An Open Letter to the Bitcoin Community from the Developers

[tommorisonwebdesign]

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/21809/open-letter-bitcoin-community-developers/

As active contributors to Bitcoin, we share this letter to communicate our plan of action related to technical consensus and Bitcoin scalability.

Bitcoin is many things to many people. However, the development and maintenance of Bitcoin is a human endeavor. Satoshi sought review and cooperation, and the subsequent work by Bitcoin’s developers has made the system more secure and orders of magnitude faster. The Bitcoin developer community is dedicated to the future of Bitcoin, looks after the health of the network, strives for the highest standards of performance, and works to keep Bitcoin secure on behalf of everyone.

We’re committed to Bitcoin and responsive to the needs of the community. For the past five years, we’ve written code and managed over 50 Bitcoin releases and reviewed more than 45 formal proposals to improve Bitcoin’s performance, security, and scalability. Technical discussions, while heated at times, are always focused on improving Bitcoin.

Much work has already been done in this area, from substantial improvements in CPU bottlenecks, memory usage, network efficiency, and initial block download times, to algorithmic scaling in general. However, a number of key challenges still remain, each with many significant considerations and tradeoffs to evaluate. We have worked on Bitcoin scaling for years while safeguarding the network’s core features of decentralization, security, and permissionless innovation. We’re committed to ensuring the largest possible number of users benefit from Bitcoin, without eroding these fundamental values.

There will be controversy from time to time, but Bitcoin is a security-critical system with billions of dollars of users’ assets that a mistake could compromise. To mitigate potential existential risks, it behooves us all to take the time to evaluate proposals that have been put forward and agree on the best solutions via the consensus-building process.

In the upcoming months, two open workshops will bring the community together to explore these issues. The first Scaling Bitcoin workshop will be in Montreal on September 12-13. The second workshop is planned for December 6-7 and will be hosted in Hong Kong to be more inclusive of Bitcoin’s global user base.

We ask the community to not prejudge and instead work collaboratively to reach the best outcome through the existing process and the supporting workshops. It’s great to already see broad excitement for the event and the high concentration of technical participants attending.

We’re confident that by working together we can agree on the best course of action. We believe this is the way forward and reinforces the existing review process that has served the Bitcoin development community (and Bitcoin in general) well to date.

We welcome your participation as we continue our efforts to bring Bitcoin into the future.

Signed,

Wladimir J. van der Laan

Pieter Wuille

Cory Fields

Luke Dashjr

Jonas Schnelli

Jorge Timón

Greg Maxwell

Eric Voskuil

Amir Taaki

Dave Collins

Michael Ford

Peter Todd

Phillip Mienk

Suhas Daftuar

R E Broadley

Eric Lombrozo

Daniel Kraft

Chris Moore

Alex Morcos

dexX7

Warren Togami

Mark Friedenbach

Ross Nicoll

Pavel Janík

Josh Lehan

Andrew Poelstra

Christian Decker

Bryan Bishop

Benedict Chan

฿tcDrak

Charlie Lee

Jeremy Rubin

Well, given that Bitcoin is quite a big concept now worth billions of dollars, this puts you developers on edge to do your jobs correctly and act on the best interests of the community, right? You are being compensated in Bitcoin after all. Personally, I do not have $2000 CAD to fly across the country and join the confrere. I went to CakePHP earlier this year. I paid for that trip on my credit card and still paying interest for my education. I simply can't afford to talk to you in person about this so here are my 2 satoshi: I think the blockchain technology is revolutionary and has a lot of potential. Personally, I think that if the limits are not increased in the core version of Bitcoin, the XT camp will fork and the price will plummet. Bitcoin will catch on and it has to have the capacity to handle networks as large as Visa and MasterCard. As far as I'm concerned Bitcoin is here to stay and the fork will only hurt the price.

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[maokoto]

For me it's great news. At the very least, they show interest in a solution. And if they are going to listen to community (which I feel mostly proposes a raise in block size) it is a very good signal.

