sticking to the military analogy.. it all depends on how much jet fuel (regulation) the aircraft carrier decides is needed to allow the jet to fly.

im pee'd off that the military(government/banks) have paid a private contractor(blockstream) to take over control of the worlds jet manufacturing(bitcoin devs)
its no longer independent manufacturers(diverse devs) independently making jets(code implementations) to defend us in a civil war(citizens vs government/banks) its now all controlled by the military(government/banks) that citizens are trying to fight against

we are even told that the future of the civil war can only be won by being contracted(LN HUBS/sidechains commitments) by the military and using their tools/aircraft carrier(LN/sidechains)

??

LN hub

imagine it

customer A channels to starbucks
customer B channels to starbucks
customer C channels to starbucks

for customer A to pay customer C, .. STARBUCKS becomes the middleman and starbucks has to organise the hops. starbucks then has to manage the customers funds and penalise (CSV revoke/ realworld chargeback) if customer A or C broadcasts outside the agreement starbucks makes.

transactions of A and C all become dependant on meeting starbucks requirements and fee arrangements
yes customer A holds A->starbucks
yes customer B holds B->starbucks
yes customer C holds C->starbucks
but
customer A does not hold customer C IOU for instance .. even if A paid C

meaning customers only hold copies of their own transaction IOU.. but starbucks HOLDS ALL OF THEM
the only person holding ALL the data is starbucks.. starbucks 'mempool' becomes the combined database of everyone, due to how the hops works things become more reliant on starbucks T&C's as they set the fee/penalty arragements.

due to starbucks holding all the IOU collectively. and starbucks can revoke its customers funds if one person messes around.. starbucks becomes paypal 2.0 in essence

though bitcoin is a Jet. it seems the banks are building the hyperledger aircraft carrier, and getting involved with letting the Jet sit on it

check out hyperledger. (members: blockstream and the banks)
https://www.hyperledger.org/about/members

check out who is attending the Satoshi roundtable (blockstream and the banks)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1745409.0

lol i guess your not a coder or someone that actually runs scenarios, or researches
instead you just get spoonfed some info and stick to a story told to you by atleast 3 people and because their script sounds the same you automatically deem it must be true.

try doing some research

blockstream are tied to hyperledger.. go check out the "members" page of hyperledger
https://www.hyperledger.org/about/members

then count the number of attendee's that are paid blockstream devs. then count the number of attendee's that are hyperledger members. and you will see its not a 50:50 split of pro:anti core.. its 80-90% pro-core(blockstream)

but hey you cant argue the facts.. so instead you wanna sling insults instead.

try backing up your statement that the meeting is unbiased, and dont just throw in an empty gesture reference. show something of real equal substance

also LN is paypal2.0... go research it..
and i mean really research it. really understand and read all the details of how core/blockstream devs want the hub managers to work/make income/control channels..

learn CLTV (in human real world usage terms its like the 3-5business day hold on 'available bank balance' paypal does)
learn CSV revokes (in human real world usage terms its like the chargebacks paypal does)

look at the 'penalty fees' blockstream devs have as a concept for mitigating issues.
learn who is actually offering the paypal2.0 and be part of reality.. not part of a misdirecting story you have been told

closed door speeches and presentations are bad. what are they hiding.

in short if its something that cannot be said publicly then it should not be pencilled in as an idea/direction to take bitcoin towards.

yea have off topic random politic hating conversation in private. but all bitcoin idea's and plans should be public.

hiding features/idea/directions for bitcoin is a big no no

afterall we cant have another year of publicly saying "core agree's to segwit by mid 2016 and dynamic blocks in 2017" but privately laugh at how they are not intending to hold themselves to those public statements.

no more wishy washy grandios statements of no meaning and many backtracks
no more half truths or exaggerated doomsdays to set negative agenda's

we need ethical, positive and honourable idea's to scale bitcoins mainnet. logically, rationally and realistically.

oh and lastly.

if theres gonna be any talk about mainstreaming bitcoin into something user friendly (granny/naive noob) and secure (hardware wallet)

pass this idea onto the hardware wallets and merchants and front end dev's as a concept to get around the QR code irritation issue and the decimal counting/cost conversion issue.

