Gavin Andresen Switches Focus from Lead Developer

[Kupsi]

Gavin Andresen    Apr 07 2014

A few years ago I created a Google Scholar alert for “bitcoin.” And I was happy if I got one alert per month.

Today, I find it harder and harder to keep up with all of the great Computer Science or Economics papers related to bitcoin and other crypto-currencies; in just the last week Mr. Google told me about 30 new papers I might be interested in reading.

Over the last 18 months I’ve filled two roles: “lead developer” for Bitcoin Core (the reference implementation), and “Chief Scientist” for the Foundation. Thanks to the support of all of the members of the Foundation, I’m pleased to be able to focus more on protocol-level, cross-implementation issues and less on issues specific to the Bitcoin Core software.

Wladimir van der Laan has been paid to work on Bitcoin Core full-time for several months now– again, thanks to all of you Foundation members for stepping up and helping to fund core development– and has been doing a fantastic job. He has agreed to take over for me as the “Bitcoin Core Maintainer.”

Wladimir first got involved with the Bitcoin project by re-implementing, and vastly improving, the Bitcoin Core user interface. He lives and works in the Netherlands, and I’m looking forward to meeting him in person for the very first time at Bitcoin2014 in Amsterdam.

To be clear: I’m not going to disappear; I’ll still be writing and reviewing code and offering my opinions on technical matters and project priorities. I enjoy coding, and I think I’ll be most effective as Chief Scientist if I don’t lose touch with engineering reality and make the mistake of building huge, beautiful, theoretical castles that exist only as whitepapers.

I’ll just spend a little less time writing Bitcoin Core release announcements, and a little more time catching up on the latest bitcoin-wizards thinking on how best to implement transaction history pruning.

https://bitcoinfoundation.org/blog/?p=677

[jbrnt]

So there is not much change in duties, just change in titles 

(There goes all the hearsay about Gavin leaving Bitcoin)

[countryfree]

Is this a big deal?
It's quite normal in any organization to see people changing jobs or places. Go to any bank, and ask how many people were in the same position 3 years ago. Then a man like Gavin Andresen shall be more useful elsewhere in the bitcoin foundation... I wish him to be successful in his new position, just like bitcoin.

[turio]

shocking news, is someone loosing faith in bitcoin?

[franky1]

i knew gavin was going to change roles a couple years ago. he done a video interview (cant find it right now) where he said he wanted to devote a few years to this project and probably move on around 2015.

so remember guys. bitcoin is not a centralised program. its open source. meaning anyone can develop the protocol and if everyone likes it, they will use it. if they dont like it. they wont update to new versions or they would use other programs based around the old protocol.

the new bitcoin dev appears to be on the same thoughtpath as gavin and the rest of us, meaning that he seems to be in it for the community and not in it for the greed/fame.

but if any of you have the skills that gavin or wladimir have, feel free to contribute and ensure the protocol stays strong for the community, and maybe one day wladimir will give you the reins.

to also  note gavin will still be involved and oversee the protocol so that the temptation of people like Luke Jr to implement stupid changes, does not occur much/at all.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Please, don't tell me that Satoshi is a parrot.

[Sindelar1938]

Gavin's the man, and now on to work on even more critical stuff for btc

[meawleir21]

He lost faith in Bitcoin and realized it's broken beyond repair

lol why does bitcoin all of a sudden have this kind of opinions?! Maybe people wanting to buy as cheap as possible.

[LiteCoinGuy]

He's probably going for Nxt.

or Litecoin.

[freedomno1]

The signal to noise ratio on this damn forum is asymptotically approaching zero.

He is essentially being "promoted" to Chief Scientist to work on Bitcoin's mid to long term challenges, namely transaction pruning.

Ah took 12 posts to break through the noise thanks for that

[RodeoX]

Gotta love how people who have never even met Gavin know exactly why he did something they just found out about. 

[franky1]

Gotta love how people who have never even met Gavin know exactly why he did something they just found out about.  

i know, you gotta love it.
its almost like those people who by paying for a lifetime membership, suddenly makes them think they know better

 

i've never met obama, or paid into his campaigns,, but i know what his agenda is.

money or connections is not the only way to the truth.. research is the third option

[IIOII]

Please, don't tell me that Satoshi is a parrot.

No, Gavin is in fact Trendon Shavers and Satoshi owns the zoo.

[RodeoX]

Gotta love how people who have never even met Gavin know exactly why he did something they just found out about.  

i know, you gotta love it.
its almost like those people who by paying for a lifetime membership, suddenly makes them think they know better

 

i've never met obama, or paid into his campaigns,, but i know what his agenda is.

money or connections is not the only way to the truth.. research is the third option

Also exchanging emails about our efforts, meeting him in person and befriending him.  I'll actually be at the foundation headquarters next week. But that aside, why can't we just take what Gavin says at face value? It always has to be a bold, uninformed statement that claims to know a secret agenda. It's like reading the tabloids that quote "a pal of Justin Bieber said...". You know that the source is a guy who once saw him at a club for like five minutes.

[MarketNeutral]

So, any updates on meneer Wladimir J. van der Laan?

[ThePurplePlanet]

He's probably going for Nxt.

The huge number of people not understanding the problems of PoS is unbelievable...

[xDan]

He's probably going for Nxt.

The huge number of people not understanding the problems of PoS is unbelievable...

Is there a good summary of these "problems" anywhere?

[Lauda]

He's probably going for Nxt.

or Litecoin.

You got to be joking. So tell me, when did you talk to Gavin about this?
Hopefully this new developer will work a lot on the source code. Gavin wasn't that active recently. Has anyone considered that he might have been forced to step down?

[RodeoX]

The signal to noise ratio on this damn forum is asymptotically approaching zero.
...

Lol, true that. No one even tries anymore. They read the headline, invent a bullshit story, then make bold statements based on what they just made up. At least it's entertaining.