[DGulari]

Is this real ?

I don't see Brock Pierce's name on there.  Isn't he the president of bitcoin?  

Maybe its a fake.  I wouldn't trust anything without the president's name on it.

[crazyearner]

Well, given that Bitcoin is quite a big concept now worth billions of dollars, this puts you developers on edge to do your jobs correctly and act on the best interests of the community, right? You are being compensated in Bitcoin after all. Personally, I do not have $2000 CAD to fly across the country and join the confrere. I went to CakePHP earlier this year. I paid for that trip on my credit card and still paying interest for my education. I simply can't afford to talk to you in person about this so here are my 2 satoshi: I think the blockchain technology is revolutionary and has a lot of potential. Personally, I think that if the limits are not increased in the core version of Bitcoin, the XT camp will fork and the price will plummet. Bitcoin will catch on and it has to have the capacity to handle networks as large as Visa and MasterCard. As far as I'm concerned Bitcoin is here to stay and the fork will only hurt the price.

I agree 100% being revolutionary technology, when I first knew of Bitcoin, I knew nothing of it passed on it shame really I did on something so powerful like this to make changes for the future. No doubt about it will see a fork coming in the coming months or sometime next year if it continues to go the way it is. And no doubt about it too, that prices will fall and the downfall of Bitcoin will happen. Devs and teams need to get their acts together before it is too late and everyone shooting we told you so but did not bother to listen like now. Even if price does spike down way down I will buy and hold for a future but right now its very tough to decided to even continue with Bitcoin. Only time will tell and the devs on what is in store for the future. Am hoping a bright one and they get their acts together.

[ashour]

Haters gonna hate. I wonder if there were similar accusations against Xerox Parc?

So there is a workshop. I don't see that as a bad thing. God forbid anyone should talk face-to-face  

The only issue I have with it is there are only two. How about a couple in Europe and South America?

They should have made on in San Fransisco and one in Amsterdam since these cities are the more bitcoin advanced ones in North American and Europe. Montreal and Honk Kong seem like a weird option to host a bitcoin work shop.

[Carlton Banks]

Is this real ?

I don't see Brock Pierce's name on there.  Isn't he the president of bitcoin?  

Maybe its a fake.  I wouldn't trust anything without the president's name on it.

You mean Brock "ordinary sexual appetite for adults" Pierce?

[hdbuck]

Well, given that Bitcoin is quite a big concept now worth billions of dollars, this puts you developers on edge to do your jobs correctly and act on the best interests of the community, right? You are being compensated in Bitcoin after all. Personally, I do not have $2000 CAD to fly across the country and join the confrere. I went to CakePHP earlier this year. I paid for that trip on my credit card and still paying interest for my education. I simply can't afford to talk to you in person about this so here are my 2 satoshi: I think the blockchain technology is revolutionary and has a lot of potential. Personally, I think that if the limits are not increased in the core version of Bitcoin, the XT camp will fork and the price will plummet. Bitcoin will catch on and it has to have the capacity to handle networks as large as Visa and MasterCard. As far as I'm concerned Bitcoin is here to stay and the fork will only hurt the price.

I agree 100% being revolutionary technology, when I first knew of Bitcoin, I knew nothing of it passed on it shame really I did on something so powerful like this to make changes for the future. No doubt about it will see a fork coming in the coming months or sometime next year if it continues to go the way it is. And no doubt about it too, that prices will fall and the downfall of Bitcoin will happen. Devs and teams need to get their acts together before it is too late and everyone shooting we told you so but did not bother to listen like now. Even if price does spike down way down I will buy and hold for a future but right now its very tough to decided to even continue with Bitcoin. Only time will tell and the devs on what is in store for the future. Am hoping a bright one and they get their acts together.

careful about which coin you buy when whatever fork happens.

fun times ahead as basically the devs have been forced by two rogue rotten power grabbing devs and their reddit army to take action about something that was under control and thoroughly investigated.

there is no community behind. just retards.

y'all going to deserve what is coming. friggin bunch of unqualified blind followers.

if any fork, you better be short. or else you'll end up eating them shorts..

pop corn ready, now bring it on, time for bitcoin to loose them forkers in the abyss of their ignorance.

