[ANN] Bitcoin Foundation

[Bitcoin Oz]

(The Bitcoin Foundation) .... a registered non-profit based in DC ... .

Why DC?

Lobby group...

[1715486021]

1715486021

[1715486021]

1715486021

[1715486021]

1715486021

[phatsphere]

And... we will just create a new one.

There is already more than one, just like there is already more than one repository. 

[kiba]

Lobby group...

Geeks don't know how to lobby. How can we ever defeat hollywood and Western Union?

[boonies4u]

Lobby group...

Geeks don't know how to lobby. How can we ever defeat hollywood and Western Union?

By electing not-geeks?

[kiba]

By electing not-geeks?

We need socialites to woo every congressmen!

(Seriously, it sucks that we have to play the lobbying game in order to keep our enemies at bay)

[greyhawk]

So we'll need girls. I nominate mousepotato. 

[kiba]

One thing the bitcoin foundation can do for us is to organize American bitcoiners to call their congresscritters when there's a really bad bill that could mean bad things for our community.

(I am not sure if other countries work like that too)

[hazek]

(I am not sure if other countries work like that too)

Neither does yours.

[fornit]

is there any difference between the industry membership levels?

[evoorhees]

"Warning - while you were reading 193 new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post."

LOL

For the record, I LOVE that the Foundation exists now. I think this is a huge positive step for Bitcoin. Few negatives, plenty of positives. I also understand the concern many people feel - we should always be diligent and skeptical of anyone trying to be "the face" of Bitcoin. But in this case specifically, and to the extent this Foundation can act in certain manners for certain goals, I think it's a very legitimate development and I'll be joining as a paying member here soon.

[kjj]

is there any difference between the industry membership levels?

The board has two "industry member" representatives, and two " individual member" representatives.  The seats are elected by members from the class that they represent.

[runeks]

This is great news! I just joined as an individual member and have sent the 2.5 BTC for a one-year membership.

FYI: When I go to bitcoinfoundation.com (found via searching Google for "bitcoin foundation"), I get a message about an invalid certificate:

Code:

bitcoinfoundation.com uses an invalid security certificate.

The certificate is only valid for the following names:
  www.bitcoinfoundation.org , bitcoinfoundation.org  

(Error code: ssl_error_bad_cert_domain)

I can't reach bitcoinfoundation.org.

Anyway, I know it was just announced yesterday, so no biggie. But I thought I would mention it anyway.

[hazek]

"Warning - while you were reading 193 new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post."

LOL

For the record, I LOVE that the Foundation exists now. I think this is a huge positive step for Bitcoin. Few negatives, plenty of positives. I also understand the concern many people feel - we should always be diligent and skeptical of anyone trying to be "the face" of Bitcoin. But in this case specifically, and to the extent this Foundation can act in certain manners for certain goals, I think it's a very legitimate development and I'll be joining as a paying member here soon.

I must wonder if you'd be saying the same if Charlie wasn't a board member. Not that I think you're trying to be manipulative, it's just hard to believe you are looking at this objectively and aren't highly biased.

BTW is it just me or is the foundation website being DDOSed?

[Piper67]

"Warning - while you were reading 193 new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post."

LOL

For the record, I LOVE that the Foundation exists now. I think this is a huge positive step for Bitcoin. Few negatives, plenty of positives. I also understand the concern many people feel - we should always be diligent and skeptical of anyone trying to be "the face" of Bitcoin. But in this case specifically, and to the extent this Foundation can act in certain manners for certain goals, I think it's a very legitimate development and I'll be joining as a paying member here soon.

I must wonder if you'd be saying the same if Charlie wasn't a board member. Not that I think you're trying to be manipulative, it's just it's hard to believe you are looking at this objectively and aren't highly biased.

BTW is it just me or is the foundation website being DDOSed?

It either is being DDOSed or they've taken it offline for some reason.

[hazek]

is there any difference between the industry membership levels?

The board has two "industry member" representatives, and two " individual member" representatives.  The seats are elected by members from the class that they represent.

Yeah that's a real cake right there: corporate + founding members always have the majority, very "representative".  

[kjj]

is there any difference between the industry membership levels?

The board has two "industry member" representatives, and two " individual member" representatives.  The seats are elected by members from the class that they represent.

Yeah that's a real cake right there: corporate + founding members always have the majority, very "representative".  

So do the corporate + individual members.  Or the individual + founding members.  This is very simple math.  Are you surprised that 2+1>5/2 and 2+2>5/2 ?   

[Phinnaeus Gage]

To those ones who wanna Decentralization:

JUST start your own bitcoin foundation. don't waste your time to criticize Gavin's work.

...or we can just declare independence from this one and make sure its purported authority is not recognized. Then we can let others work as they see fit.

I don't want a foundation. I don't want power. I just want people to leave my money alone. I don't want mob rule putting a backdoor in Bitcoin.

What are you going to do to stop them from forming and maintaining their foundation? What are you going to do to keep them from seizing power and leaving "your money alone"? What makes you think the mob would undermine their own financial freedom by putting a backdoor in place?

Go ahead and declare independence if you want. Why don't you go and boycott all the coins they receive while you're at it.

