[2015-01-03] Mike Hearn: How Bitcoin's Technology Advanced in 2014

[LOBSTER]

In just a few days, bitcoin will have been in development for six years.

For those of us who watched it grow from a humble Windows-only desktop application to today’s global infrastructure, bitcoin’s technology is simultaneously astonishing and frustrating. We marvel at how far it’s come, and yet are impatient with how far it still has to go.

Most media stories reviewing bitcoin’s 2014 focus exclusively on the price. So, instead, let’s take a look at what we achieved as a community this year, and take a look ahead at where things might go in 2015.

http://www.coindesk.com/mike-hearn-bitcoins-technology-advanced-2014/

[Balls]

Getting ready for a great 2015

Bitcoin is a long-term project, so the theme of plans being laid years in advance is common. What might we see next year? Here are a few things already in development that I’m hoping to see in the next 12 months (though I can offer no guarantees):

    New cross-platform and decentralised wallets
    • Bitcoin Authenticator with Android-based two-factor authentication
    • MultiBit HD, the followup to the popular MultiBit Classic. A new UI, wallet words, Trezor support and fully deterministic.
    A better core protocol: more scalable and with the annoying malleability quirks finally removed.
    StrawPay, a new 'hub and spoke' method of routing micropayments that builds on the payment channel implementation work done in 2013 by myself and Matt Corallo. Payment channel networks provide a way to rapidly route tiny micropayments around in a fast and secure way that is off the blockchain, but still uses the bitcoin protocol.
    … and finally, of course, the launch of my own project for the last eight months: Lighthouse, an open-source app for all-or-nothing bitcoin crowdfunding.

Seems like a fluff piece for his own projects, though the first two seem interesting especially the decentralized wallets that I wasn't previously aware of.