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

[Este Nuno]

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

It was all good news for a long time there, what are you talking about?

US marshal selling seized coins isn't even bad news at all.

Ghash being stupid is just bitcoiners doing to themselves. It's not a new problem.

[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.

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).

Thats a good idea. There are 8000 people worldwide working on Linux. They push out between 6 and 12 patches a minute. 75% of Linux devs are paid for their work. Major corporations sponsor development and oversight is through the Linux Foundation. If the Bitcoin Foundation wants to be more than just an umbrella for criminals they should solicit businesses like Overstock to become involved in development through donation and oversight of where their money is going.

[jonald_fyookball]

that's what they are trying to do with the Bitcoin foundation.

Why people on this forum feel the need to constantly
bash the foundation is really beyond me.

They pay for Gavin and several other developers to work
full time on improving Bitcoin... and people want to take
that away.  I'm not saying BCF is perfect but you sure
get a lot of armchair quarterbacking going on here.

[NEM minnow]

There are a lot more people complaining that doing. 

I am guessing some people just bought a miner and expect it to make them rich.   They are expecting the rest of the world to do what they want because they invested a few thousand dollars.

[beetcoin]

we don't like the foundation because they're trying to speak for us, when they are an obviously fuckedup/disorganized org. to make matters worse, they are probably just figuring out how to become a major player among the bitcoin community, so they can benefit themselves only.

[forzendiablo]

i dont get whats foundation doint at all. i mean - sure they fixed ssl and sometiems update wallets with minor chanes - is it really that much work they cannot fix 51% issue in 3 years?
all the job they did could be done in propably 7 days not 3 years.

[QuestionAuthority]

that's what they are trying to do with the Bitcoin foundation.

Why people on this forum feel the need to constantly
bash the foundation is really beyond me.

They pay for Gavin and several other developers to work
full time on improving Bitcoin... and people want to take
that away.  I'm not saying BCF is perfect but you sure
get a lot of armchair quarterbacking going on here.

They are not a real foundation. That's why they get bashed. Their bylaws are written to favor "founding directors". Do you want to share a giant joke with me? Keep this to yourself though. I don't want the whole world knowing it. Read the highlighted names of the initial "Industry Directors" below. That's some funny shit jack! LOL

(b) Industry Directors: Industry Members, voting as a class, shall elect three (3) directors or such fewer number as equals the total number of Industry Members. All directors elected by Industry Members shall be known as "Industry Directors." Each Industry Member shall be entitled to nominate a single candidate in any election of Industry Directors. Industry Directors may be elected: (i) at a meeting of the Industry Members; (ii) by written ballot delivered to the Industry Members; or (iii) in some other manner authorized by law or these Bylaws. The initial Industry Directors shall be Charles Shrem, CEO of BitInstant LLC and Mark Karpeles, CEO of MtGox.com.

So the "Founding Directors" will ALWAYS have some control in the Bitcoin Foundation? That hardly seems like a real foundation at all. Seems more like a private boys club to me. One of them is in jail, one of them should be in jail and one is MIA. That means FOR LIFE either Gavin Andresen, Peter Vessenes, Roger Ver or Patrick Murck will have a controlling seat on the Board of Directors. Fucking shameful! You want to know what's even more shameful? I bet you that fewer than 10% of their membership even knows that.

Section 3.1 Membership Classes: The Corporation will have three classes of membership:

(a) Founding Members;

(b) Industry Members; and

(c) Individual Members.


(a) Founding Directors: The Founding Member’s shall elect one (1) director or such fewer number as equals the total number of Founding Members. All directors elected by Founding Members shall hereafter be known as “Founding Directors”. Each Founding Director shall be deemed to have been duly elected upon receipt by the Chairman of the Board of a written ballot from the Founding Members. The initial Founding Director shall be Peter Vessenes, CEO of CoinLab, Inc.

(a) Founding Members. The Founding Members of the Corporation shall be:

i. Gavin Andresen, Bitcoin Developer residing or doing business in Amherst, MA, USA.

ii. Peter Vessenes, CEO of CoinLab and residing or doing business in Bainbridge Island, WA, USA.

iii. Charles Shrem, CEO of BitInstant residing or doing business in Brooklyn, NY, USA.

iv. Roger Ver, CEO of MemoryDealers residing or doing business in Santa Clara, CA, USA.

v. Patrick Murck, Principal at Engage Legal, PLLC residing or doing business in Washington, DC, USA.

vi. Mark Karpeles, CEO of MtGox.com and residing or doing business in Tokyo, Japan.

vii. Satoshi Nakamoto, at satoshin@gmx.com, author of the white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” published on http://bitcoin.org and owner of the PGP Public Key with fingerprint: DE4E FCA3 E1AB 9E41 CE96 CECB 18C0 9E86 5EC9 48A1.