[hdbuck]

Is this real ?

I don't see Brock Pierce's name on there.  Isn't he the president of bitcoin? 

Maybe its a fake.  I wouldn't trust anything without the president's name on it.

You mean Brock "ordinary sexual appetite for adults" Pierce?

how about Brock "chief scientist whatever it means buddy" Pierce.

[crazyearner]

careful about which coin you buy when whatever fork happens.
fun times ahead as basically the devs have been forced by two rogue rotten power grabbing devs and their reddit army to take action about something that was under control and thoroughly investigated.
there is no community behind. just retards.
y'all going to deserve what is coming. friggin bunch of unqualified blind followers.
if any fork, you better be short. or else you'll end up eating them shorts..
pop corn ready, now bring it on, time for bitcoin to loose them forkers in the abyss of their ignorance.

Fun times indeed ahead and also some wild fires too. Am holding a wide range of different coins that I know are and currently succeeding where BTC is not and am happy with them so far. Am looking at coins that are not controlled or need to hld their value with BTC not many are doing it but their is a few that is priced differently but 98% of all cryptos prices seems to go off BTC value because BTC is no1. If BTC was not would it be a new pair LTC to what ever crypto or even other coins. If Bitcoin fails another one will succeed theirs many markets out their and it only takes one as big and innovative to dominate the markets and take control.

Markets and crypto need to stop being valued under BTC and look at other pairs than just bitcoin. I give it till end of this year or 1/4 of next year if no good changes then it goona crash so hard and people going to be pissed right off. Hold for the longest. Feel sorry for all people who bought back in 2013 and it went poof back  down and down and a little up and I made a good few on trades back then. Now buying coin if I do I will be buying and trading and making on the low down and profiting down trading hard to do but it can be done. And then use to grab others that are good but holding BTC and a lot of it like now is risky with everything going on. Who knows what we have in stall for BTC but it not looking good unless the devs can get past this and only time and decisions made will seal the faith and future of BTC

[Klestin]

It's just a shame the BIP101 crowd are so against this dialogue, it would be much better if they presented their arguments publicly than taking their ball and going home.

That is an amazingly skewed perspective.  Agree with Gavin or disagree with him, but it is disingenuous to insinuate that he hasn't presented his arguments publicly.  See http://gavinandresen.ninja/ for a sampling of articles on the subject.

It's very nice to see the other core developers working towards a solution to the block size debate.  I don't know whether all five were invited to sign that proclamation or not.  In either case, I hope they all attend.

[Carlton Banks]

It's just a shame the BIP101 crowd are so against this dialogue, it would be much better if they presented their arguments publicly than taking their ball and going home.

That is an amazingly skewed perspective.  Agree with Gavin or disagree with him, but it is disingenuous to insinuate that he hasn't presented his arguments publicly.  See http://gavinandresen.ninja/ for a sampling of articles on the subject.

You're right to some extent. I did mean to say "in a public forum", but my net connection/bitcointalk.org was being screwy and couldn't be bothered to keep pressing "Edit" only for it to timeout again. Sorry about that!

[Klestin]

You're right to some extent. I did mean to say "in a public forum", but my net connection/bitcointalk.org was being screwy and couldn't be bothered to keep pressing "Edit" only for it to timeout again. Sorry about that!

In that case, we completely agree.  I felt a small tremor in the force.    I'm sure it will pass.

[NxtChg]

Signers of this letter represent about 90% of the commits in the last year or two to Bitcoin Core, according to Greg Maxwell.

And this means you have the ultimate right to dictate to everybody else? Because you wrote some code?

Interesting argument. I think programmers who wrote some java system for a bank should go straight to the board of directors and demand to run the bank from now on.

