Author: Laszlo Hanyecz 2015-08-15 19:08:58
Published on: 2015-08-15T19:08:58+00:00
On August 15, 2015, an email was sent by the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, on the bitcoin-dev mailing list. In the email, Nakamoto expressed concern about the release of Bitcoin XT 0.11A and the potential for a dangerous fork. He stated that the developers of Bitcoin XT were violating his original vision for Bitcoin, which was designed to make modifications to the consensus rules difficult without near unanimous agreement. Nakamoto acknowledged that a lot had changed since he created Bitcoin, and new knowledge had been gained that contradicted some of his early opinions. For example, he did not anticipate the effects of pooled mining on the security of the network. He also believed that making Bitcoin a competitive monetary system while preserving its security properties was not a trivial problem and required a more robust solution. He suggested that there needed to be a better incentive for users to run nodes instead of relying solely on altruism. Nakamoto warned that if two developers could successfully fork Bitcoin and redefine what "Bitcoin" is, in the face of widespread technical criticism and through the use of populist tactics, then he would have no choice but to declare Bitcoin a failed project. He emphasized that Bitcoin was meant to be both technically and socially robust, and the present situation was disappointing to watch unfold.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T19:51:29.808531+00:00