From: "Satoshi Nakamoto" <satoshi@vistomail•com>
To: bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation.org
Subject: [bitcoin-dev] Bitcoin XT Fork
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2015 12:43:54 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <6EC9DDF352DC4838AE9B088AB372428A25E1F42A@DS04> (raw)
I have been following the recent block size debates through the mailing list. I had hoped the debate would resolve and that a fork proposal would achieve widespread consensus. However with the formal release of Bitcoin XT 0.11A, this looks unlikely to happen, and so I am forced to share my concerns about this very dangerous fork.
The developers of this pretender-Bitcoin claim to be following my original vision, but nothing could be further from the truth. When I designed Bitcoin, I designed it in such a way as to make future modifications to the consensus rules difficult without near unanimous agreement. Bitcoin was designed to be protected from the influence of charismatic leaders, even if their name is Gavin Andresen, Barack Obama, or Satoshi Nakamoto. Nearly everyone has to agree on a change, and they have to do it without being forced or pressured into it. By doing a fork in this way, these developers are violating the "original vision" they claim to honour.
They use my old writings to make claims about what Bitcoin was supposed to be. However I acknowledge that a lot has changed since that time, and new knowledge has been gained that contradicts some of my early opinions. For example I didn't anticipate pooled mining and its effects on the security of the network. Making Bitcoin a competitive monetary system while also preserving its security properties is not a trivial problem, and we should take more time to come up with a robust solution. I suspect we need a better incentive for users to run nodes instead of relying solely on altruism.
If two developers can fork Bitcoin and succeed in redefining what "Bitcoin" is, in the face of widespread technical criticism and through the use of populist tactics, then I will have no choice but to declare Bitcoin a failed project. Bitcoin was meant to be both technically and socially robust. This present situation has been very disappointing to watch unfold.
Satoshi Nakamoto
next reply other threads:[~2015-08-15 19:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 62+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2015-08-15 17:43 Satoshi Nakamoto [this message]
2015-08-15 19:08 ` Laszlo Hanyecz
2015-08-15 19:10 ` jl2012
2015-08-17 11:40 ` Oliver Egginger
2015-08-17 11:44 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-17 11:51 ` Oliver Egginger
2015-08-17 16:32 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-17 17:01 ` Oliver Egginger
2015-08-17 17:15 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-17 17:30 ` Btc Drak
2015-08-17 17:18 ` Gregory Maxwell
2015-08-17 19:14 ` Peter Todd
2015-08-17 17:28 ` Jeff Garzik
2015-08-17 19:03 ` Warren Togami Jr.
2015-08-17 20:37 ` Oliver Egginger
2015-08-18 5:16 ` Gregory Maxwell
2015-08-18 9:15 ` Warren Togami Jr.
2015-08-18 11:52 ` Micha Bailey
2015-08-18 18:57 ` Oliver Egginger
2015-08-18 20:59 ` Anon Moto
2015-08-19 1:03 ` Sergio Demian Lerner
2015-08-17 19:02 ` Anon Moto
2015-08-17 19:40 ` Marcel Jamin
2015-08-17 19:16 ` Hector Chu
2015-08-17 19:28 ` Gregory Maxwell
2015-08-17 19:39 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-17 21:29 ` [bitcoin-dev] Incentives to run full nodes Peter Todd
2015-08-17 21:44 ` Chris Pacia
2015-08-18 0:20 ` Joseph Poon
2015-08-19 5:21 ` odinn
2015-10-04 6:46 ` odinn
2015-10-04 6:59 ` odinn
2015-08-19 2:54 ` [bitcoin-dev] Bitcoin XT Fork odinn
2015-08-19 2:59 ` Angel Leon
2015-08-17 20:24 Theo Chino
2015-08-18 4:56 ` Dave Scotese
2015-08-19 8:25 Btc Drak
2015-08-19 16:53 Adam Back
2015-08-19 17:22 ` Simon Liu
2015-08-19 18:13 ` Peter Todd
2015-08-19 23:37 ` Simon Liu
2015-08-19 17:28 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-19 17:32 ` Btc Drak
2015-08-19 18:20 ` Peter Todd
2015-08-19 19:15 ` Btc Drak
2015-08-19 19:32 ` odinn
2015-08-19 19:48 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-08-19 19:58 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-19 20:04 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-08-19 22:00 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-19 23:07 ` Eric Voskuil
2015-08-19 23:27 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-19 23:56 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-20 1:00 ` GC
2015-08-20 1:17 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-20 0:08 ` Eric Voskuil
2015-08-19 18:22 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-19 19:12 ` Santino Napolitano
2015-08-19 19:28 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-08-20 9:00 ` Mike Hearn
2015-08-20 9:13 ` Peter Todd
2015-08-21 3:01 ` odinn
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