They are free to form a collective just as you are free to form or join one of your choosing or abstain from these all together.

I can't help but comment on two points already made:

1) Silk Road becoming Platinum Member.
2) People with money, can buy their way in changing (or destroying) bitcoin.


1) Is anyone allowed to become a member? If not, what are the rules/restrictions?

They have something on their web page about disallowing felons. So I guess that means no Silkroad, no BFL.

...possession of crack cocaine--picked up a girl for you know what and before dropping her off where I found her, made a pit stop for her to make a buy (dropped, after wearing a wire to help with another investigation)(first and last time I've ever seen crack/cocaine).

I would rather have the person charged and convicted of possessing crack cocaine on the board than a snitch. Just my personal opinion.

At the time, pressure was put on me to cooperate or be charged with the felony. I lived in southern Mississippi at the time (not the Biloxi area) and the judge and DA were really cracking down on the drug dealers then. I wore the wire, but not a single person purchased from me, but I fulfilled my part of the deal. Shortly thereafter, I left the state to Vegas to play live poker full time, and not sure what ever became of that suit, which by now should be null and void being that it's been over seven years.

Just wanted to state the facts for all to read.

~Bruno K~

[hazek]

is there any difference between the industry membership levels?

The board has two "industry member" representatives, and two " individual member" representatives.  The seats are elected by members from the class that they represent.

Yeah that's a real cake right there: corporate + founding members always have the majority, very "representative".  

So do the corporate + individual members.  Or the individual + founding members.  This is very simple math.  Are you surprised that 2+1>5/2 and 2+2>5/2 ?  

Please don't troll me. We all know who of these three groups is the most likely to try and push for something malicious and who of these three groups is the most likely to agree with it being bought and paid for and who of these three groups is the most likely to get screwed in the end powerless to stop it.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

How about the Bitcoin Freedom Foundation? Then we could all be BFFs.

As another poster noted it shouldn't have "the" in the name. That suggests it speaks for Bitcoin. Hello??? Bitcoin is decentralized?

THE is fine as long as it's not THE Bitcoin Foundation.

For example:

The Friends of Karples Foundation.

You may be getting warmer: Friends of Bitcoin (?)

[acoindr]

It's good that the Foundation will be funding development and representing Bitcoin legally, but it's important that the ownership of Bitcoin-related assets doesn't become too centralized. In particular, the Foundation should not:
- Control bitcoin.org
- Control any DNS seeds, etc.
- Own copyright on the Bitcoin source code
- Own any patents
- Own the Bitcoin trademark (unless someone has to own it)

I've answered this on reddit and similar sentiments in the comment section of my recent article, but I also want to post here. [No comment from me on copyrights and patents, because I don't believe in them and I don't support their infrastructure.]

theymos, thank you. I considered those issues as well prior to accepting the offer to join the board (and the specific direction is still being debated in multiple venues such as this forum). The success and organization of the Tor Project had a lot to do with my decision.

As a libertarian and non-Statist on the Foundation board, I think that other libertarians and non-Statists would mostly agree that a transparent organization is preferable to a 'single anointed individual' that can select the next 'single anointed individual' in a non-transparent fashion (the community never voiced their opinion on Gavin taking over lead role for Satoshi — it just happened). Although it has worked out well, no one can guarantee the longevity of Gavin in that role.

Open source software is actually more vulnerable to discreet State pressures and random bribery when only one, or a few, steer core protocol development without any community input on succession planning. A centralized individual is more corruptible than a group and the foundation is actually a step towards de-centralization in that regard.

Additionally, I would think that bitcoin users in general would welcome a check-and-balance on the core development group that may or may not have been involved in receiving clandestine compensation on the side. Of course, nothing prevents that from occurring now or in the future but I believe that an accountable, nonprofit foundation would decrease its likelihood.

Come on Jon, I thought better of you.

You got it all backwards. Open source is incorruptible as long as people remain vigilant. It's impossible to sneak something malicious into the code even if some developer is getting paid on the side - if people pay attention. What you have done now is actually weaken this vigilance because a lot of the user base is going to rely on you - the board members - to be vigilant for them.

We had checks and balances - the open source code anyone could read, and everyone was forced to read if they wanted to make sure.

Now we have a political centralized service provider (the structure of which ensures that corporate + founders always have the majority) that only part of the community supports and that wants to be the face of something they have no control over, they have no ownership over and are going to give a false sense of security to some users diminishing the vigilance that will be necessary to protect the core of Bitcoin.




If this Foundation is really such a wonderful idea why then did you keep it's formation (founders, bylaws, mission statement, allocation of salaries, ect) private? Why didn't you open a public thread on this forum and let everyone have an input how such an organization, if one was wanted or warranted in the first place, should be structured.

I'm sorry but I don't like what you did with this Foundation one bit because I don't trust that you'll do what is best for my own personal interest because I do not pay you and I didn't give you my explicit consent arranged with a contract to do so. All I can do now is hope you remain powerless and hope that I am left alone to experience Bitcoin as I wish. And judging by history of mankind I get the sense this hope is all in vain.

+1

Just logged in and got caught up reading... *sigh* I've got a lot of posting to do today.