Is it good or bad that Core development is virtually controlled by one company?

[BitUsher]

Is Core adding extra code in order to support sidechain technology? There's been some grumbling about that. Is that a consensus rule change?

I haven't heard of any plans in the near future to make consensus rule changes for sidechains. Sidechains are completely open and you can play with the code and run sidechain node if you want. They are mainly used for testing new features right now. I understand what you are insinuating with your concerns... and let me address that:

I don't assume bad faith within Core developers, partly because I know of some and know of a majority of their mindset with following their logs and discussions. I really do respect your skeptical mind however. For the sake of argument lets assume that these fears are real, that blockstream is trying to subvert our ecosystem and is controlling core to sell their products on sidechains.

This is why I am not worried-

1) The core developers are very transparent and this is an open source project. If at any point in time notice anything nefarious we will instantly fork away with or without the miners. It really doesn't matter if Core developers are malicious or not because there are thousands of extra eyes reviewing their code. This being said we should indeed have other development teams (like we do) managing other repositories.

2) We aren't going to accept the LN or sidechain products that aren't open source or don't have a level playing field for all economic agents added to the network. Additionally, the LN allows for us to solve a really large dilemma with incentivizing full nodes by paying them.

3) Banks are going to produce private blockchains regardless... it is much better that future sidechain products are sold to the banks which make sure they are dependent upon the main bitcoin block chain.

4) Whether or not Core gets the economics and incentives right is up for debate... In reality this is a complex experiment with many known unknowns and unknown unknowns; anyone claiming to know the future or the right balance of incentives for nodes and miners is likely wrong. Cores conservative approach is prudent under this scenario and we are lucky to have a diverse set of bright minds working with us to solve these problems.

Miners are incentivized by the market to make decisions, they don't make these decisions in a vacuum free of consequence.

Yet miners make critical mistakes all the time that jeopardize the network (BTCC spinning up 100 nodes/ SPV mining ) , Developers make mistakes all the time (One of Satoshi's many mistakes - https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0042.mediawiki) . Thank Goodness no one controls bitcoin and we have to work together and rely on each other to solve these problems. 

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[gmaxwell]

Of course nodes could ignore their blocks, and holders can dump their coins.

There is no need to dump any coins. The nodes _will_ ignore their blocks, as that is the very design of the Bitcoin system-- embodied in every implementation ever shipped; one which _completely_ deprives the ability of miners (even a super-majority) to carry out a broad spectrum of coercively acts against the users of the system. These protections are an essential part of the economic balance which keeps miners honest. Saying "if you shit it up, people will take huge losses (since-- who will buy if everyone knows its screwed) selling out and use something else" is a pretty fringe protection... as a concrete example it's one which has been fairly ineffectual in constraining the monetary policy of popular currencies.

Miners are incentivized by the market to make decisions, they don't make these decisions in a vacuum free of consequence.

I never suggested they did-- quite the opposite. Rather, I point out that the consequence of failing to comply with the hard rules set by the users of the system is that their hashpower is completely discarded while the users notice _nothing_ (except, perhaps, some slower confirmations for a few weeks or until they get a clue).

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

Is Core adding extra code in order to support sidechain technology? There's been some grumbling about that. Is that a consensus rule change?

I haven't heard of any plans in the near future to make consensus rule changes for sidechains. Sidechains are completely open and you can play with the code and run sidechain node if you want. They are mainly used for testing new features right now. I understand what you are insinuating with your concerns... and let me address that:

I don't assume bad faith within Core developers, partly because I know of some and know of a majority of their mindset with following their logs and discussions. I really do respect your skeptical mind however. For the sake of argument lets assume that these fears are real, that blockstream is trying to subvert our ecosystem and is controlling core to sell their products on sidechains.

This is why I am not worried-

1) The core developers are very transparent and this is an open source project. If at any point in time notice anything nefarious we will instantly fork away with or without the miners. It really doesn't matter if Core developers are malicious or not because there are thousands of extra eyes reviewing their code. This being said we should indeed have other development teams (like we do) managing other repositories.

2) We aren't going to accept the LN or sidechain products that aren't open source or don't have a level playing field for all economic agents added to the network. Additionally, the LN allows for us to solve a really large dilemma with incentivizing full nodes by paying them.

3) Banks are going to produce private blockchains regardless... it is much better that future sidechain products are sold to the banks which make sure they are dependent upon the main bitcoin block chain.

4) Whether or not Core gets the economics and incentives right is up for debate... In reality this is a complex experiment with many known unknowns and unknown unknowns; anyone claiming to know the future or the right balance of incentives for nodes and miners is likely wrong. Cores conservative approach is prudent under this scenario and we are lucky to have a diverse set of bright minds working with us to solve these problems.

I just want all this ugliness behind us so's I can go back to my pigeons thread.

[sAt0sHiFanClub]

The technical experts you derive your arguments from have always thought that the network needed paternal stewardship.

The mindset reminds me of an excerpt from Mustapha's Chorus Sacerdotum.

"Created sick, commanded to be sound."

If it was true, it would probably mean guaranteed failure at some point in the future. Thankfully it isn't, and our consensus mechanism is built in, as described up thread.

I suppose there are people who think they are more clever than a simple system built upon the basic principle of aligned incentives.

[sAt0sHiFanClub]

The technical experts you derive your arguments from have always thought that the network needed paternal stewardship.

If it was true, it would probably mean guaranteed failure at some point in the future. Thankfully it isn't, and our consensus mechanism is built in, as described up thread.

Yikes, I haven't heard this argument before. So when should Classic devs walk away from maintaining their repository?

Code can be maintained. But we should avoid interference in the network. Dont conflate the two.