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I have high hopes for the future of Matrix in large part because of the Matrix Foundation. But what happens at Element when you and Amandine leave? What stops E

I have high hopes for the future of Matrix in large part because of the Matrix Foundation. But what happens at Element when you and Amandine leave? What stops Element from being bought by a huge corporation that takes the whole thing proprietary and kills it? I'm sympathetic to the position that you find yourself in here (I have a standing recurring donation to the Matrix Foundation). But this seems substantially less secure of a future. I don't know if it would work from a legal perspective, but it'd be nice if there was some sort of dead-man's switch.

ryukafalz 3y ago
I think there are a few helpful things in that regard: - There are already viable and deployed alternatives to Synapse, including Conduit. Making changes that would break compatibility would fragment the network. - There are already viable and widely-used alternatives to Element on the client side. I myself mostly use Nheko these days. - The structure of the Matrix protocol is such that breaks in compatibility would look very weird to users, so I think they're incentivized to avoid making such changes for their user experience's sake. - The primary selling point of Matrix (and thus Element) over other systems is precisely that it's an open protocol for communications. It seems unlikely (though not impossible) that they would do anything to harm that, but if they did, it would not look good for the company. Speaking personally, I would start looking for alternatives if they did.
progval 3y ago
> what happens at Element when you and Amandine leave? What stops Element from being bought by a huge corporation that takes the whole thing proprietary and kills it? If I understand the confirmation statements at https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10873661/filing-history https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... , M & A already have way under the majority of votes in Element, and nothing catastrophic happened
Arathorn 3y ago
If Element explodes by whatever mechanism, other folks can fork the AGPL code to keep it going. We’re looking into mechanisms to ensure CLA’d code stays published under an OSI compatible license regardless of the type of explosion, which I guess is a kind of dead man’s switch.

ryukafalz 3y ago

I think there are a few helpful things in that regard: - There are already viable and deployed alternatives to Synapse, including Conduit. Making changes that would break compatibility would fragment the network. - There are already viable and widely-used alternatives to Element on the client side. I myself mostly use Nheko these days. - The structure of the Matrix protocol is such that breaks in compatibility would look very weird to users, so I think they're incentivized to avoid making such changes for their user experience's sake. - The primary selling point of Matrix (and thus Element) over other systems is precisely that it's an open protocol for communications. It seems unlikely (though not impossible) that they would do anything to harm that, but if they did, it would not look good for the company. Speaking personally, I would start looking for alternatives if they did.

progval 3y ago

> what happens at Element when you and Amandine leave? What stops Element from being bought by a huge corporation that takes the whole thing proprietary and kills it? If I understand the confirmation statements at https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10873661/filing-history https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... , M & A already have way under the majority of votes in Element, and nothing catastrophic happened

Arathorn 3y ago

If Element explodes by whatever mechanism, other folks can fork the AGPL code to keep it going. We’re looking into mechanisms to ensure CLA’d code stays published under an OSI compatible license regardless of the type of explosion, which I guess is a kind of dead man’s switch.