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Topic: [ANN] Bitcoin Foundation - page 21. (Read 127621 times)

hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 501
There is more to Bitcoin than bitcoins.
September 29, 2012, 02:31:49 PM
There is some constructive criticism to be found here, but there is an overwhelming amount of hysterical ignorance. Bitcoin is a technology. A tool. Like a knife or a voice coil or a laser or a jet engine or a convection oven. It's not supposed to fight Visa, Big Brother, wars, peace, statism, anarchism, capitalism, socialism, individualism, libertarianism, or government subsidies. Unfortunately, it doesn't fight stupidity and ignorance either. Grow fucking up and stop bitching and masturbating over your ideological views and fantasies here in public. Face the fact that not everyone in this world shares your values, your selfishness, your fears, your notion of freedom, and your hopes. Also, face the fact that many of those people different from you are perfectly fine folks.

legendary
Activity: 1596
Merit: 1100
September 29, 2012, 02:17:48 PM
First, you edited my OP and broke all of the links changing .org to .com.
Then you sent me a PM asking if it would be ok to move this thread to Service Discussion.  WTF?  If discussion of the Foundation isn't a good topic for the main Discussion forum what is?

Woah.  That is a significant abuse of moderator power.

Has hazek edited any of your other posts?
Has hazek edited any of my posts?
Has hazek edited any of satoshi's old posts?

Editing another's posts is far worse than deletion, when it comes to abuse of moderator powers.  That is misrepresenting someone else's identity.

Edit:  Yes, Gavin should have signed his post with PGP, to more easily spot things like this.

legendary
Activity: 2142
Merit: 1010
Newbie
September 29, 2012, 01:49:05 PM
There is a poll on CodingInMySleep blog:

What's your first impression of the Bitcoin Foundation?
Love it! (70%, 63 Votes)
Meh. (23%, 21 Votes)
Hate it! (7%, 6 Votes)

http://codinginmysleep.com/announcing-the-bitcoin-foundation/

According to https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/do-you-support-the-launch-of-the-bitcoin-foundation-113509:

Do you support the launch of the Bitcoin Foundation?
Yes - 55.1% (49/89)
No - 25.8% (23/89)
Not decided yet - 19.1% (17/89)
legendary
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1000
Charlie 'Van Bitcoin' Shrem
September 29, 2012, 01:29:58 PM
I would wish nothing but success for bitcoin, but please, everyone involved, please be prepared in the event of anything like this.

Would you believe me if I told you someone is paying monthly for a life insurance policy on me?

They have so much vested in me and in Bitcoin, that if I die, they want to make sure they get paid.

Obviously, if I'm murdered he won't get paid because of the "Anti Gotti" laws

I have no reason not to believe you, all I'm saying is that it's important to be organized and prepared for all possible scenarios.

Agreed.
hero member
Activity: 868
Merit: 1000
September 29, 2012, 01:27:56 PM
I would wish nothing but success for bitcoin, but please, everyone involved, please be prepared in the event of anything like this.

Would you believe me if I told you someone is paying monthly for a life insurance policy on me?

They have so much vested in me and in Bitcoin, that if I die, they want to make sure they get paid.

Obviously, if I'm murdered he won't get paid because of the "Anti Gotti" laws

I have no reason not to believe you, all I'm saying is that it's important to be organized and prepared for all possible scenarios.
legendary
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1000
Charlie 'Van Bitcoin' Shrem
September 29, 2012, 01:24:04 PM
I would wish nothing but success for bitcoin, but please, everyone involved, please be prepared in the event of anything like this.

Would you believe me if I told you someone is paying monthly for a life insurance policy on me?

They have so much vested in me and in Bitcoin, that if I die, they want to make sure they get paid.

Obviously, if I'm murdered he won't get paid because of the "Anti Gotti" laws
hero member
Activity: 868
Merit: 1000
September 29, 2012, 01:21:43 PM
Well, if there's a meeting in person of all persons on the Bitcoin Foundation, esp. if it's on US soil, it wouldn't be too hard for a government agency to bring all of them in for 'questioning' at once, esp. as bitcoins grows bigger and becomes a threat. Since the members of the foundation is big players in the bitcoin economy, it would hurt the economy a lot if they don't have plans for how their operations should proceed in the event they were incapacitated for a shorter or longer time.

This threat is real. We must remember the crackdown of the Internet gambling industry from the US government. I hope the big players plan accordingly. We must also realize that law enforcement swipes with a wide brush when they first strike.

