This is a great recent talk about this problem by the former NPM CTO in which she tells her story about NPM and proposes a new decentralized package manager:
> Love Pika? Go Pro! Pika CDN will always be free, but you can support the project with a Pro Membership donation on Patreon. Get early access to upcoming production-only features.
What if in 5-10 years the volume is too big to be funded by donations? Will Pika sell to a malicious company? Will it shut down and kill everyone that depends on it?
Well yes, it will probably shut down just like the official python package repo will shut down if it’s sponsors can’t meet the budget. Nothing is guaranteed to last forever.
Nothing is free and I didn't find this in crunchbase.
Something is paying for it. Is it tracking people and selling it?