I wouldn't call meeting the CfR an honor.. but I would call it important.
No matter what you think of them, if you ever want to have any influence in this world, and don't intend to use violence/force (and you'd need a massive army for that), you need diplomacy.
Use diplomacy to gain trust and reach a mutually beneficial agreement.
Don't fight the CfR, gradually become the CfR.
And when you are the CfR.. you have the influence to accomplish change.
No matter what you think of them, if you ever want to have any influence in this world, and don't intend to use violence/force (and you'd need a massive army for that), you need diplomacy.
Use diplomacy to gain trust and reach a mutually beneficial agreement.
Don't fight the CfR, gradually become the CfR.
And when you are the CfR.. you have the influence to accomplish change.
Gaining the trust of the CFR is nice and all that, but is orders of magnitude less important than holding onto trust in the Bitcoin community.
Gavin had the ability to demand transparency even if it isn't the playbook that the CFR normally follows. He could easily have just said that his interactions with them would be transparent and publicly documented. Period. Take it or leave it. Bitcoin is strong enough to command that kind of respect...for now...and it is a perfectly reasonable and appropriate position. I don't see that it ever even occurred to Gavin. By all appearances he is simply not a very original thinker.
Gavin does not appear to be under the illusion that there was a choice, or that this is anything other than what it is. Meeting in secret and getting CFR taint, or no meeting. The CFR do seek to end what they see as a threat, and have openly published their plan to do so. They are not going to be persuaded otherwise as a group, but there may be individuals there that may get a glimpse of what it is like to be in the presence of an honest freethinking person who is working for the common good at great personal risk.
http://www.cfr.org/economics/crs-bitcoin-questions-answers-analysis-legal-issues/p32148?cid=rss-economics-crs__bitcoin__questions,_answe-010614
That the CFR is opposed to everything Bitcoin is and represents is no secret. Whether they use the events surrounding this meeting to exert overt coercion or try to win some points with charm and displays of wealth and power remains to be seen. (carrot or stick?) Whatever the outcome, another day, another bitcoin. I wish him well, he has done much good and I will not hold this against him.
