Who Controls Bitcoin?

[Bruce Wagner]

Who maintains the bitcoin software?

Is it all open source?

Is it possible that someone could corrupt the software?

Is it possible that someone could use a modified version of the software to corrupt the bitciin chain?

I've seen references to some sort of security flaw which was fixed in the latest version of the software.  When a problem like this occurs, who steps in to fix it?  How does that process happen? 

Where can I read more about what happened, what went wrong, and how it was resolved?

Does one person (the creator?) have "the Master password" which could "unlock" the chain... allowing him to do such things as... modify the limit of 21 million bitcoins, for example?

If Intel were to release a CPU 1,000,000 times faster than the fastest current CPUs on the market today, (and internet connections suddenly became 1,000,000 times faster too), how would that affect bitcoin generation, and the bitcoin economy?

Who's most "in charge of" or most "in control of" the bitcoin network?   What person(s) or entity(ies)?

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[caveden]

Who maintains the bitcoin software?

Is it all open source?

It is open source.

Is it possible that someone could corrupt the software?

Everyone would see it.
I don't think any code would ever be accepted to an official release without some peer verification.

Is it possible that someone could use a modified version of the software to corrupt the bitciin chain?

How?

I've seen references to some sort of security flaw which was fixed in the latest version of the software.  When a problem like this occurs, who steps in to fix it?  How does that process happen? 

Where can I read more about what happened, what went wrong, and how it was resolved?

I think you're talking about the overflow bug. You'll find lots of discussions about it here in the forum.

Does one person (the creator?) have "the Master password" which could "unlock" the chain... allowing him to do such things as... modify the limit of 21 million bitcoins, for example?

No.

If Intel were to release a CPU 1,000,000 times faster than the fastest current CPUs on the market today, (and internet connections suddenly became 1,000,000 times faster too), how would that affect bitcoin generation, and the bitcoin economy?

The difficulty to generate blocks would raise proportionally.

Who's most "in charge of" or most "in control of" the bitcoin network?   What person(s) or entity(ies)?

No one, it's P2P open software.

[ribuck]

Is it possible that someone could use a modified version of the software to corrupt the bitciin chain?

Each person's bitcoin software only writes their own bitcoin chain. The software communicates with other people's bitcoin software, but it's up to the other people's (unmodified) software what it wants to do with its own copy of the block chain.

Who's most "in charge of" or most "in control of" the bitcoin network?   What person(s) or entity(ies)?

For sure, the originator of Bitcoin (Satoshi Nakamoto) is the one "most in control" of Bitcoin. But that's just due to well-earned peer acceptance, and if he tried to do anything evil that acceptance would evaporate. There's no forced compliance anywhere in the system, just acceptance by the majority.

Actually, the acceptance is individually by each Bitcoin user, but the benefits of Bitcoin are only crystallized in the version that is accepted by the majority (as determined by their combined computing power).

[grondilu]

RTFM !

[ribuck]

RTFM !

I'm not sure whether you're referring to my comments or Bruce's questions, but in any case...

Bruce's questions aren't all answered at the right level by the Fine Manual, which is written for a different kind of audience.

[grondilu]

RTFM !

I'm not sure whether you're referring to my comments or Bruce's questions, but in any case...

Bruce's questions aren't all answered at the right level by the Fine Manual, which is written for a different kind of audience.

Yeah I may have written rtfm a little too quickly.  I just felt like writing it when I red the first questions, especially "Is it open source ?".

[Anonymous]

This is why the bounty to get an animated movie explaining bitcoin is important.

[Bruce Wagner]

Yeah I may have written rtfm a little too quickly.  I just felt like writing it when I red the first questions, especially "Is it open source ?".

Yes, I already read the fine manual... before I posted.   

If I had found the answers to any of my questions in the manual, I wouldn't be posting them here.   

And I didn't post these questions on the first day I joined this forum.  I've been reading and reading and reading this forum...   

And I finally decided that it SHOULDN'T be this hard to find the answers to  -- what I consider to be -- very fundamental basic questions.

If I have this much difficulty finding these answers...  I can only imagine how difficult it must be for the average person.

And, by the way, RTFQ.

You misread my first question.  I didn't say, "Is it open source?"  /   I said, "Is it ALL open source?"  (referring to the bitcoin software) 

In other words, are there any versions, or any components of any versions, that are NOT open source?

[SmokeTooMuch]

There was a non-opensource-client by puddinpop, but the official release will always be open source.

[Gavin Andresen]

In other words, are there any versions, or any components of any versions, that are NOT open source?

It is 100% open source.  Bitcoin relies on three other open source projects-- wxWidgets (for the user interface), Boost (for geeky C++ stuff), and OpenSSL (for cryptographic stuff).  Those are all also 100% open source.

Improving The Fine Manual (and the website) will be an ongoing project; thanks for your questions. I agree that there is a lot of work to be done on the documentation front.  Like most open source projects, most of us developers find writing code more fun than writing documentation or marketing material.


Satoshi is the main developer and person most in control of bitcoin (as said above).  I've been the second-most active developer over the last month or so.

PS:  if you have the time and feel like helping out... most of the documentation is in the Wiki, which anybody can edit.  And constructive, specific suggestions for making the main bitcoin.org web page better are welcome, too.

[Bruce Wagner]

Thanks, Gavin.
Once I understand it all a bit more, myself, I may take you up on that, and see if I can contribute to the documentation front.
For now, obviously, I'm still trying to learn and understand many of the basics. 

I just finished reading a thread about evaluation of the "anonymity" of bitcoin transactions. Wow.
That made my head hurt a little.  Try answering THAT FAQ question in three sentences or less:  "Are bitcoin transactions anonymous?"  The only reasonably short, yet accurate, answer to that question is:  "No.  Not completely."     

[jgarzik]

All bitcoin transactions are public, and therefore, not anonymous.

All bitcoin addresses are 100% anonymous...   but evildoers may be able to deduce information by observing transaction patterns or amounts.

[eurekafag]

It is 100% open source.  Bitcoin relies on three other open source projects-- wxWidgets (for the user interface), Boost (for geeky C++ stuff), and OpenSSL (for cryptographic stuff).  Those are all also 100% open source.

You forgot to mention Berkeley DB.

[Gavin Andresen]

How could I forget good old Berkeley DB?  So old its approach (schemaless key-value store) is back in fashion...

So: FOUR other open source projects.  Berkeley DB is also 100% open source.