Satoshi Nakamoto made Bitcoin an open-source software (OSS) when he launched it in 2009. This means that anyone can use all the code that makes the first world's cryptocurrency work in any way.
Since then, almost all successful coins, decentralized projects, and tokens have also made their code open source. What is the reason for this? This is because it is really the only way to build in this space. First, it is trustworthy because anyone can examine the code for suspicion.
But it's much more than that. Since anyone can use or contribute to the OSS project, it also significantly accelerates technological breakthroughs.
When an open-source project reaches a critical number of users and developers, it will create a powerful innovation cycle. Now, let's look at how OSS crypto projects can disrupt traditional currencies, finance, and more.
It is worth noting that Open Source and DeFi can break traditional models.
Imagine if Google's search engine would be open source and anyone could create their own version, or if JP Morgan had opened the source code of all their banking software.
A prime example of this is Uniswap. This is the world's largest decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX), which recently surpassed $ 4.3 billion in daily trading volume. It's bigger than Coinbase.
DEX uses Ethereum smart contracts to enable reliable and secure trading without a centralized person making decisions. Everything is done according to code and math, not by people pushing buttons to confirm transactions.
The Uniswap code is open-source and incredibly powerful. It has been used in hundreds of projects and is constantly being developed. The most famous example is SushiSwap, a competitor that used Uniswap code as a baseline.
One might think that this is bad for Uniswap since it has a serious competitor using its own code. But it's actually good for Uniswap because Sushiswap launched a key breakthrough that Uniswap quickly adopted: its own crypto token.
To encourage users to trade on SushiSwap, the Sushi team has created its own token (SUSHI).
Uniswap followed suit with the UNI token immediately after SushiSwap launched its token.
Decentralized exchanges are likely to play a big role in the future of finance. They can reduce costs, increase efficiency, and provide unprecedented transparency.
As soon as the ETH Layer 2 scaling solutions discussed above are more fully deployed, the capabilities of DEX and DeFi as a whole will be even better.
Satoshi released a kind of genie when he decided to launch Bitcoin, which cannot be put back in the bottle at this time. The code is there. It can be used for free, and is constantly improving, growing, and developing. In crypto and DeFi, breakthroughs are replicated, tuned, improved, and then the whole cycle repeats indefinitely.