satoshi didnt invent the blockchain.
satoshi patched together lots of peoples different idea's which were invented as far back as the 1970's into a beautiful, functional and and fluid concept that works.

blockchain concept has been around prior to 2008. just not with all the 'add-ons' satoshi brought together to make bitcoin what it is.

as for my opinion of commercialisation. i mean corrupting, inhibiting, and messing with bitcoins mainnet to cause people to use commercial (middlemen) as the ONLY solution..

yes have commercial services on the sidelines as VOLUNTARY services.. but not to cripple/holdback bitcoins mainnet to incentivise people into commercial services

topics that need to be discussed.

1. stop with the fake drama/doomsdays of 2million terrabyte blocks tomorrow. and instead the logical, workable non disruptive dynamic blocksize beginning with 2mb base 4mb weight as a new initial default. discuss and issue timelines of real acceptable consensus. ( with full knowledge that core wanted their rules activated within one month!! so no stupid exaggeratedly long term grace periods, just for 5% lingerers as suggested last year)
after all.. after nodes reach 95% to trigger a pool consensus. the 5% nodes will have time during the pool consensus to catch up.. so by the time a pool consensus reaches 95%. the node consensus woud logically have risen above 95%

2. LN and sidechains to be discussed as VOLUNTARY side options not the solution/end goal for bitcoin. an definetly no effort should be made to think up idea's to restrict bitcoins main net more to "incentivise" people to other networds (Lightning network / sidechains)

3. CODE solutions for a better priority mechanism for transactions, not economic penalties (meaning: ways to use code to sort who needs/deserves priority to not push the fee up, which makes bitcoins utility decrease)

4. think about the tx fee in an international mindset of developing countries ($0.05c = hours labour) and not just in the mindset of an american where 5cents= 1 minute of labour

5. CODE solutions to prevent DDoS/spam (EG transactions have a sigops/ byte limit.. or even as part of a new priority format where coin maturity is more involved to not reward those with 1confirm priority status to respam the chain constantly) and not an economic penalty.. yes i have seen the 'concept' material that pushes on chain prices up and also has lots of fee penalties for for LN users

6. highlight the fee war is a 120 YEAR war and NOT a 120 DAY way, we should not be pushing to battle and kill users so fast and soon

maybe 100 people who actually are involved with BITCOIN and not just the outside corporate / investor backers that want to commercialise it at the expense of removing the whole point of bitcoins ethos when initially invented.

it makes me laugh you wish to call it a SATOSHI roundtable.. as thats the main gripe/slap in the face of the dressing the wolf in sheeps clothing.
just call it commercialising bitcoin roundtable.. atleast reveal the objective and be transparent

because from what i can see about the 100 people.. where 80-90 attendee's are in one sides pockets.. = biased conversation ending in on side solutions

im sorry to say this again.. but

stop drilling for a money grab.. remember bitcoin foundation.. it didnt work

also befor getting obsessed about a money grab. you need to have some basics of WHAT people are donating towards.. not some flimsy story of 'helping expand bitcoin' but some actual structure, data, statistics, idea's knowledge.

it does not cost anything for people to go to meetup.com or set up an 'event' on facebook and tell their local community about it.
EG
"BITCOIN MEETUP, local cafe, anyone interested to get involved is welcome to come"

setting up a slack or IRC with a bot that has a chatlog is not a big thing either so that people can discuss their findings more centrally.. infact they can even use the local sections of this very forum to formalise plans.

then they can discuss kickstarters for their projects by outlaying a plan of action and naming who is involved and how it will work.

things like this dont take larg capital to setup nor months.. it can be done for free/dirt cheap and in hours/days..

more blind rhetoric from sig spammer that only cares about returning to fiat without understanding bitcoin. or the failures of fiat.

if you have not learned how fiat has failed people. and you want to return to fiat one day then i feel sorry for you when bitcoin reaches $10,000 (700,00INR) and you find out all you can buy with your fiat is a few loaves of bread. yet sticking with bitcoin could have bought you alot more and improved your life more without planning to return to fiat

OP.. sorry but no

if the plan is just to get random people to buy bitcoin and the only reason is to push the price up for profit.. i have to say Hell no.
what should be done. can be done and does not require people paying a middleman(escrow) to be a markting fund manager is this:

get local people to set up their own local meetups. find out by then having their own 'think tanks' / brainstorm groups ask / think / discuss what their local community may want and need.

