The recent blog post by Andrew Kelley and Loris Cro about the supposed damages bounties inflict on open source projects, like Zig, warrants a well-articulated counter-argument. In this article, we’ll explore the oft-ignored benefits of competition in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and how the concept of meritocracy serves the penguins of the world well. The Vital Role of Competition Kelley and Cro argue that bounties foster competition at the expense of cooperation.