Interview: Amir Taaki on the Early Days of Bitcoin

[Vlad BTCTKVR]

Hi, guys!

I've just published an interview with early Bitcoin developer Amir Taaki and I decided to also write an article about it.

In case you don't know, Amir (aka genjix) is responsible for creating the BIP system to introduce more scrutiny to Bitcoin code changes, he brought into existence the first alternative Bitcoin client which follows consensus rules and is not a port (Libbitcoin), and he also came up with DarkWallet and DarkMarket. While some of his projects may be controversial among community members, his contributions are unquestionably great and very relevant in hindsight.

Love him or hate him, he was always ahead of his time and I've recorded this interview with him. Looking forward to your feedback: https://bitcoin-takeover.com/s12-e2-amir-taaki-on-the-early-days-of-bitcoin/

[hugeblack]

Can you prove that you are the writer who conducted the interview? Or add your account in the forum on the article?
The last time I heard about Amir was in 2017 and I did not think he was alive.
I will listen to the interview later and add more.

[NeuroticFish]

Can you prove that you are the writer who conducted the interview? Or add your account in the forum on the article?

He tells at start of interview "I'm Vlad from Bitcoin Takeover", the website is BTCTKVR, the article is signed by Vlad and bitcointalk username (Vlad BTCTKVR) is older than the article. It looks good enough to me.

I've just published an interview with early Bitcoin developer Amir Taaki and I decided to also write an article about it.

While I was not convinced by the article (sorry), I've been listening to some parts of the interview (will probably listen to all of it later today) and I can say that although I don't agree with everything he says, it was very interesting. The actual interview is at https://youtu.be/9mdTS_Gyg7o

[NotATether]

Anyone know if he's still working on Libbitcoin or if he's moved on to other things?

Asking because I see a different project maintainer listed in the interview.

[franky1]

oh well
its a video for entertainment not education.

tldr
amir suggests in first 2/3rds of video all problems with bitcoin relate to gavins reign of 2011-2103(he wasnt really doing code in late 2013-2014 and left by spring 2014)
but look at the dates of all controversies. and all the altcoins where devs left bitcoin to do open projects after "core" came to power in 2014. yep research genesis dates and see when bitcoin walled it self up


i have been around for a few years, and alot of amirs narrative seems off.. seems to be the same warped narrative of a certain group of social queens on this forum. too close infact.
he did start to make more realistic points at about 36:24+ but the stuff he said in the first 3 quarters of the video relating to the days of 2012-2017 does not relate to actual history or the timeline of bitcoin

amir taaki fell off the bitcoin bandwaggon in the early years,
(he left in due to suspicious/huge loses in the intersango days of bitcoin december 2012)
and went total nomad libertairian for a few months to then start his  dark privacy stuff which moved onto monero(2014+)

so ACTUAL events
bitcoin did not have any real development controversies until ~2014+. by this point some devs were backing away from bitcoin development. including gavin and hearne.. but the remainers. like sipa, lukeJR (& the other blockstream founders)started to ramp up the moderation and control of bitcoin and started to get more corporate, founding blockstream and branding the reference client as 'core'.. getting corporate sponsorship which is where the controversies started and alot of devs moved onto other projects/altcoins, because any idea's or proposals that didnt fit the core roadmap got rejected
(yep research: check the genesis dates of ethereum, monero etc.. )
(hint: they didnt start in the 2011-2013 days between satoshi control vs core control. (aka the gavin days))

as  for amirs narrative
it seems he is now apparently weirdly trying to play finger pointing of opposite narratives to shift the blame of how bitcoin development moderation grew(reality: due to the core side stepping in, early 2014) .. EG amir said that gavin was the one that caused a oligarch of corporate control of bitcoin structure that moderated out certain ideas, open door strategy and devs..
first funny. gavin was at that point a volunteer unpaid dev
funny part is in 2013-14 gavin was getting less involved in bitcoin software(not more) and was slowly setting up his retirement exit of bitcoin because the core devs took over
the branding of core started in early 2014 where other devs started controlling the reference client

yep the core devs started raising the moderation policies in 2014. and iit was only after that, where all the controversies started.. where devs moved to altnets due to the closing off of access to proposing and commiting upgrades on bitcoin which didnt fit the core roadmap/agenda

its funny because it was Luke JR sipa and a few other core devs that resorted to moderation of development. yep Luke JR moderates the irc/mailing list and bips.  but amir wanted to push that blame onto gavin, who was in reality setpping back and not being involved as much..
and those same devs had the business sponsorship deals to code features businesses wanted...