EG developing countries wont use bitcoin due to the tx fee alone costing as much as a chicken breast/3 lettuces.. instead they will want remittance access via face to face btc<->fiat swaps.

EG silicon valley and developed countries will look at daily use and making btc payments more user friendly (NFC smartwatch/wristband hardware wallets)

EG tourist area's will want merchant/exchanges (bureau de change)

where each area should concentrate on developing the infrastructure of bitcoin. and then.. and only then start advertising the SERVICES and UTILITY of bitcoin in their area.. not just the 'speculative profits' of investing on the hopes of continual deflations as just a reserve currency

best quote their is.. the movie field of dreams
"if you build it they will come"

there is no point asking people to come into bitcoin if there is not much utility to see in their local area. the trick is to make bitcoin functional in the area then people will naturally come towards it.

if all you care about is an end goal of a larger fiat price. then you are not a bitcoiner but a fiat speculator

im sorry but adam back has publicly said he does not code for bitcoin, even his second in command has said adam back is not involved in bitcoin.
im sorry but hyperledger, IBM, etc, etc have nothing to do with bitcoin,

so why the hell is adam back attending and noted as the main guy... oh wait..
i forgot,
adam back wants to direct the direction bitcoin takes because he needs to commercialise it to make returns of near $100mill to his banker investors.

if anyone has not yet woken up to the obvious, then please keep one eye open in regards to what happens next

this round table is not going to be a open room for devs to discuss developing bitcoin based on its open permissionless ethos, but instead its a kiss ass exercise to tempt merchants and pools over to blockstreams plans.

all fully paid for by blockstream.

do not expect an unbiased open discussion coming out of it, just expect lots of fake applauds for cores efforts and lots of applauds for making onchain tx's become more bloated in the future as a plan to push people away from using onchain transactions for individual needs.

EG averaged 400bytes become well over 1kb once more blockstream features are added (confidential commitments, etc) which inevitably will push down the 'expectant' post segwit (and pre 2013) 7tx/s.... to drop back down to 3tx/s once again..

with all the banking (hyperledger) guys mentioned i see this all inclusive vacation to mainly talk about how bitcoin(thanks to their ignorance) cant scale and end up talking about tethering bitcoin to the bankers hyperledger as a sidechain.

say goodbye to permissionless peer to peer currency ethos and say hello to a 2018 'bank product' like side chains and coomercial LN hubs

rant over

just increasing number increases demand in market??
sounds like someone only cares about increasing the fiat price.. meaning they only care about having a higher exit price when they want to return to fiat.

the mindset should be on understanding bitcoins UTILITY within a local area and pushing the UTILITY. which would then bring more users

EG, field of dreams - 'if you build it, they will come'

that is a chicken and egg question.

and thats why before approaching merchants. before approaching the non involved public. you get a metup of those that do use bitcoin already and ask where they would spend btc and/or what they would like to do with their coins

EG.
if you meet at a cafe once a week. get that cafe to accept bitcoin. then as the 'meetups' grow the cafe see's more use.
then when asking all that attend what other places they spend fiat but would prefer to spend btc.. you then seek out that merchant. and use the cafe as the 'example' to explain to other merchants.

if you live in an area where the bitcoin tx fee is a few lettuces, a chicken breast amount, where. then find what would be useful services instead of merchants. EG exchanges, remittance, etc. so set up a way to face-to-face exchange btc fit fiat

like i said start small, ORGANISE, then let the ball roll.

