Bitcoin Forum

"Acclaimed bitcoinj developer Mike Hearn has expressed his concerns over the apparent lack of progress in the development of the bitcoin protocol.

In an audio interview with Epicenter Bitcoin, Hearn indicated that there are simply no incentives for developers to spend time and effort on basic development, and that the bitcoin protocol is already suffering as a result"

Read more: http://www.coindesk.com/mike-hearn-underfunding-leaving-bitcoin-development-crisis/ (http://www.coindesk.com/mike-hearn-underfunding-leaving-bitcoin-development-crisis/)

I've started a thread in the development section asking about this as well:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=667926.msg7547319 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=667926.msg7547319)

And it's been going on for a while.. older article from February:
http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-core-development-falling-behind-warns-mike-hearn/ (http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-core-development-falling-behind-warns-mike-hearn/)

People need to realize that bitcoins are stock in an open source enterprise and not just a speculative oddity.

I figured that the money that Bitcoin Foundation was pooling was going partially towards protocol development. It would only make sense that some of this VC money coming in would be incentivized to go to solidify the overall system so all ships stay raised.

This is a good idea. Sort of a voluntary tax to help with the protocol. It would be a great example of how voluntary taxation can work if the idea is good enough.

The Bitcoin Foundation is paying one or more devs, so why is this "news" at all?
What is going on with the paid programmer(s)?

Here is the answer:
“The only people doing any kind of heavy lifting on the protocol today are people paid by the Bitcoin Foundation. When I say ‘people,’ what I actually mean is Gavin [Andresen]. There are only three people paid by the Foundation to work on bitcoin, code-wise. And of those, Wladimir [van der Laan] and Cory [Fields] refuse to work on the protocol, partly because of the social issues that have come up.”

What's suffering about the protocol?

Perhaps it is that Mike Hearn's favorite ideas are not getting done?

I don't think there is anything critical, but something needs to be done about transaction malleability someday, maybe they can make it a feature instead of a bug somehow. Colored coins need integration into the protocol in a way that it doesn't excessively bloat the blockchain.

What is really needed is good communication between core and ancillary development so we don't get the issues Mastercoin encountered. And when I say communication, that also means money.

Come someone tell me how this is possible when the Bitcoin Foundation is sitting on, like what, 1.5 million or something? With more coming in every year from annual members?

Is this really an issue or is Hearn just blowing off steam for whatever reason of the week?

How many devs are currently salaried? If we need more why aren't we adding more paid devs? Is it a lack of money or lack of will?