TLDR;
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Open-source software has thrived due to its community-driven, collaborative nature, leading to rapid innovation, bug resolution, and widespread adoption.
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Open-source democratizes access to advanced technology by providing powerful, low-cost tools that can be used, modified, and improved by anyone.
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Ethereum’s introduction of tokenization allows people to invest directly in open-source networks like Ethereum, giving exposure to the entire ecosystem’s growth and innovation.
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ORA Protocol’s Initial Model Offering (IMO) tokenizes open-source AI models, allowing investment and driving innovation in decentralized, permissionless AI ecosystems.
0. Why Open-Source?
Open-source is the backbone of the modern internet. Linux and the World Wide Web protocol are perhaps the greatest examples of how open-source software invokes the power of network effects to improve, refine and spread more rapidly than any proprietary software could.
Linux began in 1991 as a personal project by Linus Torvalds but quickly evolved into one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure for the modern internet. The kernel of the Linux operating system was open-source from the start, meaning that anyone with the technical know-how could modify, improve, and redistribute it freely.
This openness allowed developers worldwide to participate in its growth, turning Linux into a collective project where:
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Developers could freely examine, modify, and improve the networking code.
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The community-driven approach allowed for quick identification and resolution of bugs and security issues.
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New networking features could be proposed, developed, and integrated faster than in proprietary systems.
Unlike proprietary software, which locks development within a single company or organization, Linux thrived on the contributions of thousands of developers from around the world, all working together to refine and optimize the system. This produces an exponential growth effect in both adoption and improvement.
Most importantly, open-source software democratizes access to powerful, advanced technology:
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Anyone can download and use enterprise-grade tools
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Accessibility to everyone who has an internet connection
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Extremely low-cost, facilitating rapid adoption
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Expansive compatibility since anyone can add to or improve the repository
1. Ethereum Changes the Landscape
When Ethereum launched in 2017, it created a paradigm shift in many ways. Among other innovations, with the launch of Ethereum network and it’s native token, Ether (ETH), the world was given one of the first means of investing directly in an open-source network.
How can you invest in open-source? These concepts seem mutually exclusive. With the advent of blockchain technology, they are no longer.
By engaging with ETH the asset, you are gaining exposure to all of the developers, projects and businesses which are building their services and applications on the Ethereum network; an international network that transcends borders and cultures. You get exposure to the entire network’s economy and assets.
These builders both generate fees for the network, which contribute to maintaining and growing the value of ETH, and create opportunities for more people to use the network. With more people using the network, there are more fees and more demand for ETH.
With an unlimited number of industries that can build on the Ethereum network, and an unlimited number of businesses & projects, ETH’s rate of growth, adoption and improvement has the ability to match that of “Open-source software” outlined in the illustration above. Comparatively, an index which might give you exposure to an entire industry or large number of companies, will have a capped rate of growth because it has a capped number of equities it can hold.
Instead, Ethereum created a way for anyone to get direct exposure to a network, which has unlimited upside. Tokenization is beautiful, because it brings together concepts that previously clashed: ownership and open-source. It creates a new form of ownership, over both familiar and new kinds of assets.
2. Open-Source AI
Open-source AI holds the same growth potential as any other open-source software. It also exhibits the same benefits. Meta has recently stated their support for open-source AI. Across various media, they have said that open-source models:
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Will become more advanced than closed-source
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Will become more widely used than closed-source
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Will accelerate innovation and faster development
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Democratize access to advanced technology
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Will make AI more beneficial to humanity long-term
AI development should be inclusive and progressive. Open-source makes this so, and accelerates the rate of adoption, improvement and application.
3. IMO & Tokenization of AI
In early 2024, ORA Protocol created the Initial Model Offering (IMO): a means of tokenizing open-source AI models. The IMO allows open-source model developers and communities to use blockchain-based incentive systems to drive the continued improvement, innovation and application of the open-source model. It also provides a means to raise resources to this end. The IMO creates an ecosystem around an open-source model, incentivizing development of the model itself, of its proponents, and of applications that use the model.
The IMO facilitates exposure to an asset that represents a powerful open-source technology: AI. There is a rich ecosystem to be exposed to through investment in open-source technology that can be used, improved and applied to generate value by any number of projects, businesses and services across the world. IMO is exposure to an open-source AI network and ecosystem, one which has natively integrated incentive mechanisms to drive continued expansion of that ecosystem and improvement of that model.
Further, IMO is decentralized and permissionless. Only privileged individuals can get exposure to the work of OpenAI or the prolific use of its models, but with the IMO, anyone can get exposure to any AI model.
In the same way that index funds allowed individuals to diversify their exposure to an industry, the IMO allows individuals to diversify their exposure to teams using AI. You can get exposure to the work of one company via a stock, or you could engage with multiple companies within the industry via an index fund. In a similar way, you could invest in one company that uses an AI model in its business, or you could invest in the AI model itself, which can be used by any number of entities for internal and external operations.
IMO is a new form of open-source ecosystem to be exposed to, replicating the new form of ownership created for open-source networks by the advent of Ethereum, ERC-20 and tokenization. IMO represents engagement in open-source AI models and their ecosystems. It is agnostic of industry, since AI can and will positively impact every industry, business and company.
IMO is exposure to the growth potential of both AI and open-source networks.
Rich Ecosystem Creation
The first IMO was for the OpenLM model, and we have already seen a rich ecosystem start to develop, driving innovation and application of the model.
Read more about the innovation happening in the OpenLM IMO ecosystem here: https://mirror.xyz/orablog.eth/GSjMm-qC4WWsduGqCISSvA1IxicJbyRDES_bl7-Tt2o.
About ORA
ORA is Ethereum’s trustless AI that makes blockchains AI native.
ORA breaks down the limitations of smart contracts by offering richer data sources and arbitrary compute so developers can innovate freely.
ORA’s work has been trusted by Compound, Ethereum Foundation, Uniswap, Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, Manta, and beyond.