Someone stated smartly in THE Bitcoin Foundation thread that we need to separate de Bitcoin project from the USA.
Now we have USA devs, working in a Washington based foundation and forums with USA moderators fearing USA laws censoring worldwide users.
Fuck, I need a hamburguer now
I have to say that I'm starting to agree with this. If the people in the US are too afraid of the US government, we have a problem. I'm not saying they shouldn't be afraid. Maybe they do need to be afraid. What I'm saying is that maybe we need to decentralize a little more. Having so many "major players" of Bitcoin in the US is not necessarily a very good thing.
Hey,
No offense, but I'm the one on the front line here and when the US Gov't goes after Bitcoin I'll be one of the first people put in jail.
I agree that we need to decentralize more, and thats why I've created a contingency plan for myself and my team.
Someone stated smartly in THE Bitcoin Foundation thread that we need to separate the Bitcoin project from the USA.
Now we have USA devs, working in a Washington based foundation and forums with USA moderators fearing USA laws censoring worldwide users.
+1000
And to say more, by calling it
*THE* Bitcoin Foundation they only made it worse, because it's like saying "Hey, we are the CENTRAL Bitcoin Authority !". Not very smart if you don't want to be first target in case of "some" government decides that Bitcoin is illegal after all.
Oh dear, I must have said this 15 times. Its NOT called The Bitcoin Foundation. It's simply Bitcoin Foundation. The 'the' is only used when referencing this specific foundation.
In fact, you can create your own foundation. I know people who are in the process of doing so.
This foundation was simply created to fund Bitcoin projects and for Bitcoin companies to allocate their resources for a shared and common goal.
I know we all hate government and central authority, but I must have said this 15 times, this foundation has no teeth nor power to change Bitcoin.
Anyone who understands Bitcoin should understand that. I would assume you do.
Bitcoin is not something that can be made 'illegal'. It's a protocol and a standard, like VOIP or HTTP. You can't shut down BitTorrent for the same reasons, and believe me they have tried. (Offtopic: GREAT article about how the 1/3 of BitTorrent downloads are legal and how BT is working with the music industry
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/25/bittorrent-matt-mason-interview/)
What would the government do? Ban cryptography? If they ban Bitcoin, we can simply change the nane. They can't ban math.
However, they can choke us by shutting down companies like BitInstant, which is why I've created my own contingency plan to make sure this does not happen.
-Charlie
+1 from me too
An USA based foundation, the top of the idiocy
While I agree the USA sucks in terms of regulatory pressure (I know firsthand as my office is based in NYC) we need to be on the frontlines and take themhead on