OK, I'm going to risk getting crushed by some of the high horses here, not in order to add anything that hasn't already been said, but to present things from a slightly different perspective that might be of help to someone.
First I want to talk more generally about exchanges such as this one has been. Whilst I jest about high horses I also acknowledge some here have personal experiences that appear to have led to passionate and principled positions. I'm not saying it oughtn't be so. Yet there's a danger when one feels so strongly about something that we drag in related but not necessarily directly relevant points and mush them together to present a highly principled and inflexible viewpoint surely nobody in their right minds could disagree with. Again I'm not criticising but there is a problem in this in that it can lead to outrage when despite it being so 'obvious' others
still aren't seeing things our way. It is only a short step from there to insults and we end up with increasingly entrenched positions and missing the opportunity available here for us all to understand one another a little better, to be learning from one another and venturing to re-evaluate our own positions in the light of the rich diversity of opinions being expressed.
I'm not going to go anywhere near addressing all, or even the primary issues raised in this thread but I would like to attempt to untangle two of the ideas.
First this idea of whether or not there should be a Bitcoin representative body.
We have:
- Glad there is one, pleased with who is on it, grateful they appear to be doing a good job;
- Maybe there should be one but not these folks if they are not behaving in a way consistent with my value system (or the value system I see Bitcoin as representing);
- Having one (and having elections) is not consistent with my value system (or the value system I see Bitcoin as representing) but if there is one they shouldn't be behaving in such and such a manner.
As far as I can see (and this was brought home to me by having it pointed out that its name is not 'The' Bitcoin Foundation but Bitcoin Foundation) whilst its main product may be called the 'official' client and has heritage/lineage, being Open Source there is nothing about the code nor its use that gives these folks a privileged position. Reasonable options, depending on where one stands with reference to the above list include:
- deciding it's a hopeless position and stopping being involved with Bitcoin;
- deciding to use/develop alternative client software in order to weaken any claim to the bitcoin.org software having the title 'official';
- deciding to instigate/support the forming of another representative organisation, even if one doesn't believe in the idea of one but would rather support one with different values than the present one;
- etc. etc.
There is one position I don't consider to be reasonable: 'I don't like the fact that Bitcoin Foundation exists and that it claims to represent me (where was that claim?) therefore I want them to adopt the Bitcoin principles I deem to be true and to act accordingly.'
The other thing that is not coded into the software AFAIK are ideological/political principles. It is transparent to all that the built-in rules virtually amount to a fully fledged monetary policy (and the headline in the first block gives us further clue as to what was behind it) but once the rules were coded in all we have is a set of rules defining the behaviour of Bitcoin. It is then 'out there' and independent of any ideology or political standpoint. We each can use it in the way we deem appropriate for our own ends and/or to further our own values. Sure we can extrapolate from the rules (and from historic threads etc.) what we believe the intended ideology behind Bitcoin was but not even Satoshi has the right to say unless a user believes in certain principles and behaves in a prescribed manner (outside of the coded rules) they shouldn't be involved.
It's the difference between being attracted to Bitcoin because the rules concur with our world view and saying Bitcoin is the saviour of our world view and anyone using/developing it not in accordance with our world view is committing sacrilege.
Sorry that got a bit long!