Mike Hearn: Bitcoin’s “Young, Unripened Democracy” Suffers Under Authoritarian Developers
Long one of the most important developers in Bitcoin, Mike Hearn rewrote much of Satoshi Nakamoto’s code. Hearn also openly theorized about what the technology’s potential and future uses could be. In a much-publicized decision, Hearn divorced Bitcoin last fall, causing high drama in the Bitcoin community. He had been pondering how the cryptocurrency could lend itself to more users, and grew discontent with the Bitcoin community’s inability to adapt. Hearn Divorces Bitcoin. A Medium post he wrote, highlighting his thoughts and his intentions to separate from the first digital currency and....
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On January 15, 2016, Mike Hearn officially resigned as a full time Bitcoin core developer. Over the past five years, Hearn dedicated himself in contributing to the Bitcoin network and community, writing software that is now used by millions of users and hundreds of developers worldwide. Hearn designed JAVA implementation and libraries, which are now heavily used by many mobile wallets and services in the industry. Regardless of his significant contributions, Hearn ultimately decided to leave the community because of his strong belief that Bitcoin – as a technology – has failed. The....
Former Bitcoin Core developer and current R3 employee, Mike Hearn, has claimed that Blockstream – a blockchain-based startup comprised by a group of Bitcoin core developers is the source of the refusal behind Bitcoin’s block size increase. He also cites that Bitcoin’s “leader” is Blockstream co-founder and CTO, Gregory Maxwelll. In a post made on a public forum today, Hearn directly asserts that Blockstream co-founder and CTO Gregory Maxwell – also a Bitcoin Core developer – is the reason for the refusal to “bump” Bitcoin’s block size. Beyond the revelation, Hearn directly calls Maxwell a....
Reaching consensus can be difficult, and that’s something Mike Hearn wanted to tell the world on January 14th. In a Medium post, he calls “The resolution of the Bitcoin experiment” long-time Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn has left the industry. The statement that is quite long goes into a very detailed testimony to why he’s left and that he sold all his bitcoins. Mike Hearn former Google engineer and the first person to implement Bitcoin in Java, lead developer of the controversial XT fork, and a person whose software he’s “written has been used by millions of users” is all done with the....
Back in May, Olivier Janssens posted a bounty for software that would replace the Bitcoin Foundation. Lighthouse, led by Mike Hearn, was awarded the $90,000 bounty on Wednesday. Lighthouse is a crowdfunding platform designed by Bitcoin core developer Mike Hearn. It runs over the blockchain. Think of Kickstarter, but decentralized and funded by Bitcoin. Hearn hopes it will be used to fund the Bitcoin developers directly. It could be used to spur Bitcoin adoption elsewhere, by launching a campaign to sponsor ATMs in Africa, for example, Janssens said. Funding the salaries of core Bitcoin....
Acclaimed bitcoinj developer Mike Hearn has expressed his concerns over the apparent lack of progress in the development of the bitcoin protocol. In an audio interview with Epicenter Bitcoin, Hearn indicated that there are simply no incentives for developers to spend time and effort on basic development, and that the bitcoin protocol is already suffering as a result: "I've been very worried for a long time that the core bitcoin system is radically underfunded and underdeveloped from where it needs to be." Because developers are not incentivised, he argued, they simply don't tend to tackle....