Update on Developer Funding

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4 years ago
In communities: Debate: Infrastructure Funding Plan(95df) , Bitcoin Cash by sploit(8cc0)

The new developer funding proposal got off to an interesting start, to say the least! Though the conversation didn’t open up in the most productive way, we’re now having the conversations we need to have.

If anything, the bumpiness over the last few days is all a reminder that these are difficult questions!—how does development get funded on a decentralized currency and what’s the process by which we decide this and make it happen?

We participated in this process because we know that developer funding is an important issue to solve and that a proper funding mechanism will help Bitcoin Cash continue to grow as fast, reliable cash for the world.

Here is a quick update on where things are at Bitcoin.com.

We need more agreement

As it stands now, Bitcoin.com will not go through with supporting any plan unless there is more agreement in the ecosystem such that the risk of a chain split is negligible.

We think it is clear that the existing proposal does not have enough support, and we will be working to come up with a plan that is profitable for all the relevant parties and which preserves the fundamental economics of Bitcoin Cash.

Keep sharing your thoughts online. We read them all.

This is a great opportunity for developers to clarify what they need funding for, and provide the specific budgets and timelines they have for their work.

We think the lack of clarity in this is one of the main drivers of confusion and contention around the various funding proposals.

In venture capital, investors do not find talented technical individuals and hand them money to "do something." Rather, those individuals put together business plans with clear roadmaps, timing estimates and resource requirements that allow the investor to make rational decisions with their money. In business, you do not begin with a pot of money then figure out something to do with it. You begin with an idea of what needs to be done and then allocate funds to achieve it. This makes all parties involved more accountable and more efficient.

Developers in need of funding should put together clear funding proposals soon and publicly before any specific proposal is agreed upon. Likewise, miners and businesses should make clear to developers what they need for Bitcoin Cash to be more valuable for their business. This type of discussion is the only way any funding proposal should begin.

It may be the case that after we have some real concrete numbers to look at, new possibilities for funding open up, or that the community will be more receptive to one of the existing options. 

We reiterate that any funding proposal must be temporary and reversible.

Protocol development in Bitcoin Cash is an important temporary phase to prepare for global adoption and as such, a funding proposal must be temporary. 

A permanent proposal would be in effect a carte blanche on development and would incentivise “development for development’s sake,” which would defeat the purpose of the fundraising and is entirely against what ought to be the goal of the whole Bitcoin Cash ecosystem: to create fast, reliable, digital cash upon a stable, largely unchanging, economically rational Bitcoin protocol.

Remember that the goal is global, fast, reliable digital cash.

No proposal should put this goal at risk.

The reason funding discussions are taking place is because proper funding will strengthen the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem, but it cannot come at the expense of compromising the foundational goals of Bitcoin Cash.

Bitcoin.com will not risk a chain split or a change to the underlying economics. In order to do this, any proposal will need to have as many people of economic weight on-board as possible, including businesses, exchanges, miners, and Bitcoin Cash implementations.

We're excited to continue the discussions.

Bitcoin.com


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Comments

Thanks for considering and listening to all the good counterproposals and necessary warnings of the important actors of the community. I have to say, the "Fellowship of the Dev Fund" Video I made a few days ago seems to be coming even nearer to reality as it already was.

Here's the finalized version of it, for anyone who hasn't watched it: https://streamable.com/0uwc1

Have fun watching and please don't spill your coffee.

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User's avatar Koush
4 years ago

have no idea how happy this rational & sensible assessment makes me. Thank you :-)

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User's avatar AsifSimu
4 years ago

Smart position. Now if the real community can get their opinions out without the massive fake community fooling us all so much we cannot act in the best interests of BCH.

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User's avatar Big-Bubbler
4 years ago

That's how good actors look.

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User's avatar JavierGonzalez
4 years ago

I think it is a great way to connect to the world of crypto. Hopefully this blog will be a great way to stay informed of crypto scams and even possibly be a trusted system to combat the problem.

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User's avatar carpenter-money
4 years ago

have no idea how happy this rational & sensible assessment makes me. Thank you :-)

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User's avatar AsifSimu
4 years ago

You have no idea how happy this rational & sensible assessment makes me. Thank you :-)

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User's avatar DrNums
4 years ago

I agreed that we should come to an approach that works for a long term and gather majority of the consensus, it is important on how to determine the consensus here because so far the miner is the consensus, however the community needs to be heard also. I am quite surprised to see the level of feedback from the community, which is quite positive! Would love to hear how the plan would be. We need to make effort to come up with a consensus plan as this is quite urgent and has been long overdue.

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User's avatar nghiacc
4 years ago

I am very happy to learn Bitcoin.com has heard the community and eager to see how they evolve this into a more beneficial model for everyone without resulting into forcing people or entities to provide value in threat of violent acts.

