Bitcoin Forum

Also on Reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1a68w3/who_would_you_choose_as_gavins_replacement/).

If (god/satoshi forbid), Gavin were struct by lightning and/or assassinated by the CIA and/or ran over by a bus...

Who do you think would be the best candidate to be the lead Bitcoin developer? I'm not referring to bitcoin-qt specifically, but rather "the bitcoin protocol and agenda", which currently includes bitcoin-qt as a reference implementation.

The future of currency can't rely on one person. We must have a contingency plan. I currently trust him close to 100%, and I don't have a lot of other people that come close.

I would like to create a poll and check the wind.
My candidates for this poll would be Mike Hearn and Jeff Garzik.
I prefer gathering up several more names before I create the poll, to avoid voting bias.

Who would you like to see featured in such a poll?

etotheipi

Luke-jr.
Then we'll have PopeCoin :P
or maybe TonalCoin, whatever that is.

Is it really necessary to do this? Given his age, it is statistically unlikely that Gavin is going to die anytime soon, so if something happens, I'm sure we will figure this out. If the Vatican can elect a new pope in a couple of weeks, I'm sure the Bitcoin community can find a new lead developer within reasonable time.

Yes.

Bitcoin isn't a one person cult. It's bigger than Gavin, and he should have a replacement / "2nd in command", even if it's not official.

His role is such a huge responsibility. Frankly, I don't care who is head of the Vatican, and the election process there is anything but fair, open and democratic.

gmaxwell

I could handle that for you guys!

Mircea Popescu, to see how much support he has. Actual-support as opposed to PR-support.

Mike Hearn, Pieter Wuille, Jeff Garzik, and Gregory Maxwell all seem very capable.  I've ordered them from less to more conservative (in my view).

I find myself more in line with Mike Hearn, who seems more willing to push the boundaries of this experiment.  But Pieter Wuille seems very thoughtful, and I'd be happy with him taking the reigns as well.  Jeff Garzik and Gregory Maxwell are brilliant, but maybe a bit too conservative for my tastes.  No offense :)

That said, I think Gavin is doing an outstanding job, and I hope he lives 1000 years.

Edit: Though I'd be perfectly happy with any of these people leading development in the event that Gavin steps down.

Joke...
And I was not referring to satoshi as a god, but rather as two different entities (both of which have the power to strike people with lightning).

+1 Was about to post.

I expect Satoshi to return to appoint new project leader. Satoshi once made a successful choice, probably no one could do it better.

If Satoshi is alive, is not group of people or Luke-Jr, still have his PGP key and Satoshi is not Gavin himself.

MysteryMiner

Unfortunately from the small amount of observing I did on #bitcoin-dev last night, Jeff seemed to not get consensus maybe a little too often to take the reins.

However that might just be an artifact of his not being the lead developer thus being more free to [seem to] espouse positions that aren't at that moment the clear consensus.

As I don't know whether it was such an artifact though, I'd have to say from that brief span of observation I'd have had to choose Gregory, at least during the duration of the "emergency".

If Luke was in charge at the Vatican maybe it would be policy there to always take at least two years to appoint a new pope! ;) :D

So lets wait at least 2 years before putting him in the poll! Hahaha. :)

-MarkM-

remote access trojan in every bitcoin install.

Maybe we could hire the Litecoin "developers" to teach us a thing or two?

I'm only voting for you because your posting style reminds me of this, so I almost crack up laughing every time I read one of your posts:

http://www.nobodygoeshere.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/ak47.jpg

The problem is: who should make the decision? All developers/miners/users should be eligible for a vote, or Satoshi shows up again to appoint or just nominate one person? Or Gavin himself would appoint his successor?

Has anyone noticed you've never seen Atlas and Gavin at the same time? Geez this thread is silly.

Poll created (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=152587.0).
I'm locking this thread, any replies can be posted to the poll thread itself.