I would wish nothing but success for bitcoin, but please, everyone involved, please be prepared in the event of anything like this.
legendary
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1003
September 29, 2012, 01:14:30 PM

My first answer would be to not have a Bitcoin Foundation. Why crack the door open and leave the foot in there if it can be shut closed, right?

But the idea of some of the things the Foundation could do isn't entirely bad, I never said it was. I just think the way you structured it is really bad because of the future dangers. So the next best thing to no foundation would be what I already wrote in a post some pages ago:
- Gavin or any dev just can't be a member, it's a conflict of interest and it gives the Foundation a higher profile than it needs and could be abused in the future
 Gavin and all the devs can simply be independent contractors for the foundation, preferably with public contracts. This also allows competition for Gavins contract by another Foundation.
- The name must change to something that is more akin to a voluntary service rather than how I described it earlier: "self anointed ect.. " Someone already posted a few great suggestions that would be much better and safer than the highly officially sounding Bitcoin Foundation
- It needs to be a for profit organization, dependent on not just donations but primarily on offering a service. If vetting businesses is a service people want and will trust this organization's opinion then they should pay for it which again creates a market and allows for competition. Not only that, if it turns out the services that this organization offers aren't desired it will simply go bankrupt and another will take it's place picking up the pieces ensuring we will have the best quality and price.

Also, my ideas would never include trying to adopt checks and balances through the bylaws because those can always be changed (just like the constitution for example).

If you'd implement these three changes, I'd be 100% on board, I'd even buy a subscription or what ever it would be.


Hey,

For your first point, we thought of an idea having the core dev team and Gavin as part of the non-profit foundation and then having another for-profit foundation as well, splitting it up. Similar to the way the Mozilla Foundation is set up:

Quote
Mozilla Foundation

The Mozilla Foundation is a California non-profit corporation exempt from Federal income taxation under IRC 501(c)(3). The Foundation supports the existing Mozilla community and oversees Mozilla's governance structure. It also actively seeks out new ways for people around the world to recognize and steward the Internet as a critical public resource.

Mozilla Corporation

The Mozilla Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, works with the community to develop software that advances Mozilla's principles. This includes the Firefox browser, which is well recognized as a market leader in security, privacy and language localization. These features make the Internet safer and more accessible.

Still in discussions about this.

I'm gonna respond to the rest later, I need to head offline. Feel free to respond now.

-Charlie

No I don't think that solves the conflict of interest. There can't be ownership of both by the same group or person. You either create two groups separate and independent or do as I suggested if you really want to solves the dangers that a conflict of interest poses in the future.

I'm still interested to hear your response two the other two suggestions.

Good point.

While Im still thinking about this, I think you and I can agree that the structure and name of the foundation needs alot of analyses and opinions from many different people. In and outside of Bitcoin.
One thing to note (I know this doesn't justify it, but forsure a plus)- The name gives it a nice dose of legitimacy outside the Bitcoin world.
We have banks, VC's, press, ect.. literally calling us up and saying now they will work with us since there is a a (and I quote) "Long term entity that makes us comfortable knowing we can invest time and resources into Bitcoin and it being around in the future"

Regarding Gavin and the core dev team, this goes into the same response as above. I don't have an opinion on this, simply because I have not heard enough arguments on both side of the table.

Good morning by the way!  Cheesy

-Charlie

Yeah but that dose of legitimacy is exactly what some of us were calling a power grab and now fear it's a danger in the future. I much rather see a different name that allows for likewise legitimate competition rather than a name that implies sole legitimacy but I do agree that two people can't decide what the best name should be and do hope you have a meeting, ask for suggestions and vote on a change ASAP.

As for the rest, I just want to you to take a free market voluntary approach to every aspect and couldn't understand why you didn't do so from the get go. Currently you made a lot of assertions and thereby raised red flags with some of us who are highly coercion wary. So I do hope this is the second most important topic you will discuss at your meeting then ask for suggestions and change ASAP. You can only benefit if you do so even though it might not seem like that right away because you'd be giving up some of this "power" or legitimacy.


And good morning to you too.
legendary
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1000
Charlie 'Van Bitcoin' Shrem
September 29, 2012, 01:08:22 PM
Agreed.

I hope you can make many more such steps to ensure this becomes a good solution for a long time to come. But it will require more such honesty and openness which might again rattle up some emotions so don't forget this in those moments.

