Transition to Business Source Licensing (BSL) with Spring 1.0

As we enter the next phase of Antelope’s evolution to Spring 1.0, the project will shift from the MIT license to the Business Source License (BSL). 

BSL allows us to provide broad access to Spring 1.0 with minimal restrictions for non-commercial and community use, while safeguarding the project’s unique features from competitive threats during critical stages of development. A clear timeline has been set, ensuring that four years from the date Spring 1.0 is published, the code will transition to the MIT 2.0 license.

This approach aligns with industry best practices and mirrors the strategy adopted by leading open-source projects like HashiCorp, Uniswap, and MongoDB, who have successfully balanced openness with the need for commercial protection. BSL ensures that Spring 1.0 can continue to thrive as an open platform while supporting the project’s sustainability, encouraging fair competition, and fostering a healthy, long-term ecosystem.

Learning from Industry Leaders

The shift to BSL mirrors the licensing choices made by leading open-source projects, which have similarly sought to protect their development investments while maintaining open innovation:

• HashiCorp: HashiCorp’s transition from MPL 2.0 to BSL was intended to prevent vendors from leveraging their open-source work without contributing back to the community. This helps ensure long-term investment in both their ecosystem and community.
• Uniswap V3: Uniswap implemented BSL 1.1 for its V3 protocol to protect against competitors cloning its features. The license restricts commercial use for two years, providing the Uniswap community time to develop exclusively before transitioning to a General Public License (GPL).
• MongoDB: MongoDB adopted the Server Side Public License (SSPL), a variant of BSL, to ensure that cloud providers and large enterprises benefiting from their open-source software contribute back to the community. This approach helps protect their commercial interests while maintaining an open-source development model.
• Sentry: Sentry, a popular application monitoring tool, adopted BSL to prevent competitors from taking advantage of their open-source work without contributing back, protecting their commercial interests while allowing open collaboration for non-commercial users.
• CockroachDB: Cockroach Labs adopted BSL for their distributed SQL database CockroachDB to prevent cloud providers and large companies from exploiting their work without contributing back to the community.
• MariaDB: MariaDB, one of the earliest adopters of BSL, uses it to balance open-source development while ensuring that commercial entities that profit from the software contribute back.
• Redpanda: Redpanda, a Kafka alternative for event streaming, adopted BSL to protect against cloud providers while fostering community development, allowing broad non-commercial use while safeguarding their business.

Key Aspects of the BSL for Spring 1.0

1. Licensor and Licensed Work: The EOS Network Foundation (ENF) is the official licensor of Spring 1.0 safeguarding the development and enhancements within the Spring 1.0 release.
2. Additional Use Grant: Licensees can use, modify, publish, distribute, as long as these activities directly serve or are materially dependent on the EOS Blockchain Network. This provision ensures that innovations are tied to enhancing the EOS ecosystem. It is the ENF’s sole discretion to determine whether these criteria are met. Licensees are encouraged to contact the ENF to confirm that their intended use aligns with the specified criteria.
3. Change Date and License Transition: The BSL includes a transition to the MIT license after four years. 
4. Commercial Licensing: Any activities outside the stipulated use cases will require a commercial license or cessation of use, ensuring that innovation within the EOS ecosystem is not undermined by competitors.

Spring 1.0 Licensing Tier Guidelines

The new licensing model also introduces tiered pricing based on the Market Cap of projects using Spring 1.0, with considerations for cross-licensing and support services:

• Market Cap Guidelines: Licensing fees are based on the Market Cap listed on CoinMarketCap.com, unless there are discrepancies (such as incorrect token data). Tier 0 clients, including those with a Market Cap below $5M or Enterprise Chains with no token and no listed Market Cap, must still contact the ENF for licensing information. These prices and tiers are negotiable at the sole discretion of the ENF. Cross-licensing of technology from other chains may be considered in lieu of full or partial payment. Support costs can also be negotiated based on cross-licensing agreements.
• Tier Graduation: When a chain’s Market Cap increases beyond its current tier for more than 30 days, they must pay the delta in licensing fees. Support costs will also adjust accordingly. Moving to a lower tier does not reduce previously paid licensing fees, but support costs will be lowered during the next renewal cycle.
• Support Services: Support for Tier 0 and Enterprise clients is available only via metered services, with prices negotiable based on cross-licensing agreements. All support issues will be tracked through the project’s GitHub repository.
• Licensing Provisions: The license applies solely to the major release version, including all minor releases, hot patches, and security fixes for that version. The base price for the next major release (e.g., Spring 2.0) may remain the same, allowing a free upgrade for Spring 1.0 licensees, or may include an incremental base cost. Any incremental base cost increases must be paid before upgrading to the next major version of Spring, and these increases will also affect support costs at renewal. Fixes for bugs and security vulnerabilities will be made available for the previous major version (the immediately preceding release) for chains that do not upgrade immediately. Broader technical support will be available for the current major release.

Tiers and Pricing

• Tier 0: Market Cap less than or equal to $5M
  • License Cost: Free (must register with ENF)
  • Support: $12k/year for up to 8 incidents
• Tier 1: Market Cap $5M-$10M
  • License Cost: $750k + 20% annual maintenance
  • Support: Included in maintenance
• Tier 2: Market Cap $10M-$50M
  • License Cost: $1.5M + 20% annual maintenance
  • Support: Included in maintenance
• Tier 3: Market Cap $50M-$100M
  • License Cost: $3M + 20% annual maintenance
  • Support: Included in maintenance
• Tier 4: Market Cap over $100M
  • License Cost: $5M + 20% annual maintenance
  • Support: Included in maintenance

Looking Forward

This transition to BSL is a strategic step toward ensuring the robustness and longevity of Spring 1.0, allowing us to continue delivering cutting-edge technology while protecting the interests of the EOS community.

For more details on the BSL terms, please see the LICENSE document in the Antelope Spring GitHub repository.

For inquiries about licensing, please contact licensing@eosnetwork.com.