[cyberpinoy]

To be honest, I have looked into Ghash.Io and I dont like anything about them, its hard to even understand their pool, and how it actually works. When I went to sign up I must first become a member of their CEX.io exchange, I dont like that at all, and I have never been able to even get into the mining aspect of their pool. Its really confusing, for me, and just seems like a big run around to me. I dont liken Ghash.io so I dont see why they are so large. I think there is more to that story than we can read on the cover. There seems to be something very weird about that Ghash.io "Pool"

And in addition, if so many people are so worried about thier 51% hashrate why do people keep joining them? and if they didnt want to hit that 51% why wouldnt they just place a stop on new members or hashrate increases on current members? see why i said there are weird things going on there. a few simple steps could stop all the nervousness, and I dont think they are taking those steps other than to say they arent trying to hit the 51% when in reality I think they are doing their best to hit it.

[froggyfeels]

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

Sounds like you answered your own question.
Poor form? This is a guy who dedicated a lot of time to developing the Bitcoin system, he can do whatever he wants and speak about whatever he wants. Are the Bitcoin mind police going to come and shut him up?
 
This post shows a lot of the real problem that the BTC community has. Many of our members are like robots and just repeat the same shite and fail to dig into the issues and try and find solutions...or the BTC core dev's look the other way.
Let's get real.
There are problems and sweeping it under the rug is not going to solve it.

I agree to the poster below that way too much centralization is taking place and turning Bitcoin into something that it was not meant to be.
Say hello to the bankers and the financial guys for me.

[BTCisthefuture]

Seems very extreme to me.  But that's just my view,  it's his money and he's free to take whatever actions he wants.

[ABISprotocol]

that's what they are trying to do with the Bitcoin foundation.

Why people on this forum feel the need to constantly
bash the foundation is really beyond me.

They pay for Gavin and several other developers to work
full time on improving Bitcoin... and people want to take
that away.  I'm not saying BCF is perfect but you sure
get a lot of armchair quarterbacking going on here.

They are not a real foundation. That's why they get bashed. Their bylaws are written to favor "founding directors". Do you want to share a giant joke with me? Keep this to yourself though. I don't want the whole world knowing it. Read the highlighted names of the initial "Industry Directors" below. That's some funny shit jack! LOL

(b) Industry Directors: Industry Members, voting as a class, shall elect three (3) directors or such fewer number as equals the total number of Industry Members. All directors elected by Industry Members shall be known as "Industry Directors." Each Industry Member shall be entitled to nominate a single candidate in any election of Industry Directors. Industry Directors may be elected: (i) at a meeting of the Industry Members; (ii) by written ballot delivered to the Industry Members; or (iii) in some other manner authorized by law or these Bylaws. The initial Industry Directors shall be Charles Shrem, CEO of BitInstant LLC and Mark Karpeles, CEO of MtGox.com.

So the "Founding Directors" will ALWAYS have some control in the Bitcoin Foundation? That hardly seems like a real foundation at all. Seems more like a private boys club to me. One of them is in jail, one of them should be in jail and one is MIA. That means FOR LIFE either Gavin Andresen, Peter Vessenes, Roger Ver or Patrick Murck will have a controlling seat on the Board of Directors. Fucking shameful! You want to know what's even more shameful? I bet you that fewer than 10% of their membership even knows that.

Section 3.1 Membership Classes: The Corporation will have three classes of membership:

(a) Founding Members;

(b) Industry Members; and

(c) Individual Members.


(a) Founding Directors: The Founding Member’s shall elect one (1) director or such fewer number as equals the total number of Founding Members. All directors elected by Founding Members shall hereafter be known as “Founding Directors”. Each Founding Director shall be deemed to have been duly elected upon receipt by the Chairman of the Board of a written ballot from the Founding Members. The initial Founding Director shall be Peter Vessenes, CEO of CoinLab, Inc.

(a) Founding Members. The Founding Members of the Corporation shall be:

i. Gavin Andresen, Bitcoin Developer residing or doing business in Amherst, MA, USA.

ii. Peter Vessenes, CEO of CoinLab and residing or doing business in Bainbridge Island, WA, USA.

iii. Charles Shrem, CEO of BitInstant residing or doing business in Brooklyn, NY, USA.

iv. Roger Ver, CEO of MemoryDealers residing or doing business in Santa Clara, CA, USA.

v. Patrick Murck, Principal at Engage Legal, PLLC residing or doing business in Washington, DC, USA.

vi. Mark Karpeles, CEO of MtGox.com and residing or doing business in Tokyo, Japan.

vii. Satoshi Nakamoto, at satoshin@gmx.com, author of the white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” published on http://bitcoin.org and owner of the PGP Public Key with fingerprint: DE4E FCA3 E1AB 9E41 CE96 CECB 18C0 9E86 5EC9 48A1.