yep. the only issue in places like india. is that bitcoins transaction fee can be 6-30 rupee (9cents-40cents)
where just using bitcoin has the FEE cost alone equivalent to some of these
Milk (regular), (0.25 liter)    10.74 Rs
Loaf of  Bread (125.00 g)    6.74 Rs
Rice (white), (0.10 kg)       4.81 Rs
chicken Eggs (2.40)          11.57 Rs
Local Cheese (0.10 kg)       30.29 Rs
Chicken Breasts (0.15 kg)   30.67 Rs
Banana (0.25 kg)             11.25 Rs
Oranges (0.30 kg)          18.29 Rs
Tomato (0.20 kg)             6.24 Rs
Potato (0.20 kg)             4.80 Rs
Onion (0.10 kg)                2.78 Rs
Lettuce (0.20 head)          6.59 Rs

would you use bitcoin if it cost 1-5 lettuces or a breast of chicken?

local area's need to think less about just getting people to buy bitcoin but think about what people need and use it for.
EG may not be great for buying toilet paper but may be great for remittance. so set up a remittance exchange. rather than just asking people to buy bitcoin for no reason

the important thing is to be honest with those you talk to or they will drop bitcoin if they find it useless for them.
find out what your communities NEEDS are and look at how bitcoin can IN REALITY (not hope/speculation) help with

just holding bitcoin doesnt make you a (in layman's) voter. you need to run a full node to be part of the network.
litenodes and webwallets are just convenient side services. and not part of the real network

electrum(the company/devs) themselves can choose which code version they prefer, and set their main full node(their server) as such, but your use of electrum has no impact on their choice. or on what the consensus becomes.

same with things like coinbase, blockchain.info. you can use any of these lite/web wallets. but the main fullnode that your lite/webwallets connect  to, do not give individual users a vote.

there are estimate 2million+ people with bitcoin. (most mainly hoard coins in webwallet/exchanges)

but there are under 6000 full nodes securing the bitcoin network rules and under 30 mining pools creating blocks that fit the rules.

soft forks only form consensus using the mining pools 'vote'
hardforks form consensus using the full node 'vote' and then if node consensus is reached. the mining pool 'vote'. (double elections to secure real safe victory or defeat)

not quite.
dont play the pyramid theorem game of informing X people and hope they inform X*X people .. purely in relation to buying bitcoin.

get a group together and think about bitcoin utility.

ask the group what shops they spend their fiat in most. what main car fuel stations they visit most.
get a list of popular destinations that would get frequent spending if that merchant accepted bitcoin.

once you have got merchant acceptance locally for people to buy toilet paper, foood and car fuel.. then start telling random people about the utility of bitcoin.

dont just advertise bitcoin in relation to investment profiting by using sketchy marketing strategies (pyramid theorems) think more about bitcoins UTILITY in your area

bitcoin is just code. it has no arms. no legs and no voice.

it is up to PEOPLE to get merchant acceptance, and used locally.

if bitcoin has near zero activity in YOUR area. then this is YOUR opportunity to raise awareness.
do not wait around for a bitcoin superman to fly in and become the hero for you.. YOU need to become the hero.

after all it is YOUR area, no one is going to fly halfway across the world for free to raise awareness in YOUR area. so YOU need to become that person in YOUR area.

how?
start small.. think of a popular meetup place. (cafe/bar) and then advertise a local meetup for people that are interested in bitcoin.
look at sections of this forum that are more dedicated to your local area and start finding out who else is nearby.

get together and discuss what you all would like to see happen.

find the most confident, and most bitcoin knowledgable person out of your locals and get them to be the main source of info.
brainstorm, create a thinktank. business networking groups and inspire each other to look after and grow bitcoin awareness and especilly utility in your area

because segwit even after activation is not a promise/guarantee of more transactions. even with 100% utility only expect 7tx/s the same expectation as bitcoin had 2009-2013

because LN can function now, the whole malleation war cry is empty.. due to multisig requiring 2 signatures meaning some malicious person cannot double spend against the other because both sides need to sign. what gets broadcast into a block is accepted by both sides.

also LN is not the end solution for scaling. its just a service on the side. not all bitcoin users will see advantage/need for LN.