Gavin Andresen is not willing to kill Bitcoin

     The Bitcoin network has been operating in a decentralized manner since its inception, which may be one of the reasons why it has become an attractive industry. However, the network system still has security risks, and some form of management or supervision may be needed to improve it.

     For Gavin Andresen, one of the leading developers of Bitcoin, there is a difference between management and governance in the field of virtual currencies. Andresen pointed out in his Bitcoin Center podcast that although Bitcoin is still only used by a very small number of people, Bitcoin shareholders include companies, mining companies, card service providers and ordinary users.

Bitcoin governance

     “When I say management, I don’t mean governance. We are managed by all kinds of institutions,” Andresed clarified to hosts Brian Fabian Crain and Sebastien Couture on the podcast. “We are regulated by governments, we are governed by the laws of physics, we are governed by social rules. There are countless things that influence our behavior.”

     This reminds me that the Bitcoin network recently encountered a difficult problem: two different versions of the software were running on the same device. This is done to give the network the ability to automatically select the supported version - Bitcoin Core or Bitcoin XT - and to help solve the block size problem, increasing the limit range based on the current 1 MB limit.

     Many believe that increasing the block size limit will enable the network to complete more transactions in a shorter period of time, but this conclusion may have a negative impact on other members of the Bitcoin community, so the decision has been stalled.

     Other developers have called for a more organized decision-making body within the Bitcoin community, with some even writing open letters advocating for consensus.

     “I don’t think it’s going to have a big impact on Bitcoin if this doesn’t work out, because at the end of the day, people want to see Bitcoin thrive,” Andresen said on the podcast. “I don’t think any of us … want to be the high priests of Bitcoin. We need to figure out new ways of governing, new ways of making decisions, and make everybody feel good about the process and the decisions that were made.”