Do we really need a "Bitcoin Foundation"?

[lixiaolai]

This is a serious question, and calls for a discussion in depth in the community.

[Beef Supreme]

No.  People always trying to "lead."  He/she is a leader…blah.  We need leadership…blah.  I don't need anyone to lead me anywhere.

That is the beauty of BTC, no leadership required.  Miners don't have to accept new client updates, not only that, but I think they can go back and use older clients they prefer.

Why should transactions be paid for?  Don't miners get rewards (25BTC) for mining?  As the price goes up for a BTC as supply dwindles, that rewards gets pretty handsome, even if it gets cut in half. 

When the block rewards run out, the incentive to mine will come from transaction fees, I think.  So why not wait till then to make people pay for transactions?  That would make the system even more attractive to the current market.

[Light]

God no, we don't need some idiots pretending to have leadership/control of the system, just let it be. Those guys have done absolutely nothing for Bitcoin and instead use it as a means of raking the dough under the pretense of being a 'legitimate' entity in some way related to Bitcoin.

[Alty]

No, but it is good to have decent representatives or people that can explain Bitcoin when there are senate meetings etc.

[the_poet]

Bitcoin doesn't need any leader, that's the very reason why it's decentralized. The only leader is the community supporting it, namely all of us.

[grau]

We do not need them. It is them who do not understand what Bitcoin is who are desperately seeking some "authority" in the field to talk to.

[lixiaolai]

We don't need leaders, but is there a possible way to fund developers appropriately?

[grau]

We don't need leaders, but is there a possible way to fund developers appropriately?

Crowd funding is the solution for that not a centralized committee.

[V4Vendettas]

Bitcoin doesn't need any leader, that's the very reason why it's decentralized. The only leader is the community supporting it, namely all of us.

This  

However the Bitcoin dev team do need to be paid for their work. The foundation fills this role and is the only working model we have ( to my knowledge)

That does not mean this model is not broken and not potentially rotten at its core.

Do we have another model for ensuring the development of bitcoin may continue without the foundation?

If we don't and no one comes up with a better one then we fully deserve any repercussions that may result from the foundations actions now and in the future.  

[lixiaolai]

Bitcoin doesn't need any leader, that's the very reason why it's decentralized. The only leader is the community supporting it, namely all of us.

This  

However the Bitcoin dev team do need to be paid for their work. The foundation fills this role and is the only working model we have ( to my knowledge)

That does not mean this model is not broken and not potentially rotten at its core.

Do we have another model for ensuring the development of bitcoin may continue without the foundation?

If we don't and no one comes up with a better one then we fully deserve any repercussions that may result from the foundations actions now and in the future.  

A well designed crowd-funding would do well, I think.

The Bitcoin Dev team submit monthly their budget and relevant details, and the community donates monthly.

A website needed, but no committee needed.

[wumpus]

A well designed crowd-funding would do well, I think.

The Bitcoin Dev team submit monthly their budget and relevant details, and the community donates monthly.

A website needed, but no committee needed.

There has been talk of this since the very beginning of bitcoin. But no one stepped up ever and proved it was feasible.

The Bitcoin Foundation model is far from ideal, but at least it works, it's more than the eternal talk talk talk talk and complaining that its opponents seem to do.

[lixiaolai]

A well designed crowd-funding would do well, I think.

The Bitcoin Dev team submit monthly their budget and relevant details, and the community donates monthly.

A website needed, but no committee needed.

There has been talk of this since the very beginning of bitcoin. But no one stepped up ever and proved it was feasible.

The Bitcoin Foundation model is far from ideal, but at least it works, it's more than the eternal talk talk talk talk and complaining that its opponents seem to do.

I hate eternal talks too.

[V4Vendettas]

Bitcoin doesn't need any leader, that's the very reason why it's decentralized. The only leader is the community supporting it, namely all of us.

This  

However the Bitcoin dev team do need to be paid for their work. The foundation fills this role and is the only working model we have ( to my knowledge)

That does not mean this model is not broken and not potentially rotten at its core.

Do we have another model for ensuring the development of bitcoin may continue without the foundation?

If we don't and no one comes up with a better one then we fully deserve any repercussions that may result from the foundations actions now and in the future.  

A well designed crowd-funding would do well, I think.

The Bitcoin Dev team submit monthly their budget and relevant details, and the community donates monthly.

A website needed, but no committee needed.

That is definitely a model that could work and also negates the need for the foundation. It does not yet exist sadly.

I believe with the smarts of this community we should be able to pick and choose from an array of ideas to fix this. Just need to get their creative juices flowing. More importantly once a solution is found action must be taken to make it happen.