[ANN] Bitcoin Foundation

[kjj]

As Gavin said, absolutely nothing is secret about a place where you can pay 3 bitcoins and gain yearly access. It is a small amount to pay if you are even remotely interested in bitcoins future, and does serve as a filter to prevent blatant rules abuse. Elitist for 30$? Sorry, SanFrancisco bums laugh at you.

Have fun in your little club, cause when Mark and Charlie have BUSINESS SEATS that have no checks and balances for 2 YEARS, that scares me and should scare everyone else. Cause right now Bitinstant and MT Gox, can edge out companies in their respectful niches and position themselves very nicely for the future. So spend your 2.5 bitcoins to be able to help them get even richer, and hinder bitcoin big business.

How can they "edge out companies"?  How?  What magical powers do you imagine this foundation possesses?

(Caveat: your answer must not assume that everyone is as dumb as you)

Thanks for your little message, you just make yourself look dumb by hiding it like a 13yrs old behind my back. Don't you think that all there employees are in the bitcoin foundation, and have voting rights. It isn't magic is called "position" and they are in two very powerful positions, in there seats. There are no checks and balances in this foundation. The members of this foundation are easily swayed, as both for the most part are very popular. If I created the foundation I would have no business people holding any more power than the population, to be honest even gavin has more power than he should. The people on the foundation should have nothing to gain, but wanting to spread the word of bitcoin. While bitinstant and mt gox are great services and spread the word of bitcoin very well, they have too much riding on bitcoin. This is where the foundation will fail and become corrupt if you don't believe me then so be it, and continue to suck on nipple of foundation as they pretend to be transparent.

Ugh.  What power?  That's what I'm asking you.  I'm not asking you to repeat your position that there are magical powers involved, I'm asking you "What power?".

P.S.  It was hardly behind your back.

Obviously you can't read and maybe english isn't your first language but I clearly say what power. I am not repeating my self for a third time.

You haven't even said it once yet!  You are just repeating your baseless assertion that the foundation has magical powers for evil.

And if you really think that my English skills are lacking, I'd be happy to take the red pen to your posts and fix all of your trivial errors.

[1715068884]

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[gweedo]

You haven't even said it once yet!  You are just repeating your baseless assertion that the foundation has magical powers for evil.

And if you really think that my English skills are lacking, I'd be happy to take the red pen to your posts and fix all of your trivial errors.

Ok I am going to say it one more time. Both companies have employees, both companies' employees are probably more than likely in the foundation, they can vote based on what would be best for the companies if a vote like that comes up. I don't get why they have two big businesses sitting on a board for an open source project, where they stand to be able to gain from it. Businesses and the bitcoin should be as far a part as they can be, this is how we ended up in the mess we are in today. Again it isn't "baseless assertions that the foundation has magical powers of evil", it is called "Greed" and this is just the beginning.

[kjj]

You haven't even said it once yet!  You are just repeating your baseless assertion that the foundation has magical powers for evil.

And if you really think that my English skills are lacking, I'd be happy to take the red pen to your posts and fix all of your trivial errors.

Ok I am going to say it one more time. Both companies have employees, both companies' employees are probably more than likely in the foundation, they can vote based on what would be best for the companies if a vote like that comes up. I don't get why they have two big businesses sitting on a board for an open source project, where they stand to be able to gain from it. Businesses and the bitcoin should be as far a part as they can be, this is how we ended up in the mess we are in today. Again it isn't "baseless assertions that the foundation has magical powers of evil", it is called "Greed" and this is just the beginning.

Ok, so they vote.  So what?  What do you think they will be voting on, and who do you think will be bound by the votes?  What sort of matters do you think that foundation has authority over?

[molecular]

Ok, so they vote.  So what?  What do you think they will be voting on, and who do you think will be bound by the votes?  What sort of matters do you think that foundation has authority over?

I haven't been following the discussion, but this an extremely good point. I could also be put as "Everyone is free to make his own bitcoin foundation".

The only thing that could be brought up is that the foundation is entangled through Gavin (and others, don't know) with the satoshi client developers, so that way the votes could influence protocol development. But then: Everyone is free to make his own client and/or fork.

[BCB]

I for one do not believe any of the FUD about TBF.   These developers have been maintain the security and integrity client free of charge, and evidently in the best interests of the community.  Mt. Gox and Bitinstant are two of the largest bitcoin businesses (that I am aware of) and are perfectly legitimate to be involved in an organization that will help lead and direct the future of bitcoin.  What they are doing is perfectly legitimate until proven otherwise. 

And if you don't like it start you own Foundation or Organization.  But crying foul and spreading FUD with out any foundation just makes them look ridiculous as they are and does not do the community any good.

So if the nay-sayers wanted to start a thread entitles "my concerns about the bitcoin foundation" and intelligently and thoughtfulness laid out their arguments, it might actually spark an intelligent debate in which the bitcoin foundation may even participate and could lead to further transparency. 

Otherwise they are just pooping in these threads and making a mess.
 

