Breaking News! Gavin and Bitcoin Core devs join MIT Media Labs

[ChuckBuck]

The core devs should be paid if they're doing it full-time and not volunteering. In the beginning, it was not paid. It was just to see if the whole thing would work. Once you start getting paid, then the person paying you can drive the narrative. Which is what we see now. Doesn't matter if the core devs "moved" from The Bitcoin Foundation, now the MIT Lab will have their own agenda. And the beat goes on...

And what's the alternative? If the devs don't get any salary from anyone would that make them independent, or more vulnerable (to bribery etc)?

And please answer me this, it's a genuine question, at what point did you figure you're in the right position to tell devs (or anyone) whether they should/shouldn't work for free?

It amazes me how many members of this forum act like the devs owe them something.

It's like telling the local mechanic at the shop to fix your alternator for free or the local baker to make you a 3 tier wedding cake just because they can.  Nevermind the man hours involved, the tools, expenses, and resources to make said development happen.

Shit costs money...

[ensurance982]

I never personally liked Gavin. He's loving being the prom queen too much. And I think he's being way overpaid. I think he'll stretch out development as long as possible to maximize stuffing his own pockets. If I had to analyze Gavin's true motives, he only cares about the attention and the money. He doesn't care if he was working on Bitcoin or some massive secret government project, as long as they pay him and put a camera in his face, he'll be flaunting that tiara hard.

Gripes about Gavin aside, what about the other Bitcoin core devs?  You don't think they deserve to be paid either?

What about Wladimir van der Laan and Cory Fields?  Do they continue writing code pro bono?

Some posters have to read the articles and the whole story before posting....

The core devs should be paid if they're doing it full-time and not volunteering. In the beginning, it was not paid. It was just to see if the whole thing would work. Once you start getting paid, then the person paying you can drive the narrative. Which is what we see now. Doesn't matter if the core devs "moved" from The Bitcoin Foundation, now the MIT Lab will have their own agenda. And the beat goes on...

That should be paid big time. The only problem with that is that whoever controls the flow of money basically controls what they are suggesting to become part of the BTC protocol. This is a very dangerous thing, and I believe that the money should come from as many different sources as possible.

[minerpumpkin]

This really makes it obvious that we need a sound funding plan for the core developers. If someone wanted to have some feature, only he or she would benefit from, in the code they could just try and bribe the core developers. Their income has to be independent of companies and so forth.

[tescomatty]

This is good to see. I know MIT gave their undergraduates each 100$ in bitcoin, so its good to see that trend continuing! MIT is at the forefront on many things, intermingling with top Bitcoin devs is just what we need.

[BTC_Superman]

Great news for Bitcoin. 

[Kyraishi]

Good news!

I have one question though:

I'd like to thank everybody who reached out to me over the last couple of months as it became obvious that the Foundation wouldn't be able to raise the funds necessary to continue supporting Wladimir, Cory, and me.

What is their salary? 
I mean doesn't the Bitcoin Foundation want $100K to accept you as a member?
What happened to all that money?