Bitcoin Dev Sells 50% of his Bitcoin due to 51% threat.

[S4VV4S]

I would like to extend a hefty "Fuck you" to Peter Todd.

This is a market failure plain and simple, not a Bitcoin failure. This will be resolved in due time, sans hard fork.

What would you do in his place?

Personally I do not judge him for selling 50% of his coins.
I would have done the same because I have mouths to feed and bills to pay.
I will not sit around hoping that the major player will behave.

Even though I took a gamble in investing in Bitcoin, that is a gamble that I am not willing to take.

[indiemax]

Actually I find it quite disappointing that he announced he sold half his holdings of Bitcoin. If he really believed in the project he must have known this disclosure would be very damaging. It's very appropriate, as a core Dev,  to air issues of concern that need urgent attention but to air he sold 50% of his holdings was poor form

[S4VV4S]

Actually I find it quite disappointing that he announced he sold half his holdings of Bitcoin. If he really believed in the project he must have known this disclosure would be very damaging. It's very appropriate, as a core Dev,  to air issues of concern that need urgent attention but to air he sold 50% of his holdings was poor form

I am sorry to say but with all the news going around about BTC lately I am starting to lose a bit of faith my self.

Way too much "centralization" being forced on BTC lately and it doesn't look good.

[smoothie]

Sure sounds like Peter had most of his networth in BTC. Not a smart idea to begin with.

If you can't sustain your living expenses for at least 6 months in the worst case scenario of BTC going to $0 then you have made a grave mistake.

It's like that old saying "never keep all of your eggs in one basket".

[johnyj]

Every miner including GHASH.IO should run distributed P2POOL and make it more than 70% of network hashing power to solve this problem permanently, I think that will be the major task for miners in the coming years

I also think that bitcoin foundation have the responsibility to advertise the use of P2POOL at large scale

[Este Nuno]

Actually I find it quite disappointing that he announced he sold half his holdings of Bitcoin. If he really believed in the project he must have known this disclosure would be very damaging. It's very appropriate, as a core Dev,  to air issues of concern that need urgent attention but to air he sold 50% of his holdings was poor form

Maybe this is the only way he saw to bring attention to the fact that the dev team has no intention to bring a technical solution to the table.

[NEM minnow]

I wonder what he will buy with all that money?

[zimmah]

what do you guys think will happen when GHASH abuses their position?

Right, everyone will leave the pool.

[onemorebtc]

what do you guys think will happen when GHASH abuses their position?

Right, everyone will leave the pool.

that's what i wish.
but are you really sure about that?

[QuestionAuthority]

Is he concerned about a design flaw within Bitcoin or a design flaw with the open source project system?

ACH/EFT has had numerous attacks against it and numerous design flaws. The responsible team discovers the problem and corrects it, no big deal. That's what needs to happen with the design flaws within Bitcoin. The problem isn't that Bitcoin has a basic design flaw it's that no one is fixing it.

Solutions are already being talked about.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/282j4m/petamine_1150_ths_is_considering_joining_p2pool/

P2Pool with a subsidy provided by the greater community (I'd throw them a couple coins a year) would do wonders. It could very easily become the most profitable place to mine if the community made it so.

I'm anticipating this being the scenario in the not too distant future.

I've been reading this 51% attack crap since early 2011 and it isn't fixed yet. Why? Is it because back then it was just Tycho, Slush, Eleuthria, Graet, LukeJr and a few others. They are all swell guys and would never hurt the network, right? Well, that's the thinking of a child's mind. You don't let a major issue sit unsolved for over three years where money is involved. I read a thread once where Gavin was talking to etotheipi and rambling on about prioritizing issues because he could only handle so much at a time. Tough shit. You can't handle the workload then get more people. Bitcoin is no longer here just to intellectually stimulate a select group of developers. It's real money we're talking about.

