[2014-7-10] Andreas Antonopoulos Leaves Bitcoin Foundation

[PatMan]

+1000 !!

A big AMEN to that brother 

[ThomasCrowne]

The Bitcoin Foundation needs to be disbanded.  I certainly didn't vote on having a Foundation and I don't think many/any of us did. It violates the entire principal of decentralization.

A centralized entity such as the Bitcoin Foundation will only try to introduce centralized solutions to a decentralized technology, and is itself a target for governments and corruption/manipulation.  I suspect Foundation motives counter to the purpose of Bitcoin itself.

Without the Foundation there is no central target, which is how it is supposed to be.

This makes alotta sense.  I'm guessing what we have here is a formal recipe for disaster with the centralized model bitcoin foundation currently follows.  And especially some of the representatives with their uber-shady histories.

[pbtc]

Who will pay for development of core protocol? In spite of many smart people involved, there are not many who have committed to learning the code in detail and extending or defending it. Many people have expressed displeasure with current developers in these forums, but look how far it has come. Without a working protocol and network, btc are less than worthless.

-pbtc

[Bit_Happy]

Who will pay for development of core protocol?...

Bitcoin is already developed and the code is open source. Upgrades/tweaks/etc could be done with bounties and or volunteers but obviously quality control and "decision making" are serious issues to consider.  

[DooMAD]

People are saying the foundation should be disbanded, but no one is giving a proposal on how they plan to accomplish that.  They're not just going to stop because we ask them to.  It's going to be difficult to mount a challenge against the foundation as there would be a number of factors.  The top search engine result is bitcoin.org, which is sponsored by the foundation.  So we would need a new website (or several new sites, because more decentralised is better) and would have to outperform their SEO to get higher rankings in search results.  Then there's the advocacy roles, the funding for developers and plenty of other things too.  If people genuinely want to do something about it, then we need to start doing it sooner rather than later because they've had a big head start.

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

It's not that hard to start your own outreach organization. We've been doing a good job without any support from the Foundation. The only function the Foundation serves which we'd need to replace is funding for development. I actually advocate DAO'ing our own outreach organization, and I think it's also possible to fund Gavin in a decentralized and automated fashion. An organization representing Bitcoin needs to operate under a trustless model.

[IYFTech]

Maybe it's time for an open letter to Gavin explaining miners/users discomfort over the direction the foundation is going, it's motives, it's lack of transparency and the extremely dangerous & shady members who have recently joined their elite little closed door group?

[LiteCoinGuy]

When bitcoin jesus speaks...people listen!

he is not. roger ver is btc jesus.

[openyourmind]

I think this is a real drama because Andreas Antonopoulos is one and the brightest people of Bitcoin Foundation. I'm very disappointed

[Ron~Popeil]

I think this is a real drama because Andreas Antonopoulos is one and the brightest people of Bitcoin Foundation. I'm very disappointed

We are not losing Andreas, the bit coin foundation is. We don't need a foundation filled with conflicts of interest and money grubbers.

[DooMAD]

I think this is a real drama because Andreas Antonopoulos is one and the brightest people of Bitcoin Foundation. I'm very disappointed

Yes, but it's the good kind of drama.  People leave their jobs all the time because they don't feel the organisation they're working for is acting responsibly, or in the public's best interest.  I'm glad Andreas has the courage of conviction to do what he feels is right.  If all the people we have respect for leave the foundation, it takes away what little legitimacy they have left.  All the remaining members will be the ones we view as either morally dubious, or just there to line their own pockets.   Over time their influence will hopefully fade into obscurity and they'll just be a footnote in our rather exciting and eventful early history.

[nwfella]

Personally I have to applaud Mr. Antonopoulos leaving the foundation.  Whether people choose to admit it or not, public image of the bitcoin foundation has a fairly profound effect on bitcoin itself (though it really shouldn't).  As more and more respectable people either leave or threaten to leave the foundation in it's present form one of two things will happen in my opinion:
1.) Bitcoin foundation will perform it's own "housekeeping", where questionable members either choose to step down voluntarily or by popular vote.
2.) Bitcoin foundation ultimately losses more and more influence to one or more Bitcoin Foundation like groups that actually do give a damn about "public appearance"