Who do you think were most instrumental to the rise of bitcoin in the first couple of years, both technically and socially?
Great question. I can say this no one did both and if they did both they failed at it. I would say Charlie Sherm did a lot socially, also Erik Voorhees and Roger Ver. Technically I would say Gavin. It is hard to advance a currency technically cause you don't want to add features that can move it forward without having it very stable. Once bitcoin becomes really stable (1.0+), you will see a lot more technical features coming, that when it will be advanced forward technology wise.
I'd have to agree, and would also add Amir Taaki and Lazlo to the list - Amir did a lot of evangelism of course, and Lazlo GPU'd and Pizza'd bitcoin forward. Chris Odom (fellow traveller of opentransactions) probably deserves a mention too.
It certainly is very early days, and bitcoin is just the start as we know.. blockchain is the major innovation, which thankfully some people like Vitalik have managed to grok and build on (ethereum).
Looking forward to seeing how the crypto space shapes up over the next 5 years of maturity.
Another question, any notable related projects on your radar that you'd like to share (not altcoins, but certainly [crypto/chain/autonomous corp] related)?