I promise at all times to do my best with this.

If you feel I'm getting defensive or being dishonest, please point it out to me ASAP (and even reference this thread if you want)

I know you only have good intentions here, it's hard for people to see it sometimes.


Good Morning Charlie! Always the friendly reply.  Smiley

Will you have regularly scheduled meetings and are you going to be posting the minutes to board meetings somewhere for review?


Yes of course!

We will start to have meetings once a week, minutes will be posted to all members.

Every 3 months, the foundation members meet physically as well.

There are already a few ideas coming out of these threads that we will be putting up to a member vote

-Charlie
legendary
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1003
September 29, 2012, 12:57:30 PM
Once you take the personal attacks out of the debate and people stop making assumptions about other people and policies alot of good comes out of these debates.

Last night, Hazek, Atlas and myself even came to an agreement of a problem we all believe is real regarding the future of the foundation

Read here: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1230272

My point is, we can all get along, let's just be civil and stop taking everything so personally

This goes both ways.

-Charlie

In a heated discussion it's hard to remain rational and emotionless, especially if someone is envisioning future scenarios where you are behaving maliciously when you know you have the best intentions at heart right now. I get that. But I thought I did my best, actually surprisingly restrained for my standards, to remain respectful and not manipulative at all times. I really am just trying to ask question and point out what I perceive as inconsistencies and future dangers.

So yes I agree with you, we should try to remain respectful to each other in order to find a solution. And the acknowledgement from you last night that how some of us critics perceive TBF (self imposed spokesperson, policy setting, business vetting, intertwined with corporate interest body) is actually correct was a huge step in the right direction. I hope you can make many more such steps to ensure this becomes a good solution for a long time to come. But it will require more such honesty and openness which might again rattle up some emotions so don't forget this in those moments.
full member
Activity: 196
Merit: 100
September 29, 2012, 12:52:10 PM
you want things to change for YOU is a way that a lot of people disagree with.

Actually, the amount of membership and donations are staggering.

I've narrowed it down to 3 trolls in this forum, and a bunch of follower haters which total to about 20.

-Charlie

+1

There is a poll on CodingInMySleep blog:

What's your first impression of the Bitcoin Foundation?
Love it! (70%, 63 Votes)
Meh. (23%, 21 Votes)
Hate it! (7%, 6 Votes)

http://codinginmysleep.com/announcing-the-bitcoin-foundation/
legendary
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1000
Charlie 'Van Bitcoin' Shrem
September 29, 2012, 12:48:09 PM

My first answer would be to not have a Bitcoin Foundation. Why crack the door open and leave the foot in there if it can be shut closed, right?

But the idea of some of the things the Foundation could do isn't entirely bad, I never said it was. I just think the way you structured it is really bad because of the future dangers. So the next best thing to no foundation would be what I already wrote in a post some pages ago:
- Gavin or any dev just can't be a member, it's a conflict of interest and it gives the Foundation a higher profile than it needs and could be abused in the future
 Gavin and all the devs can simply be independent contractors for the foundation, preferably with public contracts. This also allows competition for Gavins contract by another Foundation.
- The name must change to something that is more akin to a voluntary service rather than how I described it earlier: "self anointed ect.. " Someone already posted a few great suggestions that would be much better and safer than the highly officially sounding Bitcoin Foundation
- It needs to be a for profit organization, dependent on not just donations but primarily on offering a service. If vetting businesses is a service people want and will trust this organization's opinion then they should pay for it which again creates a market and allows for competition. Not only that, if it turns out the services that this organization offers aren't desired it will simply go bankrupt and another will take it's place picking up the pieces ensuring we will have the best quality and price.

Also, my ideas would never include trying to adopt checks and balances through the bylaws because those can always be changed (just like the constitution for example).

If you'd implement these three changes, I'd be 100% on board, I'd even buy a subscription or what ever it would be.


Hey,

For your first point, we thought of an idea having the core dev team and Gavin as part of the non-profit foundation and then having another for-profit foundation as well, splitting it up. Similar to the way the Mozilla Foundation is set up:

Quote
Mozilla Foundation

The Mozilla Foundation is a California non-profit corporation exempt from Federal income taxation under IRC 501(c)(3). The Foundation supports the existing Mozilla community and oversees Mozilla's governance structure. It also actively seeks out new ways for people around the world to recognize and steward the Internet as a critical public resource.

