[ANN] Bitcoin Foundation

[JDBound]

Excellent work on this to all involved.

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[Come-from-Beyond]

Excellent work on this to all involved.

I hope this was sarcasm...

[theymos]

In general, whoever founds an organization gets to make the rules.

Starting off with a board of sane and competent people seems obviously better starting off with people fighting for the seats.

I'm not disputing that... Two seats are for people voted in by individual members, two are for people voted in by corporate members, and one is the "founder" seat. I'm just wondering what the procedure is for that final seat.

[Atlas]

This is just legal approval to give developers salaries and raise funding for those salaries.

"Yay, we are recognized by the government to do business with certain tax privileges, yay! Bitcoin needs government approval to succeed!"

That's all I see here. Congrats.

Now, if you are trying to be the central democratic process for the Bitcoin network protocol, go fuck yourselves. Seriously, die. We don't need your authority or approval.

Bitcoin doesn't need a government. It doesn't need corporate sponsorship. It just needs people that value them. Central authority ruins Bitcoin's value.

[XertroV]

The only thing required to keep the Bitcoin project community driven is the knowledge that the network has the power.

If the Foundation becomes evil they can no more change Bitcoin than any of us, as long as we remain mindful and informed. Keep electing prominent and trusted members of the Bitcoin community and that should not happen. (Even if it does, the Bitcoin network can happily work quite well without the mainline client)

Does anyone know who exactly constitutes the "Founding member class", and if this group is already fully set?

Looking forward to the bylaws being posted.

And I'd like to voice my support of some automatic confirmation.

I'm now a lifetime member, too. Glad to see this happening.

[bitlane]

Where do I sign up to become President of this 'foundation' ?

[jgarzik]

This is just legal approval to give developers salaries and raise funding for those salaries.

Yep, we are desperately in need of the most basic things...  like paying the salary of the lead developer.

Bitcoin is big enough that we can all get together and support things like that, I hope.

[elux]

I'm just wondering what the procedure is for that final seat.

Ahh, my bad. It's should be in the bylaws.

Seems there wasn't quite enough days in September. (Rush job!)  

[Uglux]

Bitcoin doesn't need a government.

True. But people do. Why don't you try a nice weekend in somalia? Or if you are a hardcore fan of 100% government, why not a lovely trip to north korea? It is the balance that matters. Maybe someday, government needs bitcoin?  
The foundation is only the logic step to connect to the "non geek" part of the world, which is still the biggest part of society.

[Spekulatius]

These are three problems that I see:

1. The "to be or not to be"-issue:

Is it better to have such an entity to promote and advocate bitcoin in public and before lawmakers and journalists? Or should we better stay an anonymous mass without a "face" to stay strong and make the public image not dependant of success or faliure of a single entity (you could call it the "Julian Assange Effect". If I say "we" I mean the community but also respect the decisions and judgement of the members of the board of Bitcoin Foundation over their foundation.

2. The "influence"-issue:

If we want such an entity, how can we keep transparency and public participation opportunities as clear and accessible as possible? Who's got the say?
Do we want a divergence of voting power in contrast to the total userbase in favour of a certain interest group like business owners (2 votes representing businesses that make up less than 5% (data guessed) of the total userbase, while only giving also 2 votes to "representatives" of the remaining 95% of the userbase) ?

3. The "perception"-issue

Some posts in this thread seem to view the Bitcoin Foundation already as a "bitcoin government", combining major powers over the source code and financial power in form of two big (if not biggest in terms of turn around) companies in the bitcoin economy. These worries are justified in my oppinion till it is clear how the foundation works, what powers it really has and what perception of it remains in the community and public oppinion.
I would nevertheless refrain from overestimating any such influence unless it is excerted over decisions concerning the source code that sway from the objective best for the entire current and potential future userbase.

I would therefore like to suggest for the core developers to think over their active role in the board, to prevent any influence over their judgements concerning their work on the source code and reference client and instead consider an advisary role to the board.

