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I'm going to answer for anon: yes.
It's strange you mention moral weight, because moral weight is what private companies lack, which is why they are dollar-for-dollar less pathogenic to decentralization. In contrast to foundations/nonprofits, private companies are a dagger without a cloak. They can't plausibly deny self-interest while behaving self-interested.
private companies are a dagger without a cloak.
This is a great description. And it definitely rings true. But oddly enough, I think the perception of these things in general society is that private enterprises are more pathogenic than non-profits.
Also, (though I may have already provided an answer to my own question here) I wonder why so much of nostr/bitcoin development has trended towards non-profits and foundations.
When we had @schmidty on earlier this week for the AMA, he mentioned that there had been a bit more private company funding of development earlier in Bitcoin's history. It doesn't seem to be very popular now. what's blocking it?
what's blocking it?
Bystander effects and free riding, which are functions of scale. But, at scale, it's (probably) relatively safe to have nonprofits augmenting other forms of participation.
imo Bitcoin can survive its nonprofits disappearing which limits their power and makes them less pathogenic and net good.
Oh, and, if an ecosystem is critically dependent on a centralized organization with explicitly artificial (nonprofit) incentives, how does one conclude it's good for decentralization? Because it removes the centralizing forces of profit? At best, you're trading one kind of bad for another and gambling on which is worse. At worst, it's marxist leftovers.
The best case study of an infrastructure technology nonprofit might be Tor which functions like any public good: way better than nothing, but not good enough for everyone to use it all the time.
What did everyone expect? Didn't we learn anything from shitcoins?
If you want something to be decentralized, do not create a foundation with more power, money, and influence than the total network times 1000. It's a systemic blackhole.