
Bitcoin Foundation hit by resignations over new director - kevbin
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/16/us-bitcoin-foundation-resignations-idUSBREA4F02B20140516
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unclebucknasty
I'm sure I am overlooking something obvious when I say this, but I never
thought a foundation model (at least, as executed) made sense for Bitcoin in
the first place.

The whole point of Bitcoin is decentralization, removing the requirement for
trust, etc. The idea of a centralized foundation vested with representing,
effectively, the entirety of "Bitcoin's Interests" strikes me as diametrically
opposed to that concept. The members of the foundation have various interests
that may or may not be in keeping with the spirit of Bitcoin, and such an
organization provides perfect cover for re-making Bitcoin in their image.

This first occurred to me when the foundation became the de facto spokesbody
in response to Congressional and regulatory inquiry. How did these self-
appointed people suddenly have the right to decide what regulation, etc. was
acceptable to the whole of the Bitcoin community?

Surely, there needs to be some advocacy. But, it seems that such advocacy
would take a more radical, de-centralized, democratic form that is more akin
to Bitcoin itself.

~~~
rdl
I think what's important is having some way to pay Gavin and a few others. The
rest of it really doesn't matter, and can be done in a decentralized way.

In fact, I'd be a lot happier if the organization employing the core devs
didn't have an active policy position at all.

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Sprytron
Aaah yes, I seem to recall that Fucked Company published an amusing animated
piece about the story of DEN, Marc Collins-Rector, Chad Shackley and Brock
Pierce's sordid past, a decade or so ago... Now where did that SWF file go...?
Oh yeah:

DEN - The Untold Story:
[http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1400285657](http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1400285657)

Even today, it's still totally relevant to the BitCoin Foundation:

"The Internet is basically one big pyramid scam. Those who get in on the top
get rich. Those who get in at the bottom get fucked. So, do you want to get
rich, or do you want to get fucked?"

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hippich
Bitcoin Foundation !== Bitcoin

I have no clue what this foundation about, who are these people, but still can
use bitcoin (or any altcoin really.) I guess this news article is for general
public who might think Bitcoin Foundation have some kind of stake at this
technology or something.

~~~
nostrademons
The Bitcoin Foundation is the non-profit trade organization responsible for
development of the core protocol & Bitcoin client libraries and advocacy of
the Bitcoin protocol itself. Think of it like the Linux Foundation, Python
Software Foundation, or W3C - its job is to coordinate and advocate for the
technology itself, because everybody in the ecosystem benefits from that. So
yes, you can use Bitcoin without caring about the foundation, but future
development of the protocol, including most of the interesting stuff
surrounding smart contracts and apps. It's somewhat unfortunate that it
doesn't have the buy-in of many leading players in the Bitcoin ecosystem (and
your comment is evidence of that), because that indicates a possible
leadership vacuum and fragmentation in the near future.

~~~
jgalt212
tl/dr for the js inclined:

Bitcoin == Bitcoin Foundation

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cheetahtech
I really don't understand. Why resign, but rather fix the issues within.

~~~
kordless
Crypto currencies are all about high decentralization. As time goes on, more
and more people involved in Bitcoin realize the assignment of power to a
central 'authority' is perceived to be a 'very bad thing' as it relates to
direction and consensus building within the market.

Simply put, the foundation shouldn't exists in its current form. A handful of
Bitcoin entrepreneurs doesn't represent the interests of ALL MANKIND'S need
for various levels of computed trust. In effect, a foundation's job would
simply be pushing a PR agenda for the movement. You don't need to waste effort
or, more importantly, time in electing a board to go hire a PR firm.

My plan is to put together a basic marketing plan, go peddle it to a few top
PR firms, and then let them take it and run with it. Because it's Bitcoin, the
marketing campaign can be crowdsourced, even to the point the ads themselves
contain QR codes for keeping the ads running. Imagine a Bart splash campaign
at all the stations, with QR codes to track the funding and length of time
they run. You could check on the funds and donate if you wanted to keep it
going.

Anyway, it's all about marketing in the new economy. We don't need a
foundation. We need traditional marketing and, frankly, some crisis marketing
thrown in for good measure.

~~~
hmsimha
As long as Gavin holds the key to the 'panic button' for the entire network
(which I don't think is necessarily the worst choice), he will have slightly
more power over the direction of bitcoin than anyone else.

~~~
gte910h
What exactly is the panic button? Google didn't yield answers to that question

~~~
hmsimha
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Andresen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Andresen)

It's a key built in to the network that essentially gives him the power to
broadcast a special alert signal to the network. I'm not actually sure if most
clients are equipped to interpret these signals now, though.

[http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/583/what-is-
the-a...](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/583/what-is-the-alert-
system-in-the-bitcoin-protocol-how-does-it-work)

edit: I should clarify it's built into the original satoshi client, not
necessarily 'the network' and certainly not the blockchain. Someone on
bitcointalk explained it as "part of the peer to peer overlay and not part of
the blockchain. You can find this public key in the source code of the
official client if you look."

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arctansusan
This is exactly why Bitcoin's future is in great doubt and uncertainty. And
probably remain that way for years to come.