Actually members are aware of this... I wish more people would comment on the open issue on github, though....

https://github.com/pmlaw/The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo/issues/10

[QuestionAuthority]

Actually members are aware of this... I wish more people would comment on the open issue on github, though....

https://github.com/pmlaw/The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo/issues/10

I know, I was being facetious. The Bylaws were written to be as close to a real document as you can get without the original collection of scumbags relinquishing power. The founding members have a major time and money investment in Bitcoin and don't just want Bitcoin to be successful they want it to be successful FOR THEM. There are many reasons I never joined the foundation but the best reason for separating yourself from them is because they don't really represent the users of Bitcoin. You might complain that there are many different kinds of reasons to use Bitcoin and that they can't all be represented. That's true but the foundation can represent more than just one.

This very thread topic is the perfect example. You don't like to risk your investment on the flawed concept of PoW but aren't in favor of PoS or PoB. Great, PoS may concentrate power in the hands of the wealthy and keep coins from moving. Ok, then develop something else and implement it. Fix the problem. Foundation founders can't support that because any sweeping change to the system would risk their investment. I'm actually glad to see Ghash.Io is menacing and no one cares to change anything. It proves that Bitcoin will never change even when it faces destruction because of the power a select group of people have over it (centralization at its finest). Bitcoin will live in BetaLand forever until the updates to Bitcoin Core are numbered 0.9.9.9.9. Bitcoin will eventually fork into a shell of its former self unless someone takes action and that might not be a bad thing. All is not lost. We have plenty of competition now willing to take over.

[Bit_Happy]

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

It was all good news for a long time there, what are you talking about?

US marshal selling seized coins isn't even bad news at all.

Ghash being stupid is just bitcoiners doing to themselves. It's not a new problem.

True! Most of the Bitcoin news the last 2 months has been overwhelmingly positive, this is a great time to be optimistic.   

[cdog]

The problem isnt that Ghash will seek to attack the network, of course they wont, this business makes them millions and millions. Ghash generates vast amounts of wealth securing the network.

The problem now is there are probably only a handful of people in the world (the owners/operators of Ghash), if not a single person, who hold the network hostage to their whimsy.

Even if these people are rational actors, it still presents a major security threat. How much do you think it would cost to finance a small security force to kidnap the owner/operators of Ghash and seize control?

It might not even cost 7 figures.

[beetcoin]

so shouldn't we get the info out? who is the the main guy behind ghash.io? does he have a seedy past? where is PG to do the dirty work?

[sorryforthat]

The problem isnt that Ghash will seek to attack the network, of course they wont, this business makes them millions and millions. Ghash generates vast amounts of wealth securing the network.

The problem now is there are probably only a handful of people in the world (the owners/operators of Ghash), if not a single person, who hold the network hostage to their whimsy.

Even if these people are rational actors, it still presents a major security threat. How much do you think it would cost to finance a small security force to kidnap the owner/operators of Ghash and seize control?

It might not even cost 7 figures.

And we cannot forget that this problem isnt GHASH/CEX alone, there are many miners out there that point Ph/s on their pool that could easily help reduce this.

[jonald_fyookball]

There's a fair chance this has nothing to do with 51% and Peter Todd just felt like cashing out some coins and wanted a good sounding reason.

[devphp]

There's a fair chance this has nothing to do with 51% and Peter Todd just felt like cashing out some coins and wanted a good sounding reason.

What the heck, why would he want a reason? Is there some sort of obligation for bitcoin core devs to keep their money in bitcoins? Do they have to publicly explain when they cash out? I don't think so, it's their money they are free to do how they like.

[notbatman]

Will he be buying PeerCoins with those Bitcoins?

[ABISprotocol]

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

It was all good news for a long time there, what are you talking about?

US marshal selling seized coins isn't even bad news at all.

Ghash being stupid is just bitcoiners doing to themselves. It's not a new problem.

True! Most of the Bitcoin news the last 2 months has been overwhelmingly positive, this is a great time to be optimistic.   

Please comment on github at https://github.com/pmlaw/The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo/issues/10 - I am ABISprotocol so you know how i think, but consider supporting the positions of nwfella, sosojni, and ripper234 as expressed in the issue description and later comments