In the first place Satoshi didn't want to use his 'power' to affect the network as he wants the community to come up with solutions of their own and let consensus pave the way for a better bitcoin. As what he always says, bitcoin is free from any central authority, and the community can always create what they think is the better version of bitcoin, hence why forks occur.
Precisely. It's not practical to expect every single person to agree on everything forever. Forks are inevitable. At all times users are free to decide which forks they choose to transact on. That's what guarantees decentralisation. Developers can't force changes that users don't agree with, because the users would simply use other software. As such, there's no point in trying to place restrictions on what developers can or can't create, because only the users can give that code any real meaning or substance.
your defending core. not bitcoin
if you cared for bitcoin as a decentralised network. you would not care or need to worry or need to defend core. because core would not need defending
Core doesn't need defending and I'm not worried about them. I'm defending decentralisation. Consider what it is you're actually proposing. You are (once again) advocating restricting what certain developers can do because you mistakenly believe that's how you achieve decentralisation. Tell us how you're going to make it so that Core "
should only run current rules" and "
all the core devs should have their own releases" without introducing centralisation to enforce that. It's not rationally possible. No one can force them to do any of those things in a decentralised system.
its not about restricting code they want
Then you're not very good at explaining yourself, because that's exactly what you've proposed on more than one occasion, including this one. Or are you now retracting your "
core, if it wants to be a reference client should only run current rules" and "
all the core devs should have their own releases" statements? I don't see any other way to interpret those words. You want to change they way they operate, but that's not your call. I'd say this if you tried to tell any other developers what to do.
do you see any code i wrote restricting core? no? ooooo so im not dictating code
do you see any bips i wrote that include mandatory activation dates? no? oooo so im not dictating anything mandatory
do you see any code i wrote that throws core off the network or makes core none functional? no? ooo because im not doing that
I'd love to see some code you wrote, where is it? I'll support and defend your right to create that code. I won't try to tell you what that code can or can't do. It's perfectly acceptable for your code to have activation dates and fork Core clients off the network if that's what you want your code to do. Users will then be free to run that code if they want (a somewhat dubious occurrence, but that's not the point). That's freedom in action. Consider giving it a try, maybe?
core have bips with mandatory activation. those bips have been used
core have code that restricts other nodes from doing things previously possible by non core nodes.
core have code that has thrown nodes off the network purely because they were not wanting the core roadmap
You might portray it as an act of hostility because you disagree with it, but it's really an act of freedom. The users securing this network through both full node validation and mining freely chose to run the code that did all those things. It was their choice. That's how consensus works. You know that's how it works because you literally saw it happen with your own eyes. Users wanted those things to happen. So they did.
you are not defending a WHAT(network) you are defending a WHO(group of devs)
Then why, over the years, have I also defended XT, BU, 2X, etc? I certainly wasn't winning any popularity contests doing that. But decentralisation and freedom means they were free to release that code. So I'll continue to defend their right to do it. Why am I always the one who is stating categorically that they are not an "attack on the network" and that they are merely filling a niche in the market if I'm such an ardent Core supporter? I aim to be as neutral and impartial as the protocol itself. As such, neutrality means all developers are free to do what they want.
over many many many discussions i have used the term 'we need to go back to a LEVEL PLAYING FIELD of multiple implementations'.
why are you so afraid of that notion? does it go against your buddys roadplan?
How would it be a
level playing field when you are suggesting restrictions on certain devs? Logical fallacy.
For the topic as a whole:
If you want a truly decentralised network, that means
everyone is free to create to the code they want to create. You don't have to like it and you definitely don't have to run it, but no one can stop anyone from coding anything. It's something that's easy to forget when people propose controversial ideas or release a client you might not personally approve of, but ultimately, there's no way to prevent people from doing that without closing the source and making Bitcoin centralised. That said, it's also worth remembering there are
some risks to having multiple clients on the network. It's a fine line, but things seem to be working out okay so far.
We have something beautiful here, so let's try to focus on that and not undermine it.