One of Bitcoin’s most prominent and outspoken supporters is Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. Last year, his company famously became the first major online retailer to accept Bitcoin payments.
The famous ‘slop’ commentBut Byrne’s support does not come without criticism. During a speech at this year’s Bitcoin in the Beltway conference, the tech-savy executive revealed that the Bitcoin core code contains a lot of “slop”, which he speculated would cause problems for the currency down the road.
Interestingly, the Bitcoin core developers are limited to the severity of alterations they can implement due to the inherent risks that major updates bring. For the sake of network stability and safety, Gavin and his crew are limited to pushing out ultra-conservative changes, which restricts their ability to quickly resolve the core problem.
Flashback to December 2013A budding Canadian software developer enters the frame. While working on another cryptocurrency project, Amir Eslampanah discovers these design flaws in the Bitcoin core and devises a plan to clean out this “slop.” He single-handedly undertakes the task of making a core that’s more scalable by using a new multi-threaded and modular implementation.
Last month, after nearly a year in the making, a video was released revealing the nearly complete GUI of the new open-source wallet. Eslampanah, who will be releasing the new client in November, explained to AP over Skype:
"In terms of wallet functionality, modularity, security, and sheer performance, the improved client will be unrivaled. Block download times will also be decreased considerably thanks to on-the-fly compression and multi-threaded download capability."
It is thought that after being fully evaluated and tested by the Goldcoin (GLD) community that these new coding achievements can be freely integrated into the Bitcoin core and possibly other cryptocurrencies.
The remarkable thing about the open-source crypto community is how new innovations are commonly shared across competing blockchains. The modular Java-based client will also be the first to support multiple crypto-currencies and to accept third-party plugins.
Bitcoin (BTC) is a popular digital currency that allows consumers to make online purchases with little to no fee. Bitcoin is currently trading at just under $340 per coin with a market capitalization of $4,591,389,026 according to Coinmarketcap.com.
Full Story: http://altcoinpress.com/2014/11/canadian-scientist-cleans-up-bitcoin-slop/