[niko]

It's vital for the forum to be closed for non-members and search engines etc. There is now a policy in place which prevents using the forum with a nickname or a pseudonym or whatever. It's Real Name Only. To make that policy work it has to be closed.

In other words the forum is much more strict, matter-of-fact, no-nonsense and "official" compared to this forum which is basically crazy. It's good this way. The craziness can stay here and the foundation business can stay over there.

Being read-only for non-members would be good for openness and transparency. I can clearly see the benefit of non-members not being able to post to cut out a lot of the rubbish you see on this forum for example but I don't see any benefit to denying non-members read access.

As Technomage pointed out, the problem with opening the BF forum to the public is that (mostly) real names are used. It should remain closed to search engines and general public. We can and will continue to discuss important issues here, on this forum, and BF will not change it whatsoever. I am sure any important issues pertaining to Bitcoin which are brought up in the closed BF forum will find their way to this forum too. I'll do my best anyway.
 

[interlagos]

If the Foundation is seeking registration as some form of non-profit, then it's likely that voting procedures are outlined by law and that they can't just make them up themselves (here, votes by the membership of non-profits must be overseen by officers of the Electoral Commission who check that members were financial, that the required quorum was met, and that the required formal procedures such as notice, proposers and seconders etc were followed).

I understand, but hopefully law doesn't prevent the voting to be accomplished in a provably-fair way while still being overseen by authority. Again the old system didn't have all the tools to make it happen properly, so looking back into the past for a solution is not the right approach in this case.

Any organization with registered members who pay a membership fee with Bitcoin is a perfect setup for emergence of a provably-fair voting. It can be done in addition to the already existing formal procedure required by the law.

In short, members cast a vote by sending a message signed with the private key from a Bitcoin address used to pay their membership fee. Then the whole registry of these messages is made public for everyone to check and scrutinize.

It's even possible to do this in the current BF setup without changing the procedure of collecting fees.
They can assign a Bitcoin address (with private key) to each member internally (without giving out the private key), then transfer all the fees they collected first to these addresses and then back to one single public BF address. This will make it possible to verify via blockchain that votes are coming from the addresses which paid the fee. Then when member presses the vote button BF simply signs the message with corresponding private key on his/her behalf and publishes the registry. Each member then knowing his Bitcoin address can verify that his vote is correct and everybody can verify that votes are coming from addresses that paid the fee (making them de-facto members).

[cunicula]

I haven't been following the discussion, but this an extremely good point. I could also be put as "Everyone is free to make his own bitcoin foundation".

The only thing that could be brought up is that the foundation is entangled through Gavin (and others, don't know) with the satoshi client developers, so that way the votes could influence protocol development. But then: Everyone is free to make his own client and/or fork.

If you make your own successful fork, you most likely reduce trust and confidence in bitcion, i.e. the sum value of the improved fork and the TBF fork is less than the value of the original TBF fork.

You are better off spreading your cheeks for the corrupt foundation rather than splitting the foundation into a corrupt and an honest faction.

[boonies4u]

I haven't been following the discussion, but this an extremely good point. I could also be put as "Everyone is free to make his own bitcoin foundation".

The only thing that could be brought up is that the foundation is entangled through Gavin (and others, don't know) with the satoshi client developers, so that way the votes could influence protocol development. But then: Everyone is free to make his own client and/or fork.

If you make your own successful fork, you most likely reduce trust and confidence in bitcion, i.e. the sum value of the improved fork and the TBF fork is less than the value of the original TBF fork.

You are better off spreading your cheeks for the corrupt foundation rather than splitting the foundation into a corrupt and an honest faction.

Someone who cares more about the bitcoin as it is more than a better protocol that may come forward probably is already in the forward. Not saying that all or even most members of the foundation care more about bitcoin than what may come of it.

[The_Duke]

But why not let non-members read about the useful work the foundation is doing rather than restricting read access and adding fuel to the fire about non-transparency, an insider cabal etc.

Somebody could sign up as a member and then try to screen-scrape and republish everything somewhere, so members should assume that whatever they say will eventually be public.

 

[LightRider]

But why not let non-members read about the useful work the foundation is doing rather than restricting read access and adding fuel to the fire about non-transparency, an insider cabal etc.

Somebody could sign up as a member and then try to screen-scrape and republish everything somewhere, so members should assume that whatever they say will eventually be public.

 

This is why the smoke filled room was invented. Get with the program people! If you're going to subvert everything good about bitcoin, at least do it in absolute secrecy.

[phelix]

I assume the bitcoin foundation will put up a press release for the halfing day?

[BCB]

I'd be curious to know what the Bitcoin Foundation is up to these days.

Charlie Shrem (who I like and is obviously one of bitcoin's biggest supporters) was on Bryan Micon's Donked Down podcast recently quoting  inaccurate dates in US monetary history and claiming that the US Dollar will collapse in 3-10 years.

http://www.donkdown.com/donkdown-radio-charlie-shrem-from-bitcoin-foundation-bitinstant/


Charlie, I love the enthusiasm, but if the Bitcoin Foundation want's legitimacy and support in the community, I strongly suggest you developer some talking points or a position paper and try to stick to the facts when your members are representing the Foundation in a public forum.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I'd be curious to know what the Bitcoin Foundation is up to these days.

