Frank Schuil is a Dutch entrepreneur living in Sweden, and the CEO and co-founder of bitcoin exchange service Safello.
In this opinion piece, Schuil argues that the identity of bitcoin’s creator could have a great impact not only on the technology, but potentially the future of the world’s economy. Lots has been said (and even more has been speculated ) following Craig Wright’s claim that he is bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
At the time of writing, the community seems to have embraced the idea this unveiling was an elaborate hoax, despite his early involvement and relevant background.
While some will continue the search for Satoshi Nakamoto, it is good to gain an understanding of why it matters who he, she or they might be. Satoshi’s role in development
After a period of active involvement in the development of the bitcoin protocol, Satoshi handed over the scepter to former Bitcoin Core maintainer Gavin Andresen at the end of 2010.
Gavin then handed the keys to the kingdom over to Wladimir van der Laan, who now serves in this position. Since then the development roadmap has been managed with two degrees of separation between the current team and its inventor.
Further, after Wright failed to provide conclusive proof he was Satoshi Nakamoto, Gavin’s judgement – he defended Craig – was put into question and his commit access was revoked. As a result, there now exists an even bigger gap between the inventor and the development of the protocol.
So why does this matter? Open-source software is exactly that – open source. Anyone can make a copy of the bitcoin blockchain and start their own version of it, like has been done by Bitcoin Classic , Bitcoin XT and Bitcoin Unlimited .However, the original version of the protocol, Bitcoin Core, and the developer group supporting it, […]
