ministries issued a document to encourage open source. Practitioners: Without open source, there is no blockchain, let alone core innovation.

"Open source" is undoubtedly a hot topic in China recently. In September 2020, the Open Atom Foundation was established, and China's open source foundation achieved a breakthrough from 0 to 1. On March 12 this year, the "Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Long-Term Objectives for 2035" included "open source" for the first time, and the industry's enthusiasm for open source is unprecedentedly high .

In the field of blockchain, the government has also increased its attention to "open source". On June 7, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Office of the Central Cyberspace Security and Informatization Commission jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Application of Blockchain Technology and Industrial Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions").

The Guiding Opinions pointed out that it is necessary to establish an open source ecosystem , accelerate the construction of a blockchain open source community , and cultivate a batch of high-quality open source projects around the underlying platform, application development framework, testing tools, etc. Improve the blockchain open source promotion mechanism, widely gather developer and user resources, vigorously promote mature open source products and application solutions, and create a new open source community ecosystem with benign interaction.

Why open source?

Fan Ruibin, head of the Golden Chain Alliance Open Source Working Group, said that the Guiding Opinions specifically mentioned the need to establish an open source blockchain ecosystem, which we are deeply encouraged by. Industry practice has proved that open source is of great significance in promoting the popularization of blockchain technology, the implementation of applications, and the construction of the ecosystem. At the same time, the open source ecosystem is crucial to the sustainable and healthy development of an industry.

Cheng Yang, blockchain engineer at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and leader of the open source group of the Trusted Blockchain Promotion Program, said that open source is a distributed and trusted development model that is increasingly recognized in the global technology circle. Open source projects lower the threshold for users to use them, and open source code also makes users more trustful. It is a win-win approach for both enterprises and users of open source projects.

Wang Xiaoyi, head of the open source project at QuChain Technology, said that open source is an important technical path in the current global emerging technology field. It can help software research and development obtain talent support beyond corporate and national boundaries. This is one of the best ways to make full use of global professional talent.

The relevant person in charge of Baidu Super Chain said that open source is an important means to promote technological development and progress. Blockchain is to build protocols and tools for larger-scale collaboration, and further development can be achieved through the exploration and practice of open source. Secondly, in an environment of technological monopoly and ecological blockade, open source is a feasible direction to solve the problem of technological bottlenecks. my country's blockchain technology must be fully independently developed and fully master the core technology. It requires a large number of blockchain developers to work together to build a sustainable open source ecosystem. Finally, open source can promote collaboration and stimulate innovation. Open source can break through the boundaries of a single company or organization, promote exchanges between developers from different backgrounds and fields, and obtain a global talent pool and tools for developing secure, reliable and scalable software.

The head of CITAHub community operations said that open source is the general trend. According to existing survey data, 90% of companies around the world are embracing open source. In my country, with the rapid development of the digital economy, open source, as an innovation engine, has been gaining increasing status in the process of digital transformation. Blockchain is a machine that creates trust. The trust that users have established in blockchain is essentially based on open source code. Therefore, without open source, there is no blockchain, let alone core innovation capabilities.

my country's blockchain open source ecosystem is generally weak

Cheng Yang said that compared with foreign countries, the current situation of my country's blockchain open source ecology is relatively weak and scattered. Moreover, many people do not have a clear understanding of open source. Currently, well-known open source foundations in the industry, such as Apache and Linux Foundation, are actually registered in the United States. They have a great influence in the open source circle. Each foundation hosts hundreds of projects, including big data, blockchain, cloud computing and other infrastructure projects.

The Open Atom Foundation is the first open source foundation in China. It has incubated 10 projects so far, but compared with foreign foundations, the number is still small. my country as a whole has a large gap with foreign countries in terms of open source ecology. Therefore, my country needs to attach importance to open source and thus enhance its influence in the entire open source and technology circles.

Wang Xiaoyi said that currently domestic open source products are mainly focused on the blockchain level, and the blockchain ecosystem is still not perfect. For example, there is a lack of excellent projects such as blockchain browsers, wallets, digital identities DID, oracles, etc.; secondly, domestic blockchain open source is mainly based on a single enterprise, and the contribution of community participants is limited, and a mature blockchain community has not yet been formed.

The risks of open source

There are three main types of open source risks, including the project’s own security risks, intellectual property risks, and supply chain risks.

1) Project security risks. Open source projects require contributions from many developers, whose technical capabilities vary and some may even have impure motives. This may lead to some hidden risks in open source projects, which are likely to be particularly serious vulnerabilities once they are exposed at a certain point in time.

2) Intellectual property risk. The most prominent intellectual property risk is the open source agreement. Many developers do not pay much attention to the open source agreement when using open source software. For example, some software uses the GPL agreement, and other software that uses the open source software also needs to open source the corresponding code. If developers or companies ignore the agreement, it may cause some intellectual property risks.

3) Supply chain risk. Some software needs to rely on many other open source software. If other software stops maintaining, it will affect the subsequent development of the project.

