Dear fellow industry members,
I am honored to have the opportunity to run in this election, to represent you by serving as a board member of the Bitcoin Foundation.
I have answered several of the forum debate questions, and I am posting them again here for your consideration:
1) Candidates, if elected, what would you do to improve the Foundation? Though there has been numerous perspectives on how well Bitcoin Foundation has been run, I must say that without the Bitcoin Foundation, our industry would not have come so far in just a few short years. Bitcoin Foundation deserves a lot of credit, yet we all know there is plenty of room for improvement.
Bitcoin Foundation should drive two key topics: Technology Development, and Government Regulation.
For Technology Development, Bitcoin Foundation needs to rally the whole industry, and ensure that there continues to be a strong team of core developers, to push the technology envelope further. The Core Dev team needs to have a strong vision, and be well funded, and well organized. Bitcoin Foundation should help make that happen. Only with a strong development behind Bitcoin, can it truly realize its full potential.
In terms of Government Regulation, what we have seen recently is that many countries and their central banks have come out to declare that Bitcoin is not a currency, but rather merely a virtual commodity. Though it is a reasonable declaration, it does have some quite negative consequences, when it comes to commerce and taxation. This is sort of a knee-jerk reaction by the worlds' central banks and regulators, as most likely, they don't fully understand Bitcoin and don't appreciate its full potential in an increasingly digital society. Whether or not they are intently collaborating, the regulators around the world have been coming out against Bitcoin.
At this juncture, it is paramount for Bitcoin Foundation to step up, and work more closely with regulators around the world, and not just in the USA. The regulators and central banks of all countries deserve more from Bitcoin Foundation, and that our industry needs to speak up more, and really talk openly with regulators about the future benefits of Bitcoin.
And lastly, the Bitcoin Foundation needs to overcome its current industry perception, and become more transparent to its members and the public Bitcoin community. It needs to embrace the whole community, and even consider bringing in other groups, besides just "Industry Members" for example, such as Regulators, the Financial and Banking sectors, Miners, etc.
2) What do you feel are the minimum infrastructure requirements for mass adoption? We are all in it together, and we ultimately all want to see Bitcoin succeed. Mass adoption is certainly one way in which Bitcoin can succeed. Bitcoin has come a long way in these 5 years, but the next 5 years is actually more important. Why? Despite all of its successes so far, Bitcoin is still not guaranteed for long term success, at least not from what we can see now.
I am for the path of mass adoption, though some would correctly argue that Bitcoin can succeed without mass adoption.
In any case, for mass adoption to happen, we need to work hard as an industry, and solve the following pieces of this important puzzle:
Public Education: Today, Bitcoin is still super complicated, and inaccessible for the common user. We need more education, and need to continue to simplify the software and services (wallets and payment), and lower the stepping stone for the average users. Also, do not underestimate the power of media. With the help of media worldwide, we can truly bring Bitcoin to the masses, at least bring it into their consciousness first.
Store of Value
With a larger and larger circulation value (i.e., Market Cap), we hope that Bitcoin prices will be less volatile. Lower volatility is extremely important for people to take the Store of Value concept more seriously. We all know that if truly successful, the bitcoin price today will be seen as a tiny fraction of its future potential price. The price increase from here to that dizzying height will be full of volatility, with massive ups and downs, for many years to come. Therefore, as an industry, we need to work together, to promote more stable pricing, to smooth out the upward trajectory, so to speak.
Security and Safety
This topic applies to everything and everyone in our industry: wallets, exchanges, mining pools, websites, and merchant solutions. We constantly need to invest in safety and security, even if it means slowing things down a bit. If you think about it, Bitcoin only has one shot at success, when it comes to safety and security. What happened at Mt Gox is unacceptable, so as an industry, we cannot let that happen again, or even anything close to that.
Merchant Acceptance
In the end, if Bitcoin is to succeed as the ultimate form of "electronic cash", then we have to see broad merchant acceptance. However, we do know that merchant acceptance is sort of a chicken and egg game, where merchants first want to see proof of demand from users. Yet users want to see proof of usefulness from large merchant acceptance. We need to work hard to prime the market, and convince more and more merchants to accept Bitcoin.
