Introducing the BitBoost Open Source Project

BitBoost’s Open Source Project (OSP) aims to build a community of contributors around our core software, goals and values. We want to foster a lively, active group who believe in decentralised systems and the potential that a blockchain e-commerce marketplace holds for everyone!

Open source benefits

As you’ll be aware from our blog, we are big fans of Open Source (OS) software. Blockchain systems and open source development have always gone together. Bitcoin and every other open blockchain operate on the principle of transparency, and anyone can audit the code and contribute in one form or another. This is absolutely vital for the security of the protocols (something that was powerfully illustrated by a Bitcoin Core dev anonymously reporting a potentially fatal bug in Bitcoin Cash earlier this year, which is in turn critical for the confidence of the users who hold billions of dollars worth of digital value on them. The old paradigm of closed development, proprietary software and ‘black boxes’ simply doesn’t work – not to mention that huge benefits come from a collaborative approach.

Blockchain open source e-commerce

BitBoost is developing the core software for its blockchain e-commerce marketplace, its flagship product. This will be a full-featured platform that enables buyers and sellers to connect directly, with a great user interface and all of the search and listings features of regular e-commerce platforms. We have detailed in our blog the approach and tech we are using to build this, including Ethereum’s smart contracts and IPFS.

But our ultimate goal is wider than this. The aim of the BitBoost OSP is to facilitate the creation of a wide range of e-commerce apps that anyone can use for their own purposes. Additionally, we want to grow and strengthen our overall ecosystem. Building an open source community around our products, code, ideas and values is the best way to do that. Developers can use the core BitBoost code for their own applications and, when third-party developers create something useful to BitBoost, we can integrate that into the main marketplace. The impact of this will be to break down the ‘silo effect’ of mainstream e-commerce, where marketplaces are intentionally segregated from each other and companies jealously guard their userbases.

Some of the things we will enable through our OSP include:

• Encouraging merchants to build their own marketplaces using our code, connecting to BBM’s smart contracts via our API

• Connecting external e-commerce stores to our marketplace
• Building e-commerce plug-ins and solutions for popular integrations, such as WooCommerce and Magento – thereby linking them seamlessly to the blockchain.

Thanks to…

We have already been grateful recipients of the benefits of open source software. As we open source our own code we want to say a big ‘thank you!’ to all of the projects we have drawn on to make the BitBoost Marketplace happen!

This is a list of the major projects, but it’s by no means comprehensive:

• Ethereum

• js
• Angular
• Electron
• IPFS
• js-ipfs
• SQLite
• web3
• Express
• Lodash
• Gulp
• jQuery
• Git
• Bootstrap
• SafeLow Gas Price
• MyEtherWallet
• ngx-translate
• ngx-image-cropper
• io
• MongoDB
• WordPress

Having benefited so much from existing open source code and communities, we consider it an honour to be able to give back in this way with our own project, helping to continue the great work of the OS movement – without which we wouldn’t be here in the first place.

Github

One of the major ways we will be driving forward the BitBoost OSP is through our Github account, where we will keep all of our code, along with all of the necessary documentation for it. We will also have a Code of Conduct. Open source means an open community, but we want to create a welcoming and respectful group where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas.

We will use Github to engage the community in a variety of ways. For example, we’ll be asking for ideas for the kind of features you think are necessary and useful. We’ll also be asking for specific contributions, as and when that becomes relevant. We will connect this with our roadmap and our plans for the future, so people will know what’s coming down the track and can think about what might be needed to make it happen.

Community management

The community will be actively managed by BitBoost, with dedicated admins who will support contributors, help community members, and enforce some simple rules. Since the open source community is, in general, composed of cooperative, intelligent, independent thinkers, these won’t be onerous (basically, keep it respectful and don’t do anything illegal).

We are collectively responsible for the kind of community we choose to be, and everyone plays a part in promoting the community spirit they find most helpful. Since that has such a huge role in attracting and keeping the kind of people who will contribute generously, drive innovation and further the community, getting it right is a virtuous cycle. Ultimately, it comes down to little more than courtesy and common sense: Everyone knows that guy, who acts that way. Don’t be that guy.

Want to get involved?

Everybody is welcome to join our open source community and help build our blockchain e-commerce marketplace ecosystem. If you would like to contribute, please reach out to us through [email protected] or on Telegram! You can also also help us by filling in a poll about your preferences for our Open Source Project.

Join our Forum : https://forum.bitboost.net/