Prosperous Software
A movement to enable all value creators to financially benefit from the prosperity they helped create
Building digital public infrastructure with equitable access and revenue-sharing for a positive-sum future
Core Principles
Building a foundation for shared prosperity
Digital Public Infrastructure
Free and open source software accessible to anyone on Earth with a computer. Better infrastructure brings step-changes to economic growth.
Collective Bargaining
Prosperous licenses form a new kind of collective bargaining among software authors. As more projects join, the movement's power grows.
Shared Prosperity
Anyone can freely use, fork, contribute, and sell prosperous software— as long as they follow revenue-sharing to approved mechanisms.
The Prosperous License Approach
Freedom + Fairness = Prosperity
Prosperous software follows in the spirit of free and open source software (FOSS), but adds a crucial element: well-specified revenue-sharing requirements.
✓ You Can:
- →Use the software freely worldwide
- →Fork and modify the code
- →Contribute improvements back
- →Even sell products built on it
⚖️ You Agree To:
- →Follow revenue-sharing requirements
- →Share prosperity with creators
- →Contribute to collective growth
- →Support the ecosystem
This creates a positive-sum ecosystem where infrastructure improves, creators are compensated, and economic opportunity expands for everyone.
A Growing Movement
As more software projects adopt prosperous licenses, the collective bargaining power of software authors grows—creating a virtuous cycle of shared prosperity.
"Free and open source software is digital public infrastructure accessible to anyone on Earth with a computer. Investing in better infrastructure brings step-changes to economic growth."
— From the Prosperous Software Manifesto
Projects Adopt
Power Grows
All Prosper
Featured on Greenpill Podcast
Watch our discussion on rethinking open source licensing and building a more equitable future for software creators
Join the Movement
Be part of building a future where software creators share in the prosperity they enable. Together, we can create equitable access to economic opportunities.