Author: alicexbt 2023-05-11 17:48:19
Published on: 2023-05-11T17:48:19+00:00
Antoine Riard, a Bitcoin developer, has written a response to Tony Giorgio's suggestion that there is a better place for public communication, stating that the Bitcoin and Lightning development communication channels constitute a public forum where participants are exchanging ideas and defending competing interests. In his post of March 21, Antoine had expressed concerns of "frivolous legal claims" being used between bitcoin developers/organizations provoking a distortion of the neutrality of the development, and a chilling effect of the technical discussions. He further explained that it was his legal right and moral duty to inform the community of what is happening between Chaincode and himself. He also stated that the maintainers of those communication channels should ensure a balance of rights and a proportionality in any restraining measure. Antoine believes that missing an open-source engineering meeting or being revoked a few Github permissions matters far less than the clear affirmation and respect of the freedom of expression, the presumption of innocence, and due process in the Bitcoin common space. He clarifies that this new post is not to exonerate himself of any legal responsibility for personal matters that could be recognized as the outcome of a judicial process, respective of both rights of the accusation and rights of the defense. Rather to enlighten the Bitcoin community that the formal separation between private matters and open-source responsibilities, and the adequate check-and-balances to guarantee this separation is somehow what are the underlying stakes for this feud between Chaincode and himself, from his perspective. Antoine believes that people have done the "free choice" to conduct a career in open-source, and for some even declaring in some context to maintain integrity and accept their actions to be submitted to external accountability. While the exposure of private elements of public personalities might break common courtesy, it's a morally valid practice if you're familiar with the public institutions of US and Europe, and he thinks this practice has found validity in the history of open-source commons or IETF's protocol development. Antoine concludes by thanking the Bitcoin friends who have reached out to call for level-headedness and cool-mindness in the public discussion of this complex topic. He won't communicate further on this subject on the Bitcoin and Lightning technical channels. However, he still firmly believes the discussion on the principles, abstract in the maximum from its private elements, should still be pursued on other channels.
Updated on: 2023-06-03T12:34:11.061823+00:00