<oembed><type>rich</type><version>1.0</version><author_name>npub1rv5ajnhgrc0wq3ulrk6tcjkgsaq8h4rs5rtsvrnklz4j0lw40egqphc5wt</author_name><author_url>https://nostr.ae/npub1rv5ajnhgrc0wq3ulrk6tcjkgsaq8h4rs5rtsvrnklz4j0lw40egqphc5wt</author_url><provider_name>njump</provider_name><provider_url>https://nostr.ae</provider_url><html>📅 Original date posted:2015-06-24&#xA;📝 Original message:I&#39;m sorry but that is the kind of defensive, cultish response everyone &#xA;gets when they ask that question.  If you had a well constructed &#xA;documented process then you would be able to point to it ... but you &#xA;can&#39;t.  While there are a few bits and pieces scattered  about in &#xA;different places there is no coherent plan or process.&#xA;&#xA;It is easy to make statements like &#34;consensus must be unanimous&#34; but the &#xA;issue is that you never have true 100% consensus yet you have to move &#xA;forward in some fashion and everyone has to run software with the same &#xA;consensus rules.  The issue is how you move forward is the question that &#xA;nobody wants to answer because (a) it is a hard question to answer and &#xA;(b) developers see it as a threat to their authority/position.  If &#xA;people just keep shutting down the discussion with a bunch of cultish &#xA;stock answers then you are never going to move forward with developing &#xA;some kind of process.&#xA;&#xA; From what I can see much of the discussion is personality-driven and &#xA;not based on Computer Science or and defined process.  The issue is that &#xA;a personality has changed so the process is perceived to be different &#xA;and some people want to hard fork. Previously, the cultish answer is &#xA;that Bitcoin development is decentralized because people can fork the &#xA;code.  Now that some developers want to fork the code suddenly it is a &#xA;big problem. Is forking the code part of the consensus process or is it &#xA;the work of the devil?   The fact that there is so much diverse opinion &#xA;on this shows a defined process has never been fully vetted or understood.&#xA;&#xA;I have worked on these processes for many years for projects orders of &#xA;magnitudes larger than Bitcoin.  I can absolutely assure you the current &#xA;mishmash does not scale and huge amounts of time are wasted.  That &#xA;should be readily apparent from the recent discussions and the recent &#xA;concern it has caused from people outside the developer&#39;s inner circle.&#xA;&#xA;Lack of defined process = high risk and wasted effort.&#xA;&#xA;Russ&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;On 6/24/2015 9:50 PM, Mark Friedenbach wrote:&#xA;&gt; I&#39;m sorry but this is absolutely not the case, Milly. The reason that &#xA;&gt; people get defensive is that we have a carefully constructed process &#xA;&gt; that does work (thank you very much!) and is well documented. We talk &#xA;&gt; about it quite often in fact as it is a defining characteristic of how &#xA;&gt; bitcoin is developed which differs in some ways from how other open &#xA;&gt; source software is developed -- although it remains the same in most &#xA;&gt; other ways.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Changes to the non-consensus sections of Bitcoin Core tend to get &#xA;&gt; merged when there are a few reviews, tests, and ACKs from recognized &#xA;&gt; developers, there are no outstanding objections, and the maintainer &#xA;&gt; doing the merge makes a subjective judgement that the code is ready.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Consensus-changes, on the other hand, get merged into Bitcoin Core &#xA;&gt; only after the above criteria are met AND an extremely long discussion &#xA;&gt; period that has given all the relevant stakeholders a chance to &#xA;&gt; comment, and no significant objections remain. Consensus-code changes &#xA;&gt; are unanimous. They must be.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; The sort of process that exists in standards bodies for example, with &#xA;&gt; working groups and formal voting procedures, has no place where &#xA;&gt; changes define the nature and validity of other people&#39;s money. Who &#xA;&gt; has the right to reach into your pocket and define how you can or &#xA;&gt; cannot spend your coins? The premise of bitcoin is that no one has &#xA;&gt; that right, yet that is very much what we do when consensus code &#xA;&gt; changes are made. That is why when we make a change to the rules &#xA;&gt; governing the nature of bitcoin, we must make sure that everyone is &#xA;&gt; made aware of the change and consents to it.