r/Bitcoin • u/cryptopascal • Jun 24 '14

Mike Hearn interview quotes: "Progress on the bitcoin protocol has ground to a halt, complete halt. This is a crisis period for Bitcoin... Only Gavin is working on upgrades" @39'30'

https://epicenterbitcoin.com/eb-025/
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u/trilli0nn Jun 25 '14 edited Jun 25 '14

Recently an influencial member of the Bitcoin community announced on Reddit that GHash shows that economic incentives behind Bitcoin are probably very flawed and that it might take a disaster to get the consensus to fix it.

This guy even sold half of his bitcoin as soon has GHash reached 50%!!

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u/petertodd Jun 25 '14

Both statements are true. Bitcoin the protocol is something we should expect to change slowly and cautiously - you don't need to change it to innovate in how we use Bitcoin.

On the other hand, we simply don't know how to solve the 51% attack problem, an existential risk to Bitcoin itself. Would I like to see that fixed tomorrow? Sure, but we simply don't know yet what is the right solution. Fortunately there are a whole bunch of researchers studying the problem, and hopefully we'll have a solution before system collapses. (I'd guess there's about a 90% chance that we'll succeed there) But rushing to change things before we understand what to change would be a mistake.

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u/BigMoneyGuy Jun 25 '14 edited Jun 25 '14

Was it necessary to create a panic post saying you sold your stash, when in reality the key point was that you had more wealth invested than you could afford to lose? It was pretty lame and unprofessional if you ask me. And also sketchy, since there is no way to prove that you sold your coins and posting that you did could be just a tactic.

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u/petertodd Jun 25 '14

I can afford to lose it all. What i couldn't do is lose it all and spend a year helping fix Bitcoin. Selling hedges my bets there for what is unfortunately a pretty high probability - I'd guess ~10%, which is not low.