Heated debates over bitcoin vision have been going on since the launch of Bitcoin XT.
Bitcoin community has recently found itself at the cross-roads. Stumbling block is recent launch of Bitcoin XT. Bitcoin followers seem to choose one side now: either traditional Bitcoin Core, invented and successfully released by Satoshi Nakamoto, or its slightly-modified version Bitcoin XT.
Satoshi gave people what they wanted – a possibility to make transactions with each other via blockchain, a ledge that overstepped the limits of bitcoin business long ago. He presented his plan about digital currency that can change the way we see financial system several years ago and this plan did change lives of many people.
The whole society appeared ready to follow. New companies have been started, more and more people have got involved. Satoshi’s vision seemed to satisfy everyone. The situation changed on August 15, when a full release of Bitcoin XT became available.
It was quite natural to expect some changes in bitcoin plan. Everything is moving forward and it’s necessary to keep up with pace of time to remain up-to-date. The changes is something that arises questions.
So those uncomfortable with Satoshi’s ideas offer improvements that are hardly to faithful bitcoin followers’ taste – networks of payment routing hubs, sharp rises in fees, ending support for mobile P2P wallets, giving up on unconfirmed transactions, and many other things that were never stipulated in project’s founding documents.
Generally speaking we are all able to think for ourselves and if someone wants to try a new version, no thoughts like “we should always stand by the initial bitcoin vision” can stop him.
.@twobitidiot someone mentioned hypothetical: if you lost your Bitcoins as a result of Gavin network split – would you hold him accountable?
— Adam Back (@adam3us) August 17, 2015
Supporters insist – current bitcoin has already its society, companies, followers. There is a network of exchanges, ATM’s and wallets all over the world which – and that’s very crucial – works well. So why some group of people think that it’s clever “to forcibly divert Bitcoin from its intended path and onto a wildly different technical trajectory”?
Satoshi writes in this regard: “If two developers can fork Bitcoin and succeed in redefining what ‘Bitcoin’ is, in the face of widespread technical criticism and through the use of populist tactics, then I will have no choice but to declare Bitcoin a failed project. Bitcoin was meant to be both technically and socially robust. This present situation has been very disappointing to watch unfold.”
There is a passionate debate about bitcoin block size. It was limited to one megabyte by Satoshi and was intended to remain the same even despite of SPV (Simplified Payment Verification) wallets appearance. It is always incorrect to take one side without proper study of the other one. You can learn about bitcoin new version straight from the first hand.
Gavin Andresen, one of the Bitcoin XT’s developers, counters all attacks in his blog post. The fact that Bitcoin XT arises so many debates indicates at least one thing: it is worth talking about. Whether Bitcoin Core or its up-to-date modification will find more supporters? Will see!
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