To avoid project security risks, enterprises need to conduct security tests when using open source software. In fact, many large companies have software security testing processes to ensure software security. For individual users, they can use some security testing tools, pay more attention to the progress of the open source community, and fix security vulnerabilities in a timely manner after discovering them.

Regarding intellectual property risks, users need to learn more about relevant legal knowledge and become familiar with common open source protocols.

There are currently no good measures to avoid supply chain risks. From the perspective of ecological construction, when using open source software, users should provide more feedback to the community to create a positive atmosphere of mutual influence, thereby reducing the risk of developers suddenly not wanting to maintain the software.

How to make money from open source projects

Open source advocates the spirit of open sharing, not the pursuit of profit.

For individual developers, engaging in open source projects is mainly for the satisfaction they get from it, but their monetization ability is weak. Individual developers can create an open source project because of their own interests or expertise in a certain field, and then release it to everyone. However, individual developers have limited energy, and maintaining open source projects will consume a huge amount of energy, resulting in the project being unable to provide good services to users.

For enterprises, open source can be used to attract developers and build their influence in the market. Based on open source software, enterprises can provide commercial versions or some customized services and other value-added services to achieve profitability.

How to build a blockchain open source ecosystem?

The relevant person in charge of Baidu Superchain said that the biggest challenge in operating the blockchain open source community is that the domestic open source technology atmosphere is not strong, the developer contribution ratio is low, and the time and energy invested in open source are limited. This requires us to further strengthen open source and explore the sustainable hematopoietic capacity of the open source ecosystem. At the same time, it also requires the support of the government and relevant departments to promote and educate the open source concept of collaborative win-win and promote the open source culture.

Cheng Yang said that the construction of an open source blockchain ecosystem requires long-term investment and will only produce results over time.

Usually, it is necessary to first establish the underlying architecture of the blockchain, and then gradually expand and extend the middle-layer tools and upper-layer applications. In this process, as the community grows and develops, different developers will have all kinds of strange ideas and create many different projects, and the blockchain open source ecosystem will gradually prosper.

In operating the blockchain open source ecosystem, currently large enterprises in China are taking the lead or forming industry alliances, and are constantly expanding their influence through holding salon sharing sessions and other forms.

For example, the Trusted Blockchain Promotion Plan was launched by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology on April 9, 2018, in conjunction with 158 companies. In December 2020, the Trusted Blockchain Promotion Plan established an open source working group to focus on researching cutting-edge blockchain topics, summarizing the current status of the domestic blockchain open source ecosystem, and guiding the development of the domestic blockchain open source ecosystem. At present, well-known domestic blockchain manufacturers such as WeBank, Baidu, JD.com, and QuChain Technology have joined. Cheng Yang said that relying on the open source project team, he hopes not only to unite domestic blockchain manufacturers related to open source projects to jointly expand and strengthen the market, but also to export Chinese blockchain technology to the international stage.

Suggestions for my country's blockchain open source ecosystem

Wang Xiaoyi said that to build a healthy and sustainable blockchain open source ecosystem, the government should actively encourage scientific research institutions, universities and enterprises to participate in the construction of independent and controllable open source technology platforms based on blockchain technology, and blockchain companies and related teams should also actively explore innovative business models.

In addition, exploring the open source system requires strengthening blockchain security management, strengthening intellectual property protection and legal norms for open source products, further promoting the construction of blockchain open source related standards system, enhancing the interconnection and interoperability of community products, and enabling the developer community to form a real synergy.

Cheng Yang suggested that, on the one hand, all parties in the domestic blockchain open source ecosystem should have cohesion and unite to make the domestic open source ecosystem stronger and bigger. Enterprises should not turn open source into a pure commercial tool. In the process of using open source, they should give as much feedback to the community as possible, which will help community developers improve the project.

In addition, the establishment of the Open Atom Foundation is a very good start for China's open source cause. We hope that it can serve as a benchmark and leader in the domestic open source community and do a good job in my country's open source cause.

Thirdly, the open source community should go deeper into colleges and universities to deepen college students' understanding and cognition of open source, use and contribute to open source, and reserve new forces for the open source community.

Finally, China's open source community needs to go abroad and integrate with the international community.

Influential blockchain open source community in China

my country's blockchain open source community can be traced back to 2015, when alliance chain technology just appeared and a wave of building alliance chain platforms emerged in China. After a period of precipitation, a number of influential blockchain open source communities have emerged. Large-scale blockchain open source communities include FISCO BCOS, CITAHub, and XuperChain. In addition, there are open source communities initiated by manufacturers such as Funchain Technology and JD.com. The open source community of Changan Chain, a blockchain "national team" that has attracted much attention, is also under construction.