You would think that the foundation might spend some of that money it's built up on more programmers. I'm sure there are lots of extremely talented people in the world who would love a chance to work on a challenging project like bitcoin.

I don't even think it's about willing bodies to do the job. The ego of a control freak has stifled development for years now. I assumed when Gavin stepped down things would change but I guess I was wrong. I was hoping  Wladimir would be more open to radically altering Bitcoin for the better. Especially since he's a damn good coder and the author of Dropship (effectively hacking Dropbox's servers). I guess I was wrong. Their going to sit on major necessary changes forever.

The incentives aren't necessarily aligned with the way bitcoin works in regards to the dev team, in my opinion. The devs have no real reason to implement proactive protection because they major see changes as 'risky'. The main risk is that they get blamed for implementing a change incorrectly or making a mistake, thus taking the blame personally. So they have more motivation to stick with the status quo.

I think soon enough bitcoins glacial pace will end up leading to it being just chapter one in the history of cryptocurrencies. Not the whole book.

Everyone here likes to fantasize about Bitcoin replacing a national currency or a governments value transfer system. That's not possible as long as the advancement of Bitcoin is controlled by a select few frightened devs. Someone mentioned that devs might be so aligned with the infrastructure and business that implementing a sweeping change is impossible for them. Well, government payment systems like ACH/EFT can't be left to rot with major flaws or national financial systems crumble. Could you imagine a government spotting a basic design deficiency that allowed a possibly hostile foreign actor to destroy their financial system and then do nothing for 3+ years? I would never support Bitcoin as a national payment system because it's system of governance is flawed so badly that the collective authorities are willing to allow it to sit defenseless for years. Inaction is keeping Bitcoin at the level of a super high risk investment and nothing more.

[bitllionaire]

this may have provoked this FUD
well,no only this,but it is many things around the fear.
bitstamp,ghash.io
it is a snowball

[elavenil]

when will bitcoin price will raise? today it is dropping like anything.

[Este Nuno]

Is he concerned about a design flaw within Bitcoin or a design flaw with the open source project system?

ACH/EFT has had numerous attacks against it and numerous design flaws. The responsible team discovers the problem and corrects it, no big deal. That's what needs to happen with the design flaws within Bitcoin. The problem isn't that Bitcoin has a basic design flaw it's that no one is fixing it.

Solutions are already being talked about.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/282j4m/petamine_1150_ths_is_considering_joining_p2pool/

P2Pool with a subsidy provided by the greater community (I'd throw them a couple coins a year) would do wonders. It could very easily become the most profitable place to mine if the community made it so.

I'm anticipating this being the scenario in the not too distant future.

I've been reading this 51% attack crap since early 2011 and it isn't fixed yet. Why? Is it because back then it was just Tycho, Slush, Eleuthria, Graet, LukeJr and a few others. They are all swell guys and would never hurt the network, right? Well, that's the thinking of a child's mind. You don't let a major issue sit unsolved for over three years where money is involved. I read a thread once where Gavin was talking to etotheipi and rambling on about prioritizing issues because he could only handle so much at a time. Tough shit. You can't handle the workload then get more people. Bitcoin is no longer here just to intellectually stimulate a select group of developers. It's real money we're talking about.

You would think that the foundation might spend some of that money it's built up on more programmers. I'm sure there are lots of extremely talented people in the world who would love a chance to work on a challenging project like bitcoin.

I don't even think it's about willing bodies to do the job. The ego of a control freak has stifled development for years now. I assumed when Gavin stepped down things would change but I guess I was wrong. I was hoping  Wladimir would be more open to radically altering Bitcoin for the better. Especially since he's a damn good coder and the author of Dropship (effectively hacking Dropbox's servers). I guess I was wrong. Their going to sit on major necessary changes forever.

The incentives aren't necessarily aligned with the way bitcoin works in regards to the dev team, in my opinion. The devs have no real reason to implement proactive protection because they major see changes as 'risky'. The main risk is that they get blamed for implementing a change incorrectly or making a mistake, thus taking the blame personally. So they have more motivation to stick with the status quo.