Mozilla Corporation

The Mozilla Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, works with the community to develop software that advances Mozilla's principles. This includes the Firefox browser, which is well recognized as a market leader in security, privacy and language localization. These features make the Internet safer and more accessible.

Still in discussions about this.

I'm gonna respond to the rest later, I need to head offline. Feel free to respond now.

-Charlie

No I don't think that solves the conflict of interest. There can't be ownership of both by the same group or person. You either create two groups separate and independent or do as I suggested if you really want to solves the dangers that a conflict of interest poses in the future.

I'm still interested to hear your response two the other two suggestions.

Good point.

While Im still thinking about this, I think you and I can agree that the structure and name of the foundation needs alot of analyses and opinions from many different people. In and outside of Bitcoin.
One thing to note (I know this doesn't justify it, but forsure a plus)- The name gives it a nice dose of legitimacy outside the Bitcoin world.
We have banks, VC's, press, ect.. literally calling us up and saying now they will work with us since there is a a (and I quote) "Long term entity that makes us comfortable knowing we can invest time and resources into Bitcoin and it being around in the future"

Regarding Gavin and the core dev team, this goes into the same response as above. I don't have an opinion on this, simply because I have not heard enough arguments on both side of the table.

Good morning by the way!  Cheesy

-Charlie
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
September 29, 2012, 12:43:58 PM
Well with some of this money you guys make you should put some commercials on T.V. as a public broadcast. That would be something worth while.
legendary
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1003
September 29, 2012, 12:43:31 PM

My first answer would be to not have a Bitcoin Foundation. Why crack the door open and leave the foot in there if it can be shut closed, right?

But the idea of some of the things the Foundation could do isn't entirely bad, I never said it was. I just think the way you structured it is really bad because of the future dangers. So the next best thing to no foundation would be what I already wrote in a post some pages ago:
- Gavin or any dev just can't be a member, it's a conflict of interest and it gives the Foundation a higher profile than it needs and could be abused in the future
 Gavin and all the devs can simply be independent contractors for the foundation, preferably with public contracts. This also allows competition for Gavins contract by another Foundation.
- The name must change to something that is more akin to a voluntary service rather than how I described it earlier: "self anointed ect.. " Someone already posted a few great suggestions that would be much better and safer than the highly officially sounding Bitcoin Foundation
- It needs to be a for profit organization, dependent on not just donations but primarily on offering a service. If vetting businesses is a service people want and will trust this organization's opinion then they should pay for it which again creates a market and allows for competition. Not only that, if it turns out the services that this organization offers aren't desired it will simply go bankrupt and another will take it's place picking up the pieces ensuring we will have the best quality and price.

Also, my ideas would never include trying to adopt checks and balances through the bylaws because those can always be changed (just like the constitution for example).

If you'd implement these three changes, I'd be 100% on board, I'd even buy a subscription or what ever it would be.


Hey,

For your first point, we thought of an idea having the core dev team and Gavin as part of the non-profit foundation and then having another for-profit foundation as well, splitting it up. Similar to the way the Mozilla Foundation is set up:

Quote
Mozilla Foundation

The Mozilla Foundation is a California non-profit corporation exempt from Federal income taxation under IRC 501(c)(3). The Foundation supports the existing Mozilla community and oversees Mozilla's governance structure. It also actively seeks out new ways for people around the world to recognize and steward the Internet as a critical public resource.

Mozilla Corporation

The Mozilla Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, works with the community to develop software that advances Mozilla's principles. This includes the Firefox browser, which is well recognized as a market leader in security, privacy and language localization. These features make the Internet safer and more accessible.

Still in discussions about this.

I'm gonna respond to the rest later, I need to head offline. Feel free to respond now.

-Charlie

No I don't think that solves the conflict of interest. There can't be ownership of both by the same group or person. You either create two groups separate and independent or do as I suggested if you really want to solve the dangers that a conflict of interest poses in the future.

I'm still interested to hear your response two the other two suggestions.
legendary
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1000
Charlie 'Van Bitcoin' Shrem
September 29, 2012, 12:39:38 PM
Once you take the personal attacks out of the debate and people stop making assumptions about other people and policies alot of good comes out of these debates.

Last night, Hazek, Atlas and myself even came to an agreement of a problem we all believe is real regarding the future of the foundation

Read here: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1230272

My point is, we can all get along, let's just be civil and stop taking everything so personally

This goes both ways.

-Charlie
hero member
Activity: 868
Merit: 1000
September 29, 2012, 12:36:59 PM
This is a debate over nothing. I am tuning this thread out until the hater discussion get separated.