1) FISCO BCOS

FISCO BCOS is a secure, controllable, financial industry-friendly and fully open-source blockchain underlying platform launched by the Financial Blockchain Cooperation Alliance (Shenzhen) (abbreviated as: FISCO BCOS) Open Source Working Group in 2017. Over the years, WeBank Blockchain has been committed to uniting many partners to build, share and govern a blockchain open source ecosystem. At present, the ecosystem has brought together more than 2,000 enterprises and institutions, more than 40,000 individual developers, and hundreds of application projects covering government affairs, finance, medical care, social governance, education, cross-border, carbon neutrality and many other fields, forming the largest and most active domestic open source alliance chain ecosystem.

2) CITAHub

CITAHub is an open source community initiated by Xita Technology in early 2019 based on the open source enterprise-level blockchain kernel CITA. It is one of the earliest industrial blockchain open source communities in China jointly built by more than 100 companies including China Merchants Bank, China Banknote Blockchain Research Institute, Ouye Financial Services, and Baosight Software.

At present, the CITAHub open source community has jointly incubated the high-performance blockchain kernel CITA. As the first enterprise-level blockchain bottom layer in China, CITA has become one of the most widely used blockchain bottom layers in China; as well as open source projects such as the cloud-native blockchain CITA-Cloud.

3) XuperChain

Baidu's XuperChain officially started to open source in May 2019. In 2020, XuperChain donated its technical core to the Open Atom Foundation. The Open Atom Foundation is the first and only open source foundation in China. The donation of Baidu's XuperChain marks the upgrade of XuperChain from a commercial company open source project to a third-party public welfare organization open source project, reflecting Baidu's determination to open source.

At present, the activity of Baidu Superchain open source community is constantly increasing: external code contribution exceeds 20%, the number of global developers exceeds 10,000, the number of Github Stars is 1.4k, and the number of Forks is over 300. The community is rich in open source documents, videos, tutorials and other resources, and the number of open source ecological partners has increased significantly. Dozens of benchmark application cases have been implemented in the fields of medical care, justice, traceability, advertising, etc.

4) XuperChain

XuperChain is Baidu's self-developed underlying blockchain technology, which was officially open sourced in May 2019. In 2020, the XuperChain technology core was officially donated to the Open Atom Foundation. The Open Atom Foundation is the first and only open source foundation in China. The donation marks the upgrade of XuperChain from a commercial company open source project to a third-party public welfare organization open source project.

At present, the XuperChain open source community is becoming more and more active, with the external code contribution ratio, the number of global developers, the number of Github Stars, and the number of Forks far ahead. The community is rich in open source documents, videos, tutorials and other resources, and the number of open source ecological partners has increased significantly. Dozens of benchmark application cases have been implemented in the fields of medical care, justice, traceability, advertising, etc.

5) BitXHub

BitXHub is an open-source cross-chain technology platform developed by Funchain Technology. In March 2020, BitXHub officially announced its open source. Since BitXHub was open sourced, it has attracted the attention of many domestic universities, blockchain manufacturers, and blockchain development enthusiasts. Community members and core developers of the project team have also maintained frequent exchanges in cross-chain solution design, product quick experience, and core module architecture, and worked together to build a leading cross-chain open source community in China.

Currently, BitXHub ranks the highest in terms of popularity (Star) among alliance chain cross-chain platforms; it also supports the largest number of alliance chains, including Hyperchain, Fabric, BCOS and CITA.

Deeply implement policy documents and accelerate the application of blockchain technology and industrial development

In addition to establishing an open source ecosystem, the Guiding Opinions also deployed key tasks in empowering the real economy and improving public services. In order to implement the Guiding Opinions in depth, the 2021 World Blockchain Conference hosted by Babbitt will open a special forum on July 24-25 and invite well-known experts and scholars at home and abroad to discuss technology integration and industry implementation. In terms of technology integration, the conference will set topics around key tasks such as "blockchain + industrial Internet", "blockchain + big data", "blockchain + cloud computing", and "blockchain + artificial intelligence" in accordance with the requirements of the Guiding Opinions.

In terms of application implementation, the discussion focused on key areas such as supply chain management, product traceability, and data sharing to empower the real economy. In terms of improving public services, the discussion focused on government services, evidence storage and collection, and smart cities.

The conference will invite a number of major Internet companies such as Tencent, Huawei, Baidu, and Ant Group, as well as outstanding companies in the industrial blockchain industry such as QuChain Technology, Shuqin Technology, and Yunxiang Blockchain. In addition, representatives of blockchain infrastructure such as Spark Chain Network and Changan Chain will share advanced experiences.

The World Blockchain Conference is a top industry summit brand created by Babbitt, which has been successfully held three times in Wuzhen and Wuhan. This year's conference will be hosted by the Yuhang District People's Government and organized by the Hangzhou Future Science and Technology City Management Committee and Hangzhou Timestamp Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Babbitt). The conference will be themed "Infinite Future". At that time, in Hangzhou, a city with the temperament of digital economy innovators, full of imagination and creativity of the times, blockchain practitioners from all over the world will gather together to look at the industry imagination of the infinite future with an attitude of embracing the world.