Entries tagged with this topic. Spans across types and sources — explore connections between people, events, and themes.
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In August 2010 a forum user asked whether Satoshi could withstand torture for Bitcoin's alert key. What the key could do, whose hands its copies reached, and how it left the network by 2018.
Wrote BIP 1, the document that defined the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal process. Founded libbitcoin and Dark Wallet. In 2015 he left Bitcoin to fight ISIS in Syria, and was arrested but never charged.
Defines the original version-bits mechanism for signaling and activating soft forks in parallel via the block nVersion field, using median-time-past thresholds and a fixed timeout.
Specifies a version-bits soft fork activation mechanism using block heights instead of timestamps, adding a flag that can guarantee lock-in before a timeout height.
Proposes hashrate-escrow sidechains: six OP_RETURN messages (M1-M4) for sidechain proposal and withdrawal-bundle voting, plus M5/M6 deposit and withdrawal transactions governed by miner ACKs.
No block-size limit, one company's reference client, and five 51%-attack reorgs in a single year — Bitcoin SV's design record, measured against the 'original protocol' it set out to restore.
A 45 billion cap, Ouroboros proof-of-stake, and governance split across three organizations — Cardano's own design documents, read against the numbers that marked its launch.
No supply cap, a fee burn that can push issuance negative, and a 2022 switch from mining to staking — Ethereum's own design documents, read against Bitcoin's fixed 21 million.
A relay chain coordinating parachains, nominated proof-of-stake, and the 2025 vote that capped a supply that had never had a ceiling -- Polkadot's design, read against Bitcoin's fixed 21 million.
A consensus mechanism built on its own clock, an issuance rate that keeps shrinking without a cap, and a supply that started with a premine to the foundation and its investors.
A fiat-collateralized design that CENTRE's own whitepaper called a trade-off, a reserve that broke the dollar peg for two days in 2023, and a governing consortium later folded into one company.
Ethereum's first CEO, removed in 2014, who built Cardano on the opposite design choices. His verdict on Bitcoin moved from "worth a Turing prize" to "a religion, not an ecosystem".
Internet entrepreneur who founded Circle and launched USDC in 2018. Built the largest regulated dollar stablecoin while publicly arguing that Bitcoin's value is its non-sovereignty.
Twelve chains, compared by what each one's issuance rule decides about the price of a single unit, and what it leaves undecided.
Weighing the 'Blockstream controls Bitcoin' charge against the documentary record: where it comes from, and how each link in the chain holds up.
Bitcoin's 2015–2017 block-size war by phase, faction and turning point: Bitcoin XT, the BIP148 UASF, the New York Agreement, Bitcoin Cash and the cancellation of SegWit2x.
Bitcoin's 'digital gold' status rests on two layers of decentralization — system and people/organization — and six structural features no later cryptocurrency combines to the same degree.
Where Bitcoin's current reality has drifted from Satoshi's design intent: four axes — mining (one-CPU-one-vote to ASIC oligopoly), custody (own keys to exchange IOUs), governance, and scaling.
Why Bitcoin's 2015-2017 fork wars were fights over what Bitcoin is, not OSS disputes: the authority vacuum after 2011, the money riding on rule choices, and three layers binding code to currency.
Mike Hearn and Gavin Andresen released Bitcoin XT 0.11A, a Bitcoin Core fork implementing BIP 101 — 8 MB blocks doubling every two years. The launch opened the public phase of the block-size war.
Bitcoin Cash forked from Bitcoin after block 478558; ViaBTC mined its first block (1.9 MB) at 18:12 UTC. The 8 MB chain without SegWit became the first protocol fork to last as a separate network.
Mike Belshe suspended the SegWit2x hard fork on the mailing list, about a week before the planned 2 MB activation at block 494784. The New York Agreement collapsed without a chain split.
How the 2014 'Bitcoin Core' rebrand changed the language of authority in Bitcoin: the internal disagreement over PR #3408, the 2015-2017 forks, and Hearn's regret in 2025.
Dutch developer (handle laanwj). Built the original bitcoin-qt GUI; succeeded Gavin Andresen as Bitcoin Core lead maintainer (April 2014 - August 2022); gave up his merge privileges in February 2023.
Mike Hearn published The Resolution of the Bitcoin Experiment, declaring Bitcoin had failed due to governance breakdown and the block-size stalemate. He sold all his coins and left the project.
In a CoinGeek interview, Mike Hearn offers rare reflections on Satoshi's personality — observing he enjoyed experimenting but appeared to grow frustrated when evangelical personalities arrived.
The foundational BIP defining the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal process itself, modeled after Python's PEP. Three types: Standards Track, Informational, Process.