Bitcoin Forum

https://medium.com/bitpay-on-bitcoin/bitpay-enters-agreement-with-bitmain-to-develop-open-source-blockchain-security-software-9de2b48b452c

What do people make of this?

I'd say Bitpay is probably the most influential entity beyond developers and miners in the Bitcoin space. They've also shown plenty of commitment to working for the greater good. In the past they've said also they were working on off chain payment solutions.

Will this partnership come up with ideas that are palatable to everyone or will it descend into further screeching?

This does show their dedication to Bitcoin as a decentralised project rather than just a payment network.  

However, most of their decisions are hard to judge as solely being ethical or for the greater good, just because their business interests usually coincide with the interests of Bitcoin users as large - the more convenient transactions are, the more people will be spending them through their services even if they're onchain transactions which are somewhat centralised (arguably).

I would argue that another company in their place, which acts solely to earn profit, would still do many of the things Bitpay does which we perceive to be ethical.

Obviously they're out for themselves, but they're going around it by committing to Bitcoin's general growth too. Many companies are too dim to figure that out. They're one of the companies with proper long term vision.

Both very commercial partners think about money and i honestly believe they don't have the community share in their regard. All those companies want these days is money money and bitcoin.
I would like it if they would invest in promotion of btc rather then making just money.

Any actual reasons?

You're just saying "Bitpay are great" with no "because....."

I hope they really make the software open source without hiding a "bleed" somewhere deep inside. I am sure there are other partners that Bitpay can work with...

Here's a reason why Bitpay have no place being described as "committed to working for the greater good", they joined in the chorus with a bunch of Bitcoin companies in support of Extension Blocks (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1900187.0).

Extension blocks allow miners to just create as many side chains to the main blockchain as they like. And so really, it's very similar in outcome to Bitcoin Unlimited; miners choose how many extension chains exist, and they also control which chain your transaction is mined into.


So, the miners can take control very easily by leaving empty blocks in the main blockchain that we have now, and forcing people to download their choice of extension chains to keep using peer-to-peer Bitcoin directly, and they are limited to, let's see, an infinite number of extension chains. Sounds a bit Unlimited to me.



@gentlemand, show some responsibility towards your fellow Bitcoiners, please. You frequently state you have no clue about the technical matters behind Bitcoin, you should not be making these vague assertions on topics you confess to know nothing about

BitPay announced on May 2 a millionaire agreement with Bitmain Technologies, the leading supplier of bitcoin mining hardware. According to BitPay, the main goal is to create open source software for miners, mining pools and Full Nodes operators to maintain and protect transactions at Blockchain.
BitPay will use more than six years of development experience in payment solutions and secure open source platforms at Bitcoin's Blockchain. In addition, BitPay has a long tradition of serving the most important companies in the field of mining equipment, and is pleased to have the support of Bitmain.

lol say no more