TL;DR

tea is building the open source economy for the AI era. Our roadmap moves from core infrastructure (chai oracle, GPG precompile, PKGX) to permissionless BounTEA bounties, decentralized node infrastructure, and community tools like brew.fun. We’re integrating enterprise-grade SBOM donations to fund real dependencies, with the ultimate destination: a Universal App Store for transparent, auditable, and fairly rewarded software. Launch is imminent—this is the moment to be early.

‍

The Future Won’t Be Built in Black Boxes

The world is about to enter a new software era. One where code can be written in English, where engineers “vibe code” or “context engineer” entire systems, and where AI itself is stacking dependencies at a speed humans can barely audit.

That future cannot run on black box distribution models. It demands open source. Transparent, auditable, verifiable software that can be trusted, secured, and rewarded fairly.

This is why we built tea. And this is where our roadmap leads.

The $8.8 Trillion Problem

Let’s start with the obvious: the demand-side value of open source software is estimated at $8.8 trillion. Yet the supply side—the developers, the maintainers, the people who write and secure the code—see almost nothing.

Max Howell, creator of Homebrew, knows this firsthand. At the height of Homebrew’s adoption, billions of dollars of enterprise value depended on it. His compensation? A blanket from Google, an iPad from Square (now Block), and a Patreon that peaked at $55 a month. That’s the reality of open source economics.

This imbalance might have been tolerated in the Web2 era, but it will not hold in the AI era. When models are built on unverified dependencies, when enterprises run mission-critical code without transparency, and when the next generation of developers build in natural language, security and accountability must scale with it.

The Roadmap Ahead

tea is not just a network. It’s an economy and a roadmap for how open source will fund itself, secure itself, and scale in the AI era. Here’s how we’re building it.

1. 

Core Infrastructure at Launch

At the base layer, tea provides the primitives:

• chai oracle: our ranking system to identify and reward the projects that matter most, moving from a static database at launch into a fully oracleized system over time.
  
  
• GPG precompile: validation down to the commit level, ensuring that developers can sign with their Git key, proving real work without black-box middlemen.
  
  
• PKGX: our next-gen package manager (already used in AI workflows by companies like HuggingFace), forming the backbone of the universal app store.
  
  

This infrastructure is live. It is the foundation of the open source economy.

2. 

Bounties and Permissionless Issues

Our next step is unlocking permissionless issue tracking and bounties for all versions of Git. This turns every bug, feature request, or security fix into an opportunity for anyone to contribute and get rewarded.

Imagine a GitHub issue board where every issue carries a bounty. No permission required, no middle layer. Just work, proof, and reward.

3. 

Node Infrastructure: The Deep End Layer

Our roadmap extends beyond software distribution into the infrastructure that supports it.

• Storage: starting with IPFS to decentralize package hosting.
  
  
• Decentralized Git: ensuring the history and state of open source itself cannot be captured or censored.
  
  
• Compute Layer: exploring decentralized compute for build verification and testing.
  
  
• Validation and Consensus: evolving toward nodes that not only host but also verify and validate contributions across the network.
  
  

This “deep end” layer ensures that tea is not only a registry, but the backbone for transparent, verifiable software in the AI era.

4. 

Brew.fun and the Ecosystem Layer

tea is more than infrastructure. It’s also distribution.

• brew.fun: a launchpad for open source projects, enabling community-driven discovery, funding, and adoption.
  
  
• Ecosystem incentives: rewarding developers, node operators, and community members who participate in sustaining the network.
  
  

This layer is where the open source economy starts to feel tangible—where projects and communities can thrive.

5. 

Enterprise-Grade Donations and SBOM Integration

Enterprises run on open source. But today, their contributions back are minimal. That’s about to change.

We’re integrating with SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) tools like Snyk and CycloneDX, enabling enterprises to automatically generate an inventory of their dependencies. From there, tea will allow donations to be allocated permissionlessly across that dependency chain.

No more guesswork. No more token gestures. Real funding to the real software enterprises actually rely on.

6. 

The Long View: Toward Full Verification and AI Alignment

As AI takes on more of the coding load, transparency becomes non-negotiable. We envision a future where:

• AI writes code, but every dependency is validated by both algorithms and human reviewers.
  
  
• Software is distributed commercially as open source, ensuring maintainers get rewarded while enterprises get security and transparency.
  
  
• The network itself audits and aligns codebases, making open source not just free but trusted.
  
  

This is the roadmap beyond the roadmap. A future where tea doesn’t just fund open source—it secures the very foundation of the AI-driven software economy.

Why Now?

The Urgency of the AI Era

The number of apps released on the App Store keeps climbing, and AI will only accelerate that trend. With natural language turning into code, the speed of software creation is outpacing our ability to secure it.

That’s why the $8.8 trillion demand-side value of open source is not just a number—it’s a flashing red light. It’s proof that open source powers everything, but it’s also a warning: without proper funding and verification, the future will be brittle, insecure, and centralized in the hands of gatekeepers.

Open source has to change. And tea is how we change it.

Proof Points

• 610,000 GitHub developers registered with tea during testnet.
  
  
• 16,000 repos onboarded, with chai identifying the few hundred that matter most.
  
  
• AI leaders like HuggingFace are already integrating PKGX into workflows.
  
  
• Enterprises worldwide rely on open source for mission-critical infrastructure, yet contributions back are a fraction of the value captured.
  
  

Personal Angle

As a multi-time founder, I’ve always asked myself: how do we distribute value across the builders? How do we decentralize the rewards of innovation so that those who create the foundation of our digital world are not left behind?

For Max, the answer was painful. For Homebrew, the most widely-used package manager of its era, he got almost nothing. For me, building companies across Web2 and Web3, the lesson was clear: we need systems that reward creation at the root, not just at the surface.

tea is that system. It’s the infrastructure I wish had existed a decade ago. And it’s the infrastructure the world needs now.

Be Early, Own the Future

By the time you’re reading this, our pre-sale may already be live. This is your chance to own the utility that will power the future of open source security and value distribution.

• If you’re an enterprise, contact us to participate in early proof-of-concept reward distributions through our non-profit association.
  
  
• If you’re a developer, register your packages on tea and be part of the future of OSS funding.
  
  
• If you’re a community supporter, follow us on X, retweet this story, and help spread the word.
  
  

Let’s come together to make open source more secure, stronger, and financially supported.

🔥 This is our roadmap. This is your moment. Don’t just watch open source become the $8.8 trillion economy of the AI era—help build it.