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Everyone. Does this work? Does this scale? So far, it does. &#xA;&gt; Uncontroversial changes, such as BIP 66, are deployed without issue. &#xA;&gt; Every indication is that BIP 66 will complete deployment in the very &#xA;&gt; near future, and we intend to repeat this process for more interesting &#xA;&gt; changes such as BIP65: CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; This isn&#39;t about no one stepping forward to be the &#34;decider.&#34; This is &#xA;&gt; about no one having the right to decide these things on the behalf of &#xA;&gt; others. If a contentious change is proposed and not accepted by the &#xA;&gt; process of consensus, that is because the process is doing its job at &#xA;&gt; rejecting controversial changes. It has nothing to do with &#xA;&gt; personality, and everything to do with the nature of bitcoin itself.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 5:07 PM, Milly Bitcoin &lt;milly at bitcoins.info &#xA;&gt; &lt;mailto:milly at bitcoins.info&gt;&gt; wrote:&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;     I have seen this question asked many times.  Most developers&#xA;&gt;     become defensive and they usually give a very vague 1-sentence&#xA;&gt;     answer when this question is asked.  It seems to be it is based on&#xA;&gt;     personalities rather than any kind of definable process.  To have&#xA;&gt;     that discussion the personalities must be separated out and&#xA;&gt;     answers like &#34;such-and-such wouldn&#39;t do that&#34; don&#39;t really do much&#xA;&gt;     to advance the discussion.  Also, the incentive for new developers&#xA;&gt;     to come in is that they will be paid by companies who want to&#xA;&gt;     influence the code and this should be considered (some developers&#xA;&gt;     take this statement as an insult when it is just a statement of&#xA;&gt;     the incentive process).&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;     The other problem you are having is the lead developer does not&#xA;&gt;     want to be a &#34;decider&#34; when, in fact, he is a very significant&#xA;&gt;     decider.  While the users have the ultimate choice in a practical&#xA;&gt;     sense the chief developer is the &#34;decider.&#34;  Now people don&#39;t want&#xA;&gt;     to get him upset so nobody wants to push the issue or fully define&#xA;&gt;     the process. Now you are left with a broken, unwritten/unspoken&#xA;&gt;     process.  While this type of thing may work with a small group of&#xA;&gt;     developers businesses/investors looking in from the outside will&#xA;&gt;     see this as a risk.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;     Until you get passed all the personality-based arguments you are&#xA;&gt;     going to have a tough time defining a real process.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;     Russ&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;     On 6/24/2015 7:41 PM, Raystonn wrote:&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;         I would like to start a civil discussion on an undefined, or&#xA;&gt;         at least unwritten, portion of the BIP process.  Who should&#xA;&gt;         get to vote on approval to commit a BIP implementation into&#xA;&gt;         Bitcoin Core?  Is a simple majority of these voters sufficient&#xA;&gt;         for approval?  If not, then what is?&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;         Raystonn&#xA;&gt;         _______________________________________________&#xA;&gt;         bitcoin-dev mailing list&#xA;&gt;         bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&#xA;&gt;         &lt;mailto:bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&gt;&#xA;&gt;         https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;     _______________________________________________&#xA;&gt;     bitcoin-dev mailing list&#xA;&gt;     bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&#xA;&gt;     &lt;mailto:bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&gt;&#xA;&gt;     https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&#xA;-------------- next part --------------&#xA;An HTML attachment was scrubbed...&#xA;URL: &lt;http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/attachments/20150624/a0c7ba21/attachment-0001.html&gt;</html></oembed>