I also endorse the fund to pay Gavin's (and all core dev's) salary from voluntary donations made by Foundation members. This way all donors and donations are transparent.

[JDBound]

Excellent work on this to all involved.

I hope this was sarcasm...

why?

[boonies4u]

Bitcoin doesn't need a government.

True. But people do. Why don't you try a nice weekend in somalia?

I would much rather influence Somalia into a much more ideal Anarchistic grouping.

[Atlas]

The American internet has had no central government since its inception. Nobody is regulating the bandwidth providers. People are free to lay their own data cables, centers and routers as they please.

Are we in Somalia right now? Bitcoin can be just as good in the same environment.

We don't need a Internet Administration to make things happen and stable.

[greyhawk]

Ah, yes, so ICANN and IANA don't exist?

[ElectricMucus]

Where do I sign up to become President of this 'foundation' ?

Probably become an established member of it and get the others to vote for you.


I don't know what I find more annoying, that certain things could have been avoided if the bitcoin foundation already existed (for example the outcome of the bitcoinca dilemma) or the reaction of the naysayers.
All I see are rants and sarcastic statements.


Gavin already has control over the code, the other board members control over their respected companies, now they form a coalition and enable you to take part of that control and you are complaining?

[lakeluke]

+1 joined as member

This is the right step for advancing Bitcoin to the wider world. A real-world "legal" corporation is necessary for broader acceptance.

This does not stop other people from advancing Bitcoins in their own anonymous ways and via other groupings, which are also very important. Bitcoins is a "disruptive" technology and a replacement of fiat currency (which has hyper-long vested interests) and for it to be promoted this needs to be done on multiple levels, and one of them is via this Foundation.

I look forward to positive outcomes.

[Atlas]

Where do I sign up to become President of this 'foundation' ?

Probably become an established member of it and get the others to vote for you.


I don't know what I find more annoying, that certain things could have been avoided if the bitcoin foundation already existed (for example the outcome of the bitcoinca dilemma) or the reaction of the naysayers.
All I see are rants and sarcastic statements.


Gavin already has control over the code, the other board members control over their respected companies, now they form a coalition and enable you to take part of that control and you are complaining?

I rather overthrow this control than go through the effort to gain its approval. Once I have the means, I will be tearing this shit apart through whatever is necessary.

I rather reign in hell than serve in heaven.

[dree12]

Although the idea is great, I feel that the public relations done so far are lacklustre. The website clearly needs some proofreading. Two mistakes are blatant:

Cryptography is the key to Bitcoin’s success so far.

This should be "Cryptography has been the key to Bitcoin's success so far", or, more simply, "Cryptography is the key to Bitcoin's success".

Platinum Membership -- for enterprises wishing to support Bitcoin

This has lazy punctuation usage.

[ElectricMucus]

Where do I sign up to become President of this 'foundation' ?

Probably become an established member of it and get the others to vote for you.


I don't know what I find more annoying, that certain things could have been avoided if the bitcoin foundation already existed (for example the outcome of the bitcoinca dilemma) or the reaction of the naysayers.
All I see are rants and sarcastic statements.


Gavin already has control over the code, the other board members control over their respected companies, now they form a coalition and enable you to take part of that control and you are complaining?

I rather overthrow this control than go through the effort to gain its approval. Once I have the means, I will be tearing this shit apart through whatever is necessary.

I rather reign in hell than serve in heaven.

Good luck with that...

And I mean it, become a proficient coder Atlas and create something which doesn't require any centralized action. In the mean time face the facts.

[interlagos]

I see the symbolism in the new logo as the small, inherently different in design Bitcoin (small circle with square in it) will soon carry the weight of the whole World on its shoulders currently run by fiat (big square with circle inside).

As Francis Drake said "Greatness from small Beginnings" or
should we say "Annuit Coeptis" which means "our enterprise is now a success!"
The old era is now rapidly coming to a well deserved end as the world embraces new energy.

I wish the Bitcoin Foundation a great success!