A quick response here, but first off I want to say I absolutely love @ODELL and have the utmost respect for him.

Overall Matt confirms the points I made in my thread about CC being non-FOSS, but unfortunately uses the same harsh rhetoric of "cloning" as NVK does.

An open-source project leveraging code from another open-source project to build a product that competes in the free market is not "cloning".

Passport was created as an alternative that is easier to use and more approachable, but shared the (very solid) security model.

When it comes to security it's absurd to roll your own setup for no reason when a comprehensive and excellent security model already exists, and all credit to NVK for an excellent approach taken.

Leveraging an open-source security model for a new product is just smart.

Passport used this well-vetted security model and some of the code from CC to build a competing product with an aim of allowing more people to store their Bitcoin securely without all the technical barriers.

That is not "cloning".

One additional thought here - NVK initially leveraged code from Trezor and built a competing product that improved on a lot of the model Trezor had.

I don't consider that cloning either, and wouldn't call it that.

It's simply embracing FOSS and free markets.

For more context you can refer to my original thread that prompted all of this here: