Concerned with questions about decisions on how the network is run, who is in control, and how the development process is governed.
Questions tagged [governance]
37 questions
21
votes
7 answers
Is there a list of core Bitcoin committers?
Where can I find a list of people that can commit directly to the github project?
ripper234
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13
votes
3 answers
How is a hard fork resolved?
In March 2013 there was a fork following the v0.8 release. The issue was resolved rather efficiently, as explained in the post-mortem report. However in this process there were winners and losers: the miners building on the v0.8 chain had to give up…
Manish
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12
votes
4 answers
Who controls the Bitcoin software?
Is there anything comparable to a "board of directors" for Bitcoin or is the software on complete cruise-control?
Dale
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11
votes
3 answers
Do "the official bitcoin developers" control Bitcoin?
Is there one person or organization that controls Bitcoin?
What if Gavin Andresen, the lead developer, or Bitcoin Foundation, "the official bitcoin organization", decide to change something? What if they release a new version of the software that…
ripper234
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10
votes
3 answers
Is it possible for the miners to collude to blackmail a single wealthy address?
Imagine if a few miners who together control more than 50% of the network hash power decided to charge higher transaction fees just for addresses containing really large sums.
For example, this address here has 69,471.08443061…
Manish
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10
votes
2 answers
Can miners reject transactions from an address?
It is alleged that the stolen Bitstamp coins are in this address. In theory, could miners agree to reject all transactions from this address? And if so, would all miners need to agree or just more than half?
Dmitrii I.
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9
votes
3 answers
How is Bitcoin governed by mathematics?
I keep hearing talks from Bitcoin evangelists that claim Bitcoin isn't governed by any central authority, rather it's governed by mathematics.
What exactly do they mean when they say "governed by mathematics"?
That the network is secure by means…
lolololol ol
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7
votes
1 answer
Is it technically feasible to "shun" particular bitcoin wallets?
Bitcoin is supposed to be an apolitical currency, but the United States reportedly gained some leverage by amassing over 27,000 bitcoins — and counting. (People seem to be jumping at the possibility of turning bitcoin into the ultimate unmoderated…
badp
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6
votes
2 answers
How do we know that the algorithm of Bitcoin does not embed bugs since inception?
I'm new to Bitcoin. My understanding as a trained economist (and not a programmer or IT expert) is that the key selling point of Bitcoin is the assignment of monetary policy prerogatives to an algorithm distributed across a P2P network. What this…
user114618
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5
votes
1 answer
How do devs decide who should have commit access? what is the process?
Andrew Chow (2020) compiled a great list on when people gained/lost commit access to Bitcoin Core.
Satoshi asked Andresen to take over as Lead Maintainer, and Andresen passed the responsibility to Van Der Laan. The Lead Maintainer appears to be…
Aman Saggu
- 567
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5
votes
1 answer
What can a person do with special private keys?
The Alert message in the Standard Client will only be displayed if it is signed with a correct ECDSA private key. Should anyone get that private key, they would be able to propagate any alert through the Bitcoin network, possibly causing some…
ThePiachu
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4
votes
2 answers
Who really controls Bitcoin?
Surely if there was a major bug discovered in the Bitcoin architecture, there is someone who would have the power to push an update and fix it.
Then I assume that they could also make changes for malicious purposes.
Who has the power to make changes…
Gimme the 411
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4
votes
2 answers
How does bitcoin make profit?
I am wondering how the Bitcoin program makes profit if there are no advertisements or taxes? How do the owners make money off of this?
Griffin Harris
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4
votes
2 answers
How does miner voting work?
I always here people talk about miners being able to "vote" on certain things using the block chain. So here are my questions:
1) who gets to ask the questions?
2) what type of questions are being asked?
3) do they "vote" by selectively solving one…
floam412
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3
votes
3 answers
What is "consensus"?
I’m really struggling to get my head around a particular piece of lingo in the bitcoin/blockchain space, and would really appreciate if someone was able to give a bit of clarity. I have been doing a lot of reading trying to figure this out, but the…
timhc22
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