Topic: Roger Ver and Jon Matonis pushed aside now that Bitcoin is becoming mainstream (Read 46514 times)

No, this forum is unaffiliated with the Foundation. Same for bitcoin.org.

I think that the Foundation has done good things in the past, and they'll probably do good things in the future. But over time, there will be a growing desire to centralize via the Foundation. Centralization is an easy way to solve problems, and the Foundation is the obvious recipient of centralized control. We must all diligently watch out for this and act to stop it if necessary.

Me too, actually.  I can't have many strong opinions on these issues, because I have too little knowledge.  I'd like to have more, and to have any mistaken impressions I have cleared up, or if I'm not mistaken, have enough knowledge to be more confident in my opinions.

Otherwise, I'll just tend to get more paranoid, probably.

My best understanding of things is that Thermos has pretty much full control after taking it over from Sirius who was out of his league from a technical point of view as demonstrated by one of the many hacks.  The guy (Theymos) also has some tid-bit given to him by Satoshi, but I forgot what that is.  Perhaps just a domain name, but I though it had something to do with the genesis block as well.

At some point along the line I thought that Karpeles owned something.  Perhaps just the machines upon which the site is/was hosted.  Remember that this used to be a forum hosted on 'bitcoin.org' proper (hence my username), but not long after I joined up it got so stinky that it was separated out.  (I'm sure these two events were unrelated.)

Theymos was one of the few who publicly voiced concerns/objections to the creation of the Bitcoin Foundation in the first place.  I remember because I did as well.  I've seen nothing of his which indicates to me that Theymos has changed his mind on whether such a trade organization is good for Bitcoin.  I suspect that he and I both recognize that it's good for our respective pocket-books if nothing else.  At least in the short term.

I'm always happy to have any of my misunderstandings corrected or clarified.  These relationships are likely to be as important as the code itself to the trajectory of the Bitcoin project.

Very good point.  However, we also can't afford to ignore when something that seems (to the world) to represent Bitcoin itself is actually becoming a potential threat to us.

I frankly do not think, as some do, that the Bitcoin Foundation has reached this level.  It still seems, on net, to be a beneficial thing.

But suppose it does cross over entirely to the dark side.  What then?  Doesn't the BCF essentially run this site?  What happens then?

ROFL - spot on. Bitcoin is already becoming all about control/profit and very little about financial privacy. Maybe during his next presentation to some three letter agency Gavin can get some tips to help him finalize his client into a completely useless tool of government. At least it won't be in beta anymore. This is already rivaling the longest beta period of any software I can remember that has already been distributed world wide.

The government is, I'm sure, largely worried about the ability to 'launder money', but that is a function of ensuring that they maintain control and visibility into the affairs of potential adversaries.  They have already arranged methods for their sponsors to 'launder money' for the purposes of economic gain (tax shelter loopholes and such) and another one of these in the form of Bitcoin is uninteresting.

But you are 100% right.  Bitcoin, as visualized by the Bitcoin Foundation at least, is a sucky way to try to achieve financial privacy for the reasons you outline.

People who share the Bitcoin Foundation's vision of a further water down, centralized, and pretty much useless 'PayPal 2.0' Bitcoin would do well to contact their congressmen and tell them how much it sucks for anything disruptive and how great a rope-a-dope spy system it can be with the able assistance of the Bitcoin Foundation trade group.  Especially when Coin Validation is ready for prime time.

Couldn't agree more with this.

Many of the regulators who will soon be issuing regulation and even new law don't fully understand the potential of the protocol and you know where they are getting their info:  From the press whose main mission is selling enough eyeballs to their advertisers ( with sensational 'link-baiting' headlines)  in an effort to keep their operations afloat.

The community needs to reach out and EDUCATE or as we have seen it will be done for us!  Write a letter to your state legislator, write a letter your federal legislator.  Explain to them simply how the protocol works, explain to them the benefits it can offer to society,  explain to them how you use it.  Then explain to them how we as a community are being criminalized by the illicit activity of the bad actors.

The fact is decentralized virtual currency like bitcoin with an open, public ledger is the LAST place a criminal would want to launder money - which is the MAIN concern of government.  

Refer them to the many academics like Sarah Meiklejohn and her team who are doing studies of the blockchain: "A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names" http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~smeiklejohn/files/login13.pdf

This is a DECENTRALIZED community. You can't rely on the bitcoin foundation or the bitcoin center or the bitcoin embassy etc to do it for you.  

We must each do our part and make an effort engage the decision makes to help then allay their fears and increase their understanding of this truly revolutionary technology.

IMHO the protocol speaks for it's self, the fact that the vast majority of journalist's haven't taken the time to even learn the basics speaks volumes about the desperation of the average sensationalist media hack. 

There is no question the Bitcoin Jesus is the real deal.

Great job Mike. That really helped mitigate a lot of potentially negative press. A story like that could have really gone viral pretty easily among the major media outlets and caused us all kinds of problems in the Bitcoin community and ecosystem.

nice and interesting site, good work!

Bitcoinpresscenter.org

Oh yeah. This thread happened once. So much for being pushed aside...

 

LOL

https://bitcoinpresscenter.org/presscontact/matthew-n-wright

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Afraid to show his face.

https://bitcoinpresscenter.org/presscontact/ron-gross

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MIA

Mark Karpeles

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rofl

roger ver kicks ass.

I think it needs a refresh actually. I'd like to see both Jon and Roger there, speaking personally, but the same arguments as before would apply - there are lots of people who can do a good job and it's not worth big arguments over it. I have talking to the developers who objected last time on my TODO list, then of course, Jon/Roger would actually have to want to be there. At least last time Jon didn't seem bothered either way, he spends plenty of time engaged in public speaking already.

Anyway, I'm more interested in refreshing the artwork, videos and making a link to bitcoinpresscenter.org more prominent (maybe some kind of overlay sticker thing so it's not just text but also graphical). Right now it's maybe a bit hard to spot the link. Anton did a great job with that site, it deserves a bigger advert.

Despite all the controversy over how the list of people there is managed, with the benefit of several months of hindsight I think the press center has been a very useful thing. I have no regrets about starting it. The press do use it and we've been able to improve the quality of a lot of Bitcoin stories. The one I'm happiest about was a CNN story that started out as "Bitcoin block chain used for hosting child porn" and we successfully worked with the journalist involved such that when it finally went out, the reference to child porn was buried in the last paragraphs and the overall story was a lot more neutral and balanced. Just last week Jeff and I were teaching a journalist who works for the Financial Times about proof of work and why Bitcoin is designed the way it is. We've come a long way from the bad old 2011 days.

As of today, will Jon Matonis still be verboten on the press list at bitcoin.org...?

"Mike Hunt" is the guy who is often directed to the white paging telephone at the airport.


OK.  I'll add him and his cohort "I.P. Freely" when I get a chance.  If someone does not beat me to it


Thank You!

I do not add contacts myself, I only manage the site.

ANY person can register an account, and then click "Add Contact" to add a contact. It takes a bit of work to put in the information, biography etc, so it is best if it is done by the person themselves or by someone who knows them and can offer the correct biographical information.

In summary, please register on the site and add Mike Hunt yourself, the site is self-service. I cannot research and add the contacts, I don't know them and I'm very busy handling the workload of administering the site and content right now!

Thank you

Could you please add "Mike Hunt"?