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User's avatar JZA
4 years ago

Great! If I understand it correctly, I think I like the Bitcoin Verde's stance: Bitcoin Verde will not be implementing any node validation that enforces new coinbase rules. This forces any miner sponsor funding to be either optional or to be enforced at the pool level via Nakamoto Consensus. (https://read.cash/@joshmgreen/bitcoin-verdes-response-to-the-miner-sponsored-development-fund-9c7b56ea)

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User's avatar Big-Bubbler
4 years ago

Exactly this is the reason why i love this community, problems are discussed and not censored.

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User's avatar tarnschaf
4 years ago

"the goal of the whole Bitcoin Cash ecosystem: to create fast, reliable, digital cash upon a stable, largely unchanging, economically rational Bitcoin protocol."

^ yes, indeed.

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User's avatar PeterRizun
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4 years ago

And being a free rider on the work of infraestructure developement is in any libertarian spirit? You can't steal other's people money, but can steal other's people work? Come on!

Taking money from someone who doesn't use a service is not libertarian. But taking money form one who uses a service is legit comerce. If you take it, just pay it. If you don't want to pay, don't take it.

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User's avatar Moeb
4 years ago

And being a free rider on the work of infraestructure developement is in any libertarian spirit? You can't steal other's people money, but can steal other's people work?

You can't be a libertarian and claim that someone is stealing your work by running it without paying you. Stealing implies taking someone's property, running a program doesn't preclude others from running the same program so there is no point in considering programs as someone's property. Copyright and patents exist because of states. Am I stealing from Linus Torvalds because I've never donated to him?

But taking money form one who uses a service is legit commerce. If you take it, just pay it.

Only if there is an implicit or explicit contract that they agreed to. Eg. going into a restaurant means you agree to an implicit contract to pay for what you eat afterwards. While renting a house means you agree to an explicit contract to pay for rent every month.

There is no implicit contract (let alone explicit) that you will pay for running open source software or participating in a P2P network.

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User's avatar ZeusOnPills
4 years ago

"We think the lack of clarity in this is one of the main drivers of confusion and contention around the various funding proposals."

No, the clarity wasn't the biggest issue. The biggest issue was an introduction of a very high tax, and threatening the miners who didn't want to pay that tax, and that the collected money was supposed to be managed by some unknown HK or Chinese company.

That's not in the libertarian spirit of Bitcoin. Taking money from someone who doesn't want the service is criminal.

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User's avatar oooo
4 years ago

Taking money from someone who doesn't want the service is criminal.

It should be illegal. But there are many cases where this is being done.. legally. In most cases it's state-supported or states themselves and most of the time it's "for the greater good".

An example is forcing every german household to pay a fee (€10 or so per month) that goes to certain TV channels for "providing independent reporting" (wether or not you consume this content is irrelevant, you pay the fee). Turns out what it's really used for is production of propaganda and soap operas.

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User's avatar molecular
4 years ago

Sad day for BCH!

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User's avatar Nicknameul
4 years ago

Mentioned this on Patterson's post as well, but I think this hits it too.

Perhaps what BCH dev teams need is a Product Manager.

Someone to understand the needs of the end users (miners, biz, etc.) of their work, who can help translate that into a roadmap and keep engineering efforts accountable to some outcomes, timelines, budgets, etc.

It's a crucial bridge between engineering and investors/marketers/customers in any viable tech enterprise.

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User's avatar isaacmorehouse
4 years ago

Thank you for valuing community cohesion and being open minded.

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User's avatar J-Stodd
4 years ago

Very Nice App

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User's avatar AsifSimu
4 years ago

Great update! Happy to see Bitcoin.com taking this stance. The one thing we can all agree on is that developers should be funded well. It's the "who?" and the "how?" that need to be nailed down with widespread community agreement. The last thing in the world we need is a split as that would be a net negative.

I think only a decentralized funding mechanism can work-- no central parties can exist. This means token holder voting on exact proposals to fund exact developers for exact periods of time.

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User's avatar ColinTalksCrypto
4 years ago

Hola! I translated your article to share with Spanish Community. Thanks

https://read.cash/@CryptoSpanish/actualizacion-del-financiamiento-para-el-desarrollo-24ad9e3f

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User's avatar CryptoSpanish
4 years ago

I feel very happy because I see that Bitcoin.com reflects on the initiative. Both projects and BCHouse that are physical offices for public attention need help to develop their work as independent developers or do not need security to work

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User's avatar BCHouseVE
4 years ago

This reflects pretty well what I think. Thank you for being a voice of reason.

This part stands out:

This is a great opportunity for developers to clarify what they need funding for, and provide the specific budgets and timelines they have for their work.

They should also provide a way to make donations that can actually be used by the projects, btw. Being told one's donation cannot be used due to lack of formalities like kyc/aml is just about the worst outcome a donation can have.

Once this is done I'm sure the whales, turtles and fish will throw money. I know I will... sure beats selling for ETH or even BTC, which I started doing rather substantially.

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User's avatar molecular
4 years ago
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