Author: Jameson Lopp 2015-06-01 16:41:50
Published on: 2015-06-01T16:41:50+00:00
The definition of Bitcoin is not just what any single group, such as Core Developers or miners, comes to a consensus about. All groups, including block chain based businesses and end users, must be in consensus about the goals of Bitcoin. It is up to the Core Developers to convince other groups to accept or reject major changes to the protocol. Bitcoin is inherently a political phenomenon that requires human politics to be described with computer code that is reasonably secure against attack.Mike Hearn believes that a fork is inevitable due to a small number of people believing they have veto power over changes to Bitcoin and becoming out of step with what the wider community wants. Usage, not decentralization, gives Bitcoin value. Incentivizing layer 2 and offchain solutions to scale Bitcoin is not enough because it involves enormous amounts of effort from many different people, is technically risky, and may not be Bitcoin. Developers are not a bottomless fountain of work that will spit out whatever is needed if they are twisted enough. Faced with their work being broken by armchair developers on some mailing list, they might walk away completely.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T22:01:02.055849+00:00