Roger Ver and Jon Matonis pushed aside now that Bitcoin is becoming mainstream

[btcradio]

There is no question the Bitcoin Jesus is the real deal.

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[capa]

IMHO the protocol speaks for it's self, the fact that the vast majority of journalist's haven't taken the time to even learn the basics speaks volumes about the desperation of the average sensationalist media hack. 

[BCB]

IMHO the protocol speaks for it's self, the fact that the vast majority of journalist's haven't taken the time to even learn the basics speaks volumes about the desperation of the average sensationalist media hack.  

Many of the regulators who will soon be issuing regulation and even new law don't fully understand the potential of the protocol and you know where they are getting their info:  From the press whose main mission is selling enough eyeballs to their advertisers ( with sensational 'link-baiting' headlines)  in an effort to keep their operations afloat.

The community needs to reach out and EDUCATE or as we have seen it will be done for us!  Write a letter to your state legislator, write a letter your federal legislator.  Explain to them simply how the protocol works, explain to them the benefits it can offer to society,  explain to them how you use it.  Then explain to them how we as a community are being criminalized by the illicit activity of the bad actors.

The fact is decentralized virtual currency like bitcoin with an open, public ledger is the LAST place a criminal would want to launder money - which is the MAIN concern of government.  

Refer them to the many academics like Sarah Meiklejohn and her team who are doing studies of the blockchain: "A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names" http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~smeiklejohn/files/login13.pdf

This is a DECENTRALIZED community. You can't rely on the bitcoin foundation or the bitcoin center or the bitcoin embassy etc to do it for you.  

We must each do our part and make an effort engage the decision makes to help then allay their fears and increase their understanding of this truly revolutionary technology.

[blockgenesis]

Many of the regulators who will soon be issuing regulation and even new law don't fully understand the potential of the protocol and you know where they are getting their info:  From the press whose main mission is selling enough eyeballs to their advertisers ( with sensational 'link-baiting' headlines)  in an effort to keep their operations afloat.

The community needs to reach out and EDUCATE or as we have seen it will be done for us!  Write a letter to your state legislator, write a letter your federal legislator.  Explain to them simply how the protocol works, explain to them the benefits it can offer to society,  explain to them how you use it.  Then explain to them how we as a community are being criminalized by the illicit activity of the bad actors.

The fact is decentralized virtual currency like bitcoin with an open, public ledger is the LAST place a criminal would want to launder money - which is the MAIN concern of government.  

Refer them to the many academics like Sarah Meiklejohn and her team who are doing studies of the blockchain: "A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names" http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~smeiklejohn/files/login13.pdf

This is a DECENTRALIZED community. You can't rely on the bitcoin foundation or the bitcoin center or the bitcoin embassy etc to do it for you.  

We must each do our part and make an effort engage the decision makes to help then allay their fears and increase their understanding of this truly revolutionary technology.

Couldn't agree more with this.

[tvbcof]

IMHO the protocol speaks for it's self, the fact that the vast majority of journalist's haven't taken the time to even learn the basics speaks volumes about the desperation of the average sensationalist media hack.  

Many of the regulators who will soon be issuing regulation and even new law don't fully understand the potential of the protocol and you know where they are getting their info:  From the press whose main mission is selling enough eyeballs to their advertisers ( with sensational 'link-baiting' headlines)  in an effort to keep their operations afloat.

The community needs to reach out and EDUCATE or as we have seen it will be done for us!  Write a letter to your state legislator, write a letter your federal legislator.  Explain to them simply how the protocol works, explain to them the benefits it can offer to society,  explain to them how you use it.  Then explain to them how we as a community are being criminalized by the illicit activity of the bad actors.

The fact is decentralized virtual currency like bitcoin with an open, public ledger is the LAST place a criminal would want to launder money - which is the MAIN concern of government.  

Refer them to the many academics like Sarah Meiklejohn and her team who are doing studies of the blockchain: "A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names" http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~smeiklejohn/files/login13.pdf

This is a DECENTRALIZED community. You can't rely on the bitcoin foundation or the bitcoin center or the bitcoin embassy etc to do it for you.  

We must each do our part and make an effort engage the decision makes to help then allay their fears and increase their understanding of this truly revolutionary technology.

The government is, I'm sure, largely worried about the ability to 'launder money', but that is a function of ensuring that they maintain control and visibility into the affairs of potential adversaries.  They have already arranged methods for their sponsors to 'launder money' for the purposes of economic gain (tax shelter loopholes and such) and another one of these in the form of Bitcoin is uninteresting.

But you are 100% right.  Bitcoin, as visualized by the Bitcoin Foundation at least, is a sucky way to try to achieve financial privacy for the reasons you outline.

People who share the Bitcoin Foundation's vision of a further water down, centralized, and pretty much useless 'PayPal 2.0' Bitcoin would do well to contact their congressmen and tell them how much it sucks for anything disruptive and how great a rope-a-dope spy system it can be with the able assistance of the Bitcoin Foundation trade group.  Especially when Coin Validation is ready for prime time.