Accessible Exchanges Worldwide
Just like how the Internet was called the Information Superhighway, Bitcoin is really the Money Superhighway. And on this Money Superhighway, Bitcoin exchanges are the on-ramps and off-ramps, serving each country in the world, by allowing for exchanges into and out of the national currency. Bitcoin cannot function without a healthy and robust network of exchanges worldwide. Even though some people predict that one winner will take all for the exchange market, I am hopeful and prefer to see a healthy and robust network of many exchanges around the world. Of course, they all need to be safe, reliable, and reputable. I also like Peer-to-Peer and ATM transactions, but these alone cannot sustain a Bitcoin revolution.
3) What role, if any, do you feel the Foundation should have in the legal and regulatory environment?I think that the Bitcoin Foundation has a strong role to play in the legal and regulatory environment. In promoting Bitcoin, the uneducated perception is indeed that we are going against the interests of the governments and central banks.
Today, many governments and central banks have come out to say that they will not regulate Bitcoin, and will leave it as it is, classifying it as a virtual commodity or personal property. This description seems to be naive and simple, and it certainly appears that Bitcoin can continue to flourish under this "unregulated" environment. However, this is not what is really happening. Instead, governments and central banks are currently subverting Bitcoin by restricting banks and financial institutions from dealing with it, effectively putting a chokehold on Bitcoin, and limiting its ultimate success.
Let me say that one more time: To governments and central banks, the perception is that Bitcoin will upset the balance, and that Bitcoin competes with the existing monetary system, and will affect the governments' strong hold on global finances (through the fiat money system).
I know that this is not the case, and that there is room for a future where Bitcoins will supplement the existing financial system, and exist side-by-side with Fiat currencies. However, central banks today do not yet see the positive aspects of Bitcoin, and only see the negative aspects, such as money laundering, terrorist financing, anonymous transactions, and competition with inflationary fiat currencies.
Therefore, in order for Bitcoin to have long term success in the world, it is paramount that we work closely with government regulators worldwide, to educate and promote the positive aspects of Bitcoin, and dispel the inaccuracies and wrong perceptions. With a positive and cooperative mindset, we can hope to work with regulators to legitimize bitcoin, while at the same time, addressing their real concerns, and minimizing the problem scenarios.
Now, I also realize that there is a large contingent of Bitcoin supporters out there who are against us working with government and regulators to regulate Bitcoin. I do respect your perspective, as you see Bitcoin as truly free and decentralized, so why bother to, and why need to work with government regulators at all? To this audience, my response is simple: due to Bitcoin's already decentralized and pseudo-anonymous nature, your goals and desires will never be infringed upon. You will continue to be able to freely use Bitcoin the way you see it. If and when the industry does get to work closely together with regulators, it will only bring on more mass adoption, and hopefully that will not impact your use of Bitcoins.
4) What are your views on bitcoin white lists, redlists, blacklists, etc? Should fungibility be a priority for the Foundation?I am a strong believer in the importance of fungibility for Bitcoin. We should never forget our roots, that Bitcoin was created with fungibility and decentralization as a core principal. I will always support this, and will not endorse any initiatives that mandate blacklisting or such.
Bitcoin should be viewed as money, so money should never be blacklisted. With the advent of mixers and tumblers, it is practically impossible to successfully blacklist bitcoins or addresses. Instead, blacklisting would only cause more FUD for normal people, as they can never be sure about the bitcoins they receive. That kind of FUD will certainly put a damper on the success and growth of Bitcoin.
On a related note, I have seen efforts to tie real-name identification to Bitcoin addresses or online accounts. I think that is fine, as it will be confined to certain services and exchanges, and in essence, it's optional, as users can ultimately choose what software and services they use. Much of the movement towards real name identification is to align with government regulation needs.
Thank you for reading my answers, and thank you for your support. If elected, I promise to put my energy into Bitcoin Foundation, and continue to be an accessible public spokesperson for our wonderful Bitcoin industry.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions or comments. I am always available.
Thanks,
Bobby
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Please follow this link to view Bobby's profile or if you have any questions for Bobby, you can communicate with him directly there:
https://bitcoinfoundation.org/forum/index.php?/topic/916-industry-candidate-bobby-lee/
