Gavin Andresen: On the Blocksize and Bitcoin’s Governance

As the debate about the blocksize continues to roar through the Bitcoin community, Gavin Andresen joins us to take a step back and ask the big questions: How should these decisions be made in the first place? What does the governance of Bitcoin look like now and what do we want it to look like in the future?

In a challenging time for Bitcoin, it’s a critical discussion to have with the Chief Scientist of the Bitcoin Foundation and successor of Satoshi. We cover everything from the current blocksize debate to the nature of forks to how decisions will be made in Bitcoin XT.

Topics covered in this episode:

• MIT Digital Currency Initiative
• The way Gavin thinks about Bitcoin
• How were decisions made throughout Bitcoin’s history
• What the Nakamoto/market consensus is
• Forking the software vs a fork of the blockchain
• Who should make decisions in Bitcoin and how the interest of different stakeholders should be reconciled
• Why the desirable state is to move towards many different implementations
• How decisions will be made for the Bitcoin XT code base

Episode links:

• Eli Durado: How should Bitcoin be governed?
• Arvind Narayanan: Bitcoin faces a crossroads, needs an effective decision-making process
• Matt Asay: Why you should fork your next open-source project
• Robles & Gonzalez-Barahona, A comprehensive study of software forks
• Chinese Mining Pools Call for Consensus; Refuse Switch to Bitcoin XT
• Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies - Chapter 7: Community, Politics, and Regulation
• BIP 100 Proposal

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/094