Bitcoin AMA Recap: Gavin Andresen and Jeremy Allaire
The largest AMA event in Bitcoin history started a little while ago, and some great questions were asked. Both Gavin Andresen — Bitcoin Geek and Bitcoin Core developer — and Jeremy Allaire — CEO of Circle — took their time to answer any and all questions coming their way. We have listed some of the most interesting questions and answers below.
Also read: Bitcoin’s Security in the Internet of Things
Gavin Andresen: “No, I’m not him [Satoshi Nakamoto].”
One of the more obvious questions would be whether or not Gavin Andresen knows who Satoshi Nakamoto is, or whether he and Satoshi are one and the same. It became crystal clear this is not the case, although that doesn’t diminish Gavin’s passion for Bitcoin in the slightest. However, that doesn’t mean Bitcoin’s technology will be interesting enough in x amount of years from now.
“Eventually the technology behind Bitcoin will stop being interesting to me– and that’s when I’ll wander off and try to find something else to keep me busy.That might surprise some people– after all, if I believe that Bitcoin will have a positive impact on the world, why not work on it forever? I’ll feel comfortable stepping away because Bitcoin gets the incentives right– there are lots of people with strong incentives to see Bitcoin succeed, and any one person’s ability to help make Bitcoin succeed becomes smaller and smaller over time.”
Bitcoin could benefit from various technological innovations, but bringing these features to this popular digital currency is a different matter altogether. When asked which feature Gavin would love to bring to Bitcoin, assuming it can be done bug-free and without impacting performance, he answered “better transaction privacy.” Quite an interesting choice, which will undoubtedly spur many future discussions.
On the topic of how we need to push Bitcoin adoption over the next few years:
“How will an ordinary person, going about their everyday business of living their life, obtain some bitcoin? Or what will motivate them to go out of their way to get some? I don’t know the answer, but until there IS an answer I think pushing more merchant adoption for brick & mortar merchants will be mostly a waste of time (there’s a better case to be made for online merchants who want to sell their products to a worldwide audience).”
All in all, there were a ton of interesting questions being asked, and it is well worth your time to check out the Gavin Andresen AMA thread on the Bitcoin.com forum. It is positive to see the general success of this AMA event so far, even though this was just the first of many days.
Jeremy Allaire: “Most Financial Industry Types Don’t Want To Use The Word Bitcoin.”
Even companies like Circle find themselves talking to major ecosystem players at regular intervals. Keeping in mind there is an ongoing debate regarding Bitcoin and the block size issue, these discussions are of great importance to all companies active in the digital currency ecosystem. Jeremy Allaire stated it as follows:
“I think companies and projects that have built on the bitcoin network would really like to see these issues addressed. We’ve publicly said we think that the BIP 101 proposal is a reasonable solution, though we’d be happy to see another consensus proposal emerge soon. The bigger issue is what this lack of results represents, which is a complete breakdown in the ability of the ecosystem and development community to meaningfully iterate on and improve bitcoin, and highlights the weakness of not having a more formal standards process for the evolution of this platform.”
Most of the questions asked revolved around Circle and how the company is positioning itself towards customers. With all of the regulatory requirements to take into account, Circle recently defaulted their online wallets to USD balance, rather than denominating it in Bitcoin. Some people feel the company wants to “distance itself from Bitcoin,” although this is just a way of creating a consumer payment app to make storing and using money easier.
On the topic of the newly formed Blockchain Alliance, Jeremy Allaire stated:
“I think a lot of the reaction to this org being formed were / are overblown, implying some kind of secret operating relationships, or sharing customer records, and a lot of other crazy stuff. My understanding is that every quarter or so compliance and risk staff from companies can meet with law enforcement counterparts to share what they are learning.”
Make sure to read through the entire thread on the Bitcoin.com forum to see what else you have missed out on. A lot more questions were asked regarding various topics, and all of them were answered by Jeremy Allaire. All in all, the first day of this Bitcoin AMA event has been eventful, and there is much more to come!
Coming Soon: Juan Garavaglia, Ben Davenport and Bruce Fenton
By the time you are reading this article, Wences Casares, Oron Barber, and Kristov Atlas will have been answering dozens of questions on the Bitcoin.com forum. To keep the show trucking along, there will be three more prominent names making appearances over the next two days. Up first, Juan Garavaglia — CEO of RootStock.io — will be gladly waiting for any questions our amazing Bitcoin community might have.
On November 5th, there will be a double header, as both Ben Davenport and Bruce Fenton will partake in this Bitcoin AMA event. BitGo has been the frontrunner regarding Bitcoin security, and it will be interesting to see what kind of questions Ben Davenport will be facing during his AMA slot on the Bitcoin.com forum.
The name Bruce Fenton will need no further introduction; this person is known well by the entire Bitcoin community. 2015 has been a slightly turbulent year for the Bitcoin Foundation, and you can rest assured Bruce Fenton will have a thing or two to say about that, assuming is brave enough to ask the right questions.
Who are you looking forward to over the next few days? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: Bitcoin.com Forum
Images courtesy of Bitcoin.com, Gavin Andresen, Jeremy Allaire