amir appears to be trying to re-enter the elitism of bitcoin dev cliq by trying to reassociate himself into the main guys still in bitcoin core control by doing the social game of setting up narratives where his is bigging-up certain devs to sound loyal to, by shifting away their negative controversial impacts onto other devs that have since moved out of bitcoin. oh and yes it was lukr Jr that implemented the consensus bypass (mandatory)upgrade that blockstream sponsors of corporate services wanted implemented

funny part is the interviewer in the second half points out that sipa and luke Jr is part of the corporate structure(blockstream, chaincode laps)
and amir tries to brush off and not bite at that poke

during gavins reign of 2011-2014 there were not controversies.
yea gavin went off the rails after 2014 doing his sponsored public shinanigans for pay-days..which caused social drama.. but by that point he was an outsider

i can see why due to gavins retirement exit shinanigans AFTER he left bitcoin. that gavin would in amirs eyes seem like the perfect person to push all the core dev negatives at.. but still.. its not how things actually played out

seems amir is trying to spin the history into a different narrative but hasnt bothered to check the dates and actual changes since he in reality has not been involved in bitcoin properly since 2012

he tried to re-enter in 2014 with dark wallet but found that the core structure was not to his liking which is where he moved onto projects which eventually inspired monero

hmm in the first 2/3rd of video its more revealing how a certain group of social drama queens in this forum are sounding very close like amirs narrative echo chambers i guess because they are part of the monero loving privacy mindset.. it makes sense that they are following amirs silly version of events, or amir is following theirs(who knows which ones started the narrative. when its just a echo bouncing around their little group)

and i expect the certain group of people echo chambering amirs narrative to now post some boring insulting name calling social drama

to which ill say to them.. research history. via code, github stats, altcoin genesis dates, researching who moderates the bips, main development paths of bitcoin.. research topics of "core roadmap"..
and please dont just use quotes from buddies as proof.. thats just called 'confirmation bias, not evidence/proof. if you cant do research outside social drama quotes before trying to rebuttal my post. dont bother replying to my post

your social drama finger pointing of false narrative games is boring and useless

[dkbit98]

Can you prove that you are the writer who conducted the interview? Or add your account in the forum on the article?

There is no reason he would lie about this, and judging by his previous forum post we he is really Vlad Costea from BTCTKVR, but yeah adding his profile link on website would be cool.
I think it's a good idea he created account in bitcointalk forum, and you can also confirm that he is on twitter with account @TheVladCostea.

[Vlad BTCTKVR]

Can you prove that you are the writer who conducted the interview? Or add your account in the forum on the article?
The last time I heard about Amir was in 2017 and I did not think he was alive.
I will listen to the interview later and add more.

Amir is alive and well, met him this weekend in Prague at Hackers Congress Paralelni Polis. He's working on a new privacy coin and seems to have lost interest in Bitcoin.

As for verifying my identity, I've added a hyperlink to the words "read it and respond" which directs to this forum post: https://bitcoin-takeover.com/s12-e2-amir-taaki-on-the-early-days-of-bitcoin/

[Vlad BTCTKVR]

Anyone know if he's still working on Libbitcoin or if he's moved on to other things?

Asking because I see a different project maintainer listed in the interview.

Officially, Amir hasn't worked on Libbitcoin for years. But according to the project's current maintainer Eric Voskuil, last year (2021) he has helped Libbitcoin raise some money from a private donor: [url]]https://twitter.com/evoskuil/status/1575331574882611200?s=20&t=QZiSYhgzfrEccLr1iAihDg[/url