Prominent Bitcoin Developer Declares the Digital Currency a Failure

Discussion in 'Crypto Assets' started by JamesL, Jan 15, 2016.

  1. JamesL

    JamesL

    Infighting, politics, and technological challenges have rendered Bitcoin a failed experiment, says the developer

    One of digital currency Bitcoin’s long-time supporters and developers has decided to walk away from it. His reason: Bitcoin has failed.

    Mike Hearn, devoted long-time Bitcoin enthusiast who eventually quit a job at Google to work on Bitcoin’s technology full-time, wrote a long blog post on Medium on Wednesday outline why he’s lost faith in it. “The fundamentals are broken and whatever happens to the price in the short term, the long term trend should probably be downwards. I will no longer be taking part in Bitcoin development and have sold all my coins,” he said.

    Hearn offers a detailed and lengthy explanation of his gripes with Bitcoin and its community, but they really boil down to internal politics. Sure, the technology has some shortcomings that have in turn caused problems for users, but infighting and politics have also prevented these issues from being resolved.

    Most of the disagreements are around whether a key piece of Bitcoin’s technology should be adjusted so that it can support more transactions (remember, Bitcoin is a network that processes transactions between computers, which is how Bitcoin is made and traded). The Bitcoin community has essentially been split between those in favor of increasing this limit and those opposed to it.

    Hearn is part of the camp in favor. He even helped build an alternate but compatible version of Bitcoin’s software called Bitcoin XT that lets developers “cast a vote” in favor of raising the limit by using Bitcoin XT instead of the original. Unfortunately, Bitcoin XT has faced a lot of critics and opposition from the get-go, which has further alienated Hearn. He says he has now sold all his Bitcoin and is walking away from it all.

    This article originally appeared on Fortune.com
     
  2. sprstpd

    sprstpd

    Bitcoin has first mover advantage. Unless something else pops up, is clearly superior, and gets mass adoption, then Bitcoin is not going away anytime soon. Hopefully the Bitcoin community can agree to resolve most of these issues over time.
     
  3. mike hearn-

    R3 is his new employer and a conglomerate of 40 banks researching blockchain

    "bitcoin's broke, but our solution won't be, come to us!"

    Thanks Mike and Bankers




    Bitcoin has been declared "dead" over 80 times and this won't be the last.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2016
  4. Sounds like a few or more Bitcoin owners got burned in either bad exchanges, or a bubble. But I think/hope that the idea of digital cash keeps moving ahead. Complete privacy should be everyone's right.
     
  5. Pekelo

    Pekelo

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