Samuel Dobson: time to leave as a maintainer of Bitcoin Core.

[LeGaulois]

He announced last week on Twitter that he was leaving his position as a maintainer on the Bitcoin Core team. He is doing this for, apparently, personal reasons. He preferred to focus on his PhD. Which is respectable in itself.

But I wonder if that's really the reason he's leaving. I have the impression that there is another reason behind it, but that it is embarrassing to admit in public. I'm not at all saying that wanting to pass his PhD is not a valid reason but after 3 years of working on BTC core?
It's the second person leaving the last 2-3 months



https://twitter.com/meshcollider/status/1469024095450775552


by the way...
... a hint?

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/05/12/uk-court-will-let-craig-wright-serve-claims-against-16-bitcoin-developers/

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[Slow death]

after 3 years of working on BTC core?

there are guys who were and others are still in the core longer than that and for sure they have a lot of other things to do in the real world but they manage to manage the time so that they can be in the core and also be able to be in the real world. Samuel Dobson is hiding the real reason for his departure, maybe he doesn't like the path bitcoin is taking or he has issues with other guys in the core.

[mk4]

Haven't thought of this much yet, but some people are speculating that it's somewhat concerning Faketoshi's mass suing of Bitcoiners. This may or may not be the reason, but it shows the flaw of having developers that are doxxed; and that we definitely need more developers that are anonymous.

On the other hand, some people are also speculating that it's the lack of funding for the developers; in which is also possible in my opinion. So if you guys have any spare money, don't forget to donate: https://bitcoindevlist.com/

Unfortunately funding is going to be a lot harder when talking about an actual decentralized protocol, compared to new token projects whereas the development team can easily allocate the initial token funds to their liking.

[hatshepsut93]

Haven't thought of this much yet, but some people are speculating that it's somewhat concerning Faketoshi's mass suing of Bitcoiners. This may or may not be the reason, but it shows the flaw of having developers that are doxxed; and that we definitely need more developers that are anonymous.

Developers want to be recognized for their work, maybe have it on their resume, they can be understood.

Unfortunately funding is going to be a lot harder when talking about an actual decentralized protocol, compared to new token projects whereas the development team can easily allocate the initial token funds to their liking.

This is where Michael Saylor and other whales should come use their profits to reinvest them back into Bitcoin ecosystem.

[mk4]

Developers want to be recognized for their work, maybe have it on their resume, they can be understood.

Yes, there's obviously advantages to being doxxed(this being one of them). I guess a good sort of "transition" would be for them to be doxxed initially to bump up their resume, then stop contributing(to protect themselves from Faketoshi and for privacy in general), then come back a few months later under a pseudonym.

This is where Michael Saylor and other whales should come use their profits to reinvest them back into Bitcoin ecosystem.

Yep. Not sure about Saylor, but fortunately we have the likes of Block(prev. Square) funding developers. Unfortunately it seems like we need a lot more.

[BitcoinAccepted]

Samuel Dobson is hiding the real reason for his departure,

We may be all speculating that there is a deeper reason for Samuel Dobson leaving his position, but I doubt that we will find that out. Although Samuel could spill out if there’s some tea in such situation, I think it could cost him something like legal grounds because by doing so organizational information might be exposed. I think what I am trying to say here is somehow connected to becoming a whistleblower, if he happen to say say some confidential information.

[pooya87]

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/05/12/uk-court-will-let-craig-wright-serve-claims-against-16-bitcoin-developers/

If the legal action is already against the named people, does it really matter if they leave their positions now? Besides the scammer CSW is a nuisance nonetheless and he may not stop his attacks even after they leave.

but it shows the flaw of having developers that are doxxed; and that we definitely need more developers that are anonymous.

It may also show how traces of centralization could do to a decentralized system. Having one popular implementation comes to mind for example.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

They could quite easily be stepping down as so called doxxed devs & returning as anonymous contributors. I know people are mentioning Faketoshi’s actions as a factor here but I think it’s just a coincidence. Let’s see what happens from here on.

