Bitcoin Forum

This is a follow up regarding a discussion between @Cobra-Bitcoin and a number of individuals within the Bitcoin Core #UASF Slack channel.

The Problem: A number of individuals (including myself) feel that @Cobra-Bitcoin has become an unreliable person to own the Bitcoin.org domain name, mainly given his public support for BCH (as well as other things, but this is not supposed to be an attack on Cobra). We fear that Cobra:

May suddenly start propagandizing BCH as 'The Real Bitcoin' and re-purpose Bitcoin.org to promote BCH.
Sell the domain to someone else, who'd use it for malicious intent. The fact that he's only known only by his pseudonym would make this relatively easy and have no consequences for him whatsoever, there's only a lucrative upside for him.
I personally feel that one person, pseudonymous or not, should not have total control of the Bitcoin.org domain name, since it has too much importance within the community.

The Solution: The domain name should be placed in the hands of the community. The solutions which had been discussed in the Slack discussion were the following:

Cobra transfers the domain back to @theymos and therefore relinquishes his ability to perform either of the above two actions.
A select few veterans within the Bitcoin community would be chosen to form a non-profit, and the domain would then be transferred into this non-profit.
If option 2 were chosen, the community would have to decide which individuals to choose from. We do not want to end up in a Bitcoin Foundation (Vinny Lingham) scenario.

I would like to invite you to discuss the domain ownership issue at hand so we can resolve this accordingly. Please do let other people know of this so everyone can get a say in this.

But what happens if he doesn't want to transfer the domain?

.org domain names are so last century. Surely as Bitcoin moves into an investment category, then the .com is more significant.

.org domain names are so last century. Surely as Bitcoin moves into an investment category, then the .com is more significant.

theymos commented 2 days ago
Although Cobra has ultimate technical control over the domain name, note that I already do have access to the settings. So if Cobra was hit by a bus, I could take over.

In an emergency I could take the domain temporarily, but I couldn't take it long-term because that would make me too much of a central point of failure.

I don't see any urgent need to change the status quo. I am not very concerned about Cobra going rogue (see my comment here), and I am concerned that any non-profit would be more likely to be eventually corrupted than Cobra is. There are disadvantages to having the domain ultimately controlled by one person, and it may be possible to design an entity carefully enough that the risk of it being corrupted is sufficiently low, so I won't completely rule out future changes.

Hopefully, it wouldn't be  Bitcoin.io ;D Put it in line with all those scam ICOs. I like the bitcoin.org domain name, very suitable for non-profit organizations, declaring the decentralization and financial freedom from banks.

.com is already taken

Bitcoin Cash seems to own the .com, and that is another problem for the real Bitcoin.

It's just a domain name. If bitcoin is at risk from a domain name going rogue, then there is no bitcoin.

It's just a domain name. If bitcoin is at risk from a domain name going rogue, then there is no bitcoin.

Actually, Roger Ver owns that domain. He just turned it into a misleading website using the Bitcoin brand to hardcore shill Jihan's older generation asic recycler toy called BCash.

I wonder if it is possible to have theymos blacklist that .com domain on this forum. It's only being used to mislead people. It's damaging. We shouldn't allow that to happen.