From [0]:
“We’ve historically used venture capital to fund Electric’s development costs—4 team years, do the math!—but the seed market has tightened, and we realized that it’s in everyone’s interest to maintain a strong and ongoing investment in Electric that is decoupled from VC. That’s why with v3 we’re changing the licensing model to a source available business license:
1. Free “community” license for non-commercial use (e.g. FOSS toolmaker, enthusiast, researcher). You’ll need to login to activate, i.e. it will “phone home” and we will receive light usage analytics, e.g. to count active Electric users and projects. We will of course comply with privacy regulations such as GDPR. We will also use your email to send project updates and community surveys, which you want to participate in, right?
2. Commercial use costs $480/month/developer (33% startup discount). No login or analytics (obviously unacceptable for security and privacy), instead you’ll validate a license key (like Datomic). We also offer support and project implementations and are flexible with fee structure (i.e. services vs licenses). For free trials at work, use the community version with your work email. Talk to us, we will arm you to make the case to management.
Special deal for bootstrappers: FREE until you reach $200k revenue or $500k funding. Just use the community license, and come tell us what you’re doing.”
The universe is an interesting place. Certainly won't complain if there's more time in the day to get lost in its details.
There's still so much to do, however. Fully open to the upside of artificial intelligence, but cautiously so. I fear it is invoked as a kind of deus ex machina. In my view, it is a multiplier and not a substitute.