Author: yanmaani at cock.li 2021-11-05 14:45:36
Published on: 2021-11-05T14:45:36+00:00
In a discussion on the bitcoin-dev mailing list, Prayank suggested that true decentralization is needed in other aspects of full node implementations beyond the sharing of the Bitcoin whitepaper. One way to improve decentralization is by having more people use alternative full node implementations, as currently 98% of nodes use Bitcoin Core. However, this isn't really possible since it could lead to consensus splits, and if Bitcoin is subverted via soft-fork, you can't just run your own fork. Prayank also recommended having more contributors and maintainers like Luke Dashjr and Amir Taaki who are independent from funding sources. However, this is problematic since contributors need funding to continue working on Bitcoin, and those who fund them tend to have some influence over how they work. Another suggestion was to get people from different countries involved in important roles, but this may not be effective as funding people in under-represented countries seems like a textbook exercise in 'box-ticking', and it's better to have contributors who are wealthy enough not to worry about attacks on their funding. Prayank also recommended having more anonymous contributors, but this is difficult since money is the main issue, and anonymous people being funded by non-robust sources doesn't really buy you that much. Finally, individuals and organizations who fund different Bitcoin projects should consider contributing to alternative full node implementations as well. However, the problem with this is that most alternative full node implementations aren't really independent since they have to be bug-for-bug compatible with Bitcoin Core. What's needed is more "hard money" - if people could make donations into a fund, with the fund then paying out to developers, and that fund be controlled in a civilized and non-centralized way, this would somewhat insulate developers from people threatening to stop their contributions to The Fund, at the price of having developers being able to be coerced by The Fund.
Updated on: 2023-06-15T02:50:27.094639+00:00