[jonald_fyookball]

Signers of this letter represent about 90% of the commits in the last year or two to Bitcoin Core, according to Greg Maxwell.

And this means you have the ultimate right to dictate to everybody else? Because you wrote some code?

Interesting argument. I think programmers who wrote some java system for a bank should go straight to the board of directors and demand to run the bank from now on.

Greg would have a good argument that the signers represent an unbiased group with nothing but Bitcoin's best interests in mind,
but the fact that several of the biggest contributors work for a private company that has taken millions of dollars in venture
capital and plan to offer services related to Bitcoin extensibility casts a shadow of doubt on that implication.

There's really no way around the fact that the handful of guys who want to continue to control Bitcoin core,
also happen to work for a private company in the business of Bitcoin functionality.

[BitUsher]

Greg would have a good argument that the signers represent an unbiased group with nothing but Bitcoin's best interests in mind,
but the fact that several of the biggest contributors work for a private company that has taken millions of dollars in venture
capital and plan to offer services related to Bitcoin extensibility casts a shadow of doubt on that implication.

There's really no way around the fact that the handful of guys who want to continue to control Bitcoin core,
also happen to work for a private company in the business of Bitcoin functionality.

The signers to the letter include more than the developers of Bitcoin Core, it includes other implementations.
The letter was signed by -


    12 Independent/Unknown/Other (38%)
    5 Blockstream (16%)
    2 MIT; 2 unSYSTEM; 2 Chaincode (7% each)
    1x each from Conformal, Ciphrex, Dogecoin, ETH Zurich, LedgerX, BitGo, Viacoin, and Coinbase (3% each)

[BitUsher]

Since when is Amit Taaki a bitcoin core developer ? Did I  miss something ?

Yes, Amir Taaki has contributed and or created 5 bitcoin core BIPs There are many ways to contribute to Bitcoin core and be considered a developer. His contributions to our ecosystem have been most important with darkwallet/darkmarket/libbitcoin however.

More importantly and what makes his signature and others crucial to this letter is support from other implementations other than core.

[erik777]

I am TRYING to keep an open mind.

The thing is, 5 core guys couldn't agree on how and when to raise
the block size, but now we're going to have a couple of workshops
where the global user base is invited, and somehow the best solutions are going
to emerge and we are all going to agree on the best course of action?

Again, trying to be optimistic and I like the transparency
but I don't understand how this is going to work.

Seriously, they must think bitcoin industry leaders are children. They stonewall any blocksize increase proposal, and held us hostage. Now they gave us 2 fcking workshops, like we would magically come to an agreement by meeting in person.

Whats the point of communication online then.

I guess they dont give a shit about those signatures from all the largest bitcoin service providers.....

The delaying tactics prevent txs increase prolongs delaying tactics prevent txs increase prolongs delaying tactics ...
Awesome strategy by the small blockers.

According to an interview with one of the devs, they planned the workshops BEFORE Gavin broke off, and Gavin knew about the timing of the workshops when he and hearnia launched the spork. 

[Carlton Banks]

I understand that companies like Circle (who are BIP101 backers) have Goldman Sachs and Moneygram as investors  
Little bit of a conflict of interest, perhaps?





More to come on that, I know there was another questionable investor in Circle (and no doubt in Bitpay and BitGo too). Just cannot remember, I may have to look for it later

[helmax]

BIP101 thanks for your solution ! if we wait fore cores developers bitcoin is dead

[erik777]

Signers of this letter represent about 90% of the commits in the last year or two to Bitcoin Core, according to Greg Maxwell.

And this means you have the ultimate right to dictate to everybody else? Because you wrote some code?

Interesting argument. I think programmers who wrote some java system for a bank should go straight to the board of directors and demand to run the bank from now on.

Trying to understand your constructive recommendation here.  Should they abandon development of the code?  Should they quit having open dialog?  Should they quit meeting in person?