[mk4]

If the legal action is already against the named people, does it really matter if they leave their positions now? Besides the scammer CSW is a nuisance nonetheless and he may not stop his attacks even after they leave.

I think it's more like other developers are already announcing their leaving in anticipation that CSW might sue them sometime in the future. Funnily enough, there are a few people on social media that are calling them "pussies" for leaving; though I really can't blame the devs because defending in courts are a long and grueling process; regardless how confident you think that you're going to win.

[ABCbits]

With his experience, it's likely he'll back into Bitcoin development (whether for Bitcoin Core or other project). Some cryptocurrency company give back to Bitcoin community by hiring developer solely for Bitcoin development, so i expect some company will give him such offer after he finished his PhD.

This may or may not be the reason, but it shows the flaw of having developers that are doxxed; and that we definitely need more developers that are anonymous.

Additionally, there should be viable alternative for centralized platform such as GitHub. Few repository such as youtube-dl become victim of abuse of the DMCA.

[pooya87]

though I really can't blame the devs because defending in courts are a long and grueling process; regardless how confident you think that you're going to win.

I find it really absurd that a case like this has to even reach the court. I even asked someone to explain it to me and basically what I understood is that in my country the case would first go to the respective section known as Cyber Police and the detectives there will simply close the case when they see the open source nature of the project and the MIT license, without letting it even go to court.
So I don't really know if the UK laws are seriously broken or CSW is exploiting a loophole that may exist here too.

[Lucius]

A few days ago, a member opened a similar topic and wondered what would happen if the current developers give up or die, so I found the news that this year as many as three developers have given up from working on this project. They all say it's all a coincidence and a completely normal thing, and I would really like to believe that the whole thing has nothing to do with what CW Faketoshi is doing.

I hope that some mainstream media will not make a negative story about this, and of course link it to the current price.

Developer John Newbery and maintainer Samuel Dobson have stepped back from their duties working on the software that keeps Bitcoin running smoothly. And earlier this year, van der Laan, who’s listed as a lead maintainer, announced he was taking more of a “background role” on the project to help decentralize it.

[DaveF]

I think a lot also comes back to future plans. Showing you were a maintainer of Core is a really nice thing to have to show a future employer. IF you are going to actually be interviewed and hired by the people you will be doing the work with. BUT, your resume usually usually gets seen by a manager in the HR department who may or may not really know what BTC is and what being a maintainer of Core really means.

All they see is some of the other candidates who applied have these degrees and he did not & some have worked for places that they have heard of with references they could call and check up on.

The reality of it is at times things like this do happen.

-Dave

[mk4]

Additionally, there should be viable alternative for centralized platform such as GitHub. Few repository such as youtube-dl become victim of abuse of the DMCA.

Technically, I'm pretty sure they can still use the Git[1] back-end infrastructure if it's the case that GitHub censors Bitcoin-related stuff. It's most likely just that using GitHub as a front-end is a lot convenient to use when forking/making commits/etc.

[1] https://git-scm.com/

[franky1]

while some speculate that devs are poor and voluntary and leave due to financial issues. truth is dobson was funded. he had a wealthy sponsor.

most devs pull out when they receive their golden payday thank you payment for aiding in activating a feature the sponsor wanted seen in the code.
and now taproot is done/activated, many devs have completed their favours

and so the dev decides its time to retire rich. either hoard for later, or buy a lambo, get a girl, settle down and enjoy life

sponsors usually dont just pay devs without the devs doing something that can help the sponsors business.

coca-cola doesnt sponsor the olympics out of the goodness of their heart. they get good media coverage of their adverts and get monopoly of what drinks are served at the venue. thus they get returns on their investment

so godluck to dobson in his future ventures, and hope he can use his PHD for greater things in the future, but i dont see him as a charity case needing funding due to any pleas of poverty