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Satoshi Nakamoto is Richard Stallman
They might not be the same person, but they seem to play the same role in software history.
I’m not breaking any news here, and I’m not telling you I just discovered they are the same person. Actually, most probably, they can never be the same person at all. But, for me, they play the same role in the history of software.
The Free Software movement is dead!
In the 80’s, Richard Stallman started the free software movement. The movement revolutionized how software is created and consumed, and most importantly, it paved the way for new business models. Nevertheless, the emergence of cloud computing, mobile phones and SaaS deemed the free software irrelevant. Who owns the infrastructure matters way more than who owns the code. I reached this conclusion few years ago, and wrote about it here. But since then, I had the following question.
If the infrastructure is what matters now, who will change the rules of the infrastructure game the same way Richard Stallman changed the rules of the software game?
Recently, I started to realize the Satoshi Nakamoto is possibly Richard Stallman of our age…