[QuestionAuthority]

IMHO the protocol speaks for it's self, the fact that the vast majority of journalist's haven't taken the time to even learn the basics speaks volumes about the desperation of the average sensationalist media hack.  

Many of the regulators who will soon be issuing regulation and even new law don't fully understand the potential of the protocol and you know where they are getting their info:  From the press whose main mission is selling enough eyeballs to their advertisers ( with sensational 'link-baiting' headlines)  in an effort to keep their operations afloat.

The community needs to reach out and EDUCATE or as we have seen it will be done for us!  Write a letter to your state legislator, write a letter your federal legislator.  Explain to them simply how the protocol works, explain to them the benefits it can offer to society,  explain to them how you use it.  Then explain to them how we as a community are being criminalized by the illicit activity of the bad actors.

The fact is decentralized virtual currency like bitcoin with an open, public ledger is the LAST place a criminal would want to launder money - which is the MAIN concern of government.  

Refer them to the many academics like Sarah Meiklejohn and her team who are doing studies of the blockchain: "A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names" http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~smeiklejohn/files/login13.pdf

This is a DECENTRALIZED community. You can't rely on the bitcoin foundation or the bitcoin center or the bitcoin embassy etc to do it for you.  

We must each do our part and make an effort engage the decision makes to help then allay their fears and increase their understanding of this truly revolutionary technology.

The government is, I'm sure, largely worried about the ability to 'launder money', but that is a function of ensuring that they maintain control and visibility into the affairs of potential adversaries.  They have already arranged methods for their sponsors to 'launder money' for the purposes of economic gain (tax shelter loopholes and such) and another one of these in the form of Bitcoin is uninteresting.

But you are 100% right.  Bitcoin, as visualized by the Bitcoin Foundation at least, is a sucky way to try to achieve financial privacy for the reasons you outline.

People who share the Bitcoin Foundation's vision of a further water down, centralized, and pretty much useless 'PayPal 2.0' Bitcoin would do well to contact their congressmen and tell them how much it sucks for anything disruptive and how great a rope-a-dope spy system it can be with the able assistance of the Bitcoin Foundation trade group.  Especially when Coin Validation is ready for prime time.

ROFL - spot on. Bitcoin is already becoming all about control/profit and very little about financial privacy. Maybe during his next presentation to some three letter agency Gavin can get some tips to help him finalize his client into a completely useless tool of government. At least it won't be in beta anymore. This is already rivaling the longest beta period of any software I can remember that has already been distributed world wide.

[darkmule]

This is a DECENTRALIZED community. You can't rely on the bitcoin foundation or the bitcoin center or the bitcoin embassy etc to do it for you.

Very good point.  However, we also can't afford to ignore when something that seems (to the world) to represent Bitcoin itself is actually becoming a potential threat to us.

I frankly do not think, as some do, that the Bitcoin Foundation has reached this level.  It still seems, on net, to be a beneficial thing.

But suppose it does cross over entirely to the dark side.  What then?  Doesn't the BCF essentially run this site?  What happens then?

[tvbcof]

...
But suppose it does cross over entirely to the dark side.  What then?  Doesn't the BCF essentially run this site?  What happens then?

My best understanding of things is that Thermos has pretty much full control after taking it over from Sirius who was out of his league from a technical point of view as demonstrated by one of the many hacks.  The guy (Theymos) also has some tid-bit given to him by Satoshi, but I forgot what that is.  Perhaps just a domain name, but I though it had something to do with the genesis block as well.

At some point along the line I thought that Karpeles owned something.  Perhaps just the machines upon which the site is/was hosted.  Remember that this used to be a forum hosted on 'bitcoin.org' proper (hence my username), but not long after I joined up it got so stinky that it was separated out.  (I'm sure these two events were unrelated.)

Theymos was one of the few who publicly voiced concerns/objections to the creation of the Bitcoin Foundation in the first place.  I remember because I did as well.  I've seen nothing of his which indicates to me that Theymos has changed his mind on whether such a trade organization is good for Bitcoin.  I suspect that he and I both recognize that it's good for our respective pocket-books if nothing else.  At least in the short term.

I'm always happy to have any of my misunderstandings corrected or clarified.  These relationships are likely to be as important as the code itself to the trajectory of the Bitcoin project.

[darkmule]

I'm always happy to have any of my misunderstandings corrected or clarified.  These relationships are likely to be as important as the code itself to the trajectory of the Bitcoin project.

Me too, actually.  I can't have many strong opinions on these issues, because I have too little knowledge.  I'd like to have more, and to have any mistaken impressions I have cleared up, or if I'm not mistaken, have enough knowledge to be more confident in my opinions.

Otherwise, I'll just tend to get more paranoid, probably.

[theymos]

But suppose it does cross over entirely to the dark side.  What then?  Doesn't the BCF essentially run this site?  What happens then?

No, this forum is unaffiliated with the Foundation. Same for bitcoin.org.

I think that the Foundation has done good things in the past, and they'll probably do good things in the future. But over time, there will be a growing desire to centralize via the Foundation. Centralization is an easy way to solve problems, and the Foundation is the obvious recipient of centralized control. We must all diligently watch out for this and act to stop it if necessary.