Charlie Shrem (who I like and is obviously one of bitcoin's biggest supporters) was on Bryan Micon's Donked Down podcast recently quoting  inaccurate dates in US monetary history and claiming that the US Dollar will collapse in 3-10 years.

http://www.donkdown.com/donkdown-radio-charlie-shrem-from-bitcoin-foundation-bitinstant/

Charlie, I love the enthusiasm, but if the Bitcoin Foundation want's legitimacy and support in the community, I strongly suggest you developer some talking points or a position paper and try to stick to the facts when your members are representing the Foundation in a public forum.

Ditto! I'm the only one allowed here to fuck up the facts. Surely, Charlie, you don't people to refer to you as me. 

Kidding aside, I'm sure Charlie will take your suggestion to heart and do a better job next time. Valid point(s), BCB.

~Bruno K~

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

I'd be curious to know what the Bitcoin Foundation is up to these days.

Charlie Shrem (who I like and is obviously one of bitcoin's biggest supporters) was on Bryan Micon's Donked Down podcast recently quoting  inaccurate dates in US monetary history and claiming that the US Dollar will collapse in 3-10 years.

http://www.donkdown.com/donkdown-radio-charlie-shrem-from-bitcoin-foundation-bitinstant/


Charlie, I love the enthusiasm, but if the Bitcoin Foundation want's legitimacy and support in the community, I strongly suggest you developer some talking points or a position paper and try to stick to the facts when your members are representing the Foundation in a public forum.

Agreed!  

In my defense, it was kind of hard to dive into the 1 or 2 points I was trying to explain when every 3rd word I said was followed by another "HOLD UP, are you saying that...." from Bryan.

...and we digress..

Thanks 

[phelix]

I assume the bitcoin foundation will put up a press release for the halving day?

nothing yet? the community could translate it into several languages but that takes time

[ChrisKoss]

I assume the bitcoin foundation will put up a press release for the halving day?

nothing yet? the community could translate it into several languages but that takes time

https://bitcoinfoundation.org/blog/?p=52

Lindsay Holland    Nov 28 2012

We at the Bitcoin Foundation we very excited about the first Halving Day!  The 210,000th block was completed at 11/28/2012 at 15:24:38 UTC, and, from that point on, only 25 BTC will be issued per block found.

So far, Bitcoin prices are up 1% since close of business yesterday, and prices have risen more than 230% since January 1, 2012.

The next Bitcoin Halving Day will see Bitcoin mining rewards drop to 12.5 BTC per block mined, which is not currently estimated to occur until November 2016.

Read our full press release here.

Congratulations to everyone in the Bitcoin community on reaching this major milestone!

Press Release: http://www.prlog.org/12032578-bitcoin-community-celebrates-halving-day.html

[LightRider]

I assume the bitcoin foundation will put up a press release for the halving day?

nothing yet? the community could translate it into several languages but that takes time

https://bitcoinfoundation.org/blog/?p=52

Lindsay Holland    Nov 28 2012

We at the Bitcoin Foundation we very excited about the first Halving Day!  The 210,000th block was completed at 11/28/2012 at 15:24:38 UTC, and, from that point on, only 25 BTC will be issued per block found.

So far, Bitcoin prices are up 1% since close of business yesterday, and prices have risen more than 230% since January 1, 2012.

The next Bitcoin Halving Day will see Bitcoin mining rewards drop to 12.5 BTC per block mined, which is not currently estimated to occur until November 2016.

Read our full press release here.

Congratulations to everyone in the Bitcoin community on reaching this major milestone!

Press Release: http://www.prlog.org/12032578-bitcoin-community-celebrates-halving-day.html

They haven't put out a very good press release, but they did put one out there.

[phelix]

I assume the bitcoin foundation will put up a press release for the halving day?

nothing yet? the community could translate it into several languages but that takes time

https://bitcoinfoundation.org/blog/?p=52

Lindsay Holland    Nov 28 2012

We at the Bitcoin Foundation we very excited about the first Halving Day!  The 210,000th block was completed at 11/28/2012 at 15:24:38 UTC, and, from that point on, only 25 BTC will be issued per block found.

So far, Bitcoin prices are up 1% since close of business yesterday, and prices have risen more than 230% since January 1, 2012.

The next Bitcoin Halving Day will see Bitcoin mining rewards drop to 12.5 BTC per block mined, which is not currently estimated to occur until November 2016.

Read our full press release here.

Congratulations to everyone in the Bitcoin community on reaching this major milestone!

Press Release: http://www.prlog.org/12032578-bitcoin-community-celebrates-halving-day.html

They haven't put out a very good press release, but they did put one out there.

thanks for the links.

good thing the foundation made a press release. Next time please leak it to the forum up front so that the local boards can translate it to the various languages. This should multiply it's impact by a factor of  3 at least.

[Mushroomized]

Did they PGP sign the press release at least