Licensing
XChain Platform is open source, dual-licensed under:
- GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0): free for everyone, forever.
- A commercial license: for companies that want to keep proprietary modifications private.
You may use XChain under either license, whichever fits you.
The short version
| If you… | License | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Use XChain personally, for research, or education | AGPL-3.0 | Free |
| Run XChain unmodified (even inside a company) | AGPL-3.0 | Free |
| Modify XChain and share your changes under AGPL | AGPL-3.0 | Free |
| Modify XChain and want to keep your changes private/proprietary | Commercial | Paid |
| Embed XChain in a closed-source product | Commercial | Paid |
Free use (AGPL-3.0)
XChain is genuinely open source. Under the AGPL you can, at no cost:
- Read all of the source code.
- Run XChain anywhere, personally or inside a for-profit company.
- Modify it and self-host your version.
- Distribute it and contribute improvements back.
The AGPL asks one main thing in return: if you modify XChain and run it as a service for others over a network, you must make your modified source code available to those users under the AGPL. Share-alike. You also keep the attribution and the NOTICE file.
When you need a commercial license
The AGPL’s share-your-changes requirement is exactly what some companies can’t accept; they want to build private, proprietary features on top of XChain and not publish them. That’s fine: buy a commercial license and the copyleft obligation is lifted.
So: the open-source version is free and always will be. You only pay if you want to keep your modifications private.
Contact legal@dankest.llc for commercial licensing.
FAQ
Is this really open source? Yes. The AGPL-3.0 is an OSI-approved open-source license. Anyone can read, run, modify, and share XChain for free.
Can a for-profit company use XChain for free? Yes, if they run it unmodified, or if they’re willing to open-source their modifications under the AGPL. They only need a commercial license to keep modifications private.
I just want to run a node / wallet / explorer. Do I pay anything? No. That’s free under the AGPL.
We want to fork XChain, add proprietary features, and run it as our own private service. Is that free? You can, under the AGPL, if you publish your modified source to your users. If you want to keep those modifications private, you need a commercial license.
Can I call my deployment “XChain”? The software license lets you run the code; it does not grant rights to the XChain name or brand. See TRADEMARK.md.
This page is a plain-language summary for convenience. The binding documents are the AGPL-3.0 LICENSE and any signed commercial agreement; if anything here conflicts with them, they control.