I think soon enough bitcoins glacial pace will end up leading to it being just chapter one in the history of cryptocurrencies. Not the whole book.

Everyone here likes to fantasize about Bitcoin replacing a national currency or a governments value transfer system. That's not possible as long as the advancement of Bitcoin is controlled by a select few frightened devs. Someone mentioned that devs might be so aligned with the infrastructure and business that implementing a sweeping change is impossible for them. Well, government payment systems like ACH/EFT can't be left to rot with major flaws or national financial systems crumble. Could you imagine a government spotting a basic design deficiency that allowed a possibly hostile foreign actor to destroy their financial system and then do nothing for 3+ years? I would never support Bitcoin as a national payment system because it's system of governance is flawed so badly that the collective authorities are willing to allow it to sit defenseless for years. Inaction is keeping Bitcoin at the level of a super high risk investment and nothing more.

I think the bitcoin dev team ideally should be dynamic and ready to face challenges that might appear down road. They should have contingency code written already for any possible situation that could arise. Even if it takes a team of a hundred of coders it's better then sitting on their hands and waiting for problems to come to them(and then still ignoring them).

[bluemeanie1]

Bitshares is creating DPOS (delegated POS).  The delegates are voted on

voted on by whom?

-bm

By the stakeholders in the blockchain.

that sounds like standard proof of stake.

-bm

[bluemeanie1]

when will bitcoin price will raise? today it is dropping like anything.

here's whats bizarre. 

1) Chinese exchanges dont seem to be reflecting this price drop.

2) perhaps a new major stakeholder due to US Federal Auction.

3) Yahoo and Google both added support for BTC price.


 ?

-bm

[indiemax]

Actually I find it quite disappointing that he announced he sold half his holdings of Bitcoin. If he really believed in the project he must have known this disclosure would be very damaging. It's very appropriate, as a core Dev,  to air issues of concern that need urgent attention but to air he sold 50% of his holdings was poor form

Maybe this is the only way he saw to bring attention to the fact that the dev team has no intention to bring a technical solution to the table.

I did consider this as a reason but if true that Bitcoin is clearly rudderless, that's a more damaging statement,unfortunately not looking good at all

[Guido]

when will bitcoin price will raise? today it is dropping like anything.

here's whats bizarre. 

1) Chinese exchanges dont seem to be reflecting this price drop.

2) perhaps a new major stakeholder due to US Federal Auction.

3) Yahoo and Google both added support for BTC price.


 ?

-bm

agreed
and duckduckgo, expedia etc
atms popping up all over world

I'm presonally selling none, buy some more if dips lower, when I get some fiat


how many did this tool sell? was it a sizeable amount as he doesn't seem to say

[elavenil]

I planned to purchases some miners which are priced in usd, with in 2 day $100 price down. I will loose more than 10% if i purchase now.

[ajareselde]

when will bitcoin price will raise? today it is dropping like anything.

When bad news stop bombing bitcoin. It is just insane, every few days there is another bad news.
Im realy wondering what exactly is being developed, aside from ponzi hype

[bluemeanie1]

when will bitcoin price will raise? today it is dropping like anything.

here's whats bizarre. 

1) Chinese exchanges dont seem to be reflecting this price drop.

2) perhaps a new major stakeholder due to US Federal Auction.

3) Yahoo and Google both added support for BTC price.


 ?

-bm

agreed
and duckduckgo, expedia etc
atms popping up all over world

I'm presonally selling none, buy some more if dips lower, when I get some fiat


how many did this tool sell? was it a sizeable amount as he doesn't seem to say

also Apple announces Bitcoin support?  these are not indicators that Bitcoin is going away- it would appear that it has gained acceptance among major tech players.

all things seem to suggest this price dip was created to shake out small hands.

-bm