All criticism should be listened to, and genuine haters who have no genuine criticism could just be ignored.

It's a saying that goes:

"You can please some of the people, some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time".

Even a saint would have his or her haters, so having everyone like you on the internet is impossible.
legendary
Activity: 1190
Merit: 1004
September 29, 2012, 12:34:21 PM
Bitcoin as a technology doesn't have a leader. Different people may lead different projects but bitcoin itself is open for anyone to contribute without needing to follow some lead.
legendary
Activity: 980
Merit: 1020
September 29, 2012, 12:33:40 PM
This is a debate over nothing. I am tuning this thread out until the hater discussion get separated.
legendary
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1003
September 29, 2012, 12:31:41 PM
hazek, you're really annoying me.

I'm not trying to be annoying, I'm just pointing out dangers and inconsistencies. I apologize if that annoys you.

First, you edited my OP and broke all of the links changing .org to .com.

After doing so, because .org wasn't working for me but .com was thinking you made a mistake and wanted to fix a broken link, I immediately pmed you about my correction upon which you pmed that I made a mistake for which I immediately apologized for. I don't understand why you are trying to paint me as a saboteur when I am anything but.

Then you sent me a PM asking if it would be ok to move this thread to Service Discussion.  WTF?  If discussion of the Foundation isn't a good topic for the main Discussion forum what is?

As the moderator I have responsibilities. One is to check my mail for reports of which I got more than five asking me why the moderation is being inconsistent moving all the posts discussing the foundation to Service Discussion, and moving all the other announcement to Service Announcements but leaving your announcement of a service, which is my personal opinion what your Bitcoin Foundation is, in the Bitcoin Discussion. Despite all the reports I didn't take any action, instead I extended you some courtesy and pmed you about this issue, to which you gave me a non answer
Now you spout off about 'Gavin this, Gavin that.'

I also don't understand why you are putting words in my mouth. I'm not spouting off anything, all I did was give Charlie suggestion how to prevent TBF being corrupted in the future and abused and one of my suggetions was to eliminate your conflict of interest which no one wants to acknowledge exists with you being the lead dev and at the same time a founding member on the board of directors for the next two years. I don't understand how else I can express my suggestions and point out facts that it wouldn't bother you. It's about you, it's bound to bother you but that's not my fault.

It isn't easy to piss me off, but, I'm sorry, you're really pissing me off. Bounties?  Really?  Point me to a successful security-critical open source project where bounties pay the rent.

I haven't tried kickstarter-like fundraising?  http://blockchain.info/address/17XvU95PkpDqXAr8ieNpYzSdRDRJL55UQ8  is the address for the Bitcoin Testing Project, which has received a grand total of 72 BTC, which isn't nearly enough to pay a QA grunt, let alone a QA lead.

It is my opinion that if as much effort was put into fund raising as was put into formulating TBF, you would have more than enough funds to fund yourself and a big enough team to support you. A single post on the forum just isn't enough effort to bare any such fruit. Did you ever ask if anyone wanted to help out with promotion or with figuring out a fund raising scheme? I must bring up the very successful foundraising for the very first promotional Bitcoin video that raised something like 9000 BTC which was the money that started weusecoins.com. If that much was raised for that purpose I can't even imagine how much you could get for development.


You say "why change, Bitcoin has been working great for me!"

It hasn't been working great for me; I'm frustrated by the lack of resources and all of the distractions I have to deal with as the unelected, un-asked-for de-facto leader of this amazing experiment. I'm excited about the Foundation, because it is bringing together dedicated, effective people who all want Bitcoin to succeed.

Yes this is a problem. I don't deny it. But how you now attempted to solve it is not and cannot be the only solution. It's a solution, it's the solution that is the most comfortable and easy for you. Unfortunately it's also the most dangerous solution for the future of Bitcoin.



Last but not least I just don't understand why instead of attacking my persona you don't just point to facts that would support your arguments. It's really scary to read such manipulative posts from you and it makes it that much harder to believe you understand the issues some of us are having with TBF.
legendary
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1000
Charlie 'Van Bitcoin' Shrem
September 29, 2012, 12:28:16 PM
you want things to change for YOU is a way that a lot of people disagree with.

Actually, the amount of membership and donations are staggering.

I've narrowed it down to 3 trolls in this forum, and a bunch of follower haters which total to about 20.

-Charlie
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