Bitcoin Foundation Launches to ‘Standardize, Protect and Promote’ Bitcoin

[kiba]

Of course, the Linux Foundation is about promoting an operating system that has been largely marginalized

Bollocks. Linux has not been marginalized. It is dominating the server market, embedded devices, and smartphones in the form of android.

whereas the Bitcoin Foundation will work to promote a cryptocurrency sometimes used for blackmarket activity.

Haven't you heard? The dollars are used for black market activities too.

[javert]

I just want to clarify that kiba is criticizing the betabeat article, not the bitcoin devs.

Given that some core Bitcoin devs are also Linux kernel devs, they would not make the big mistake of saying that Linux is marginalized.

[tokenadult]

A while ago I wrote that perhaps the greatest contribution the Bitcoin experiment will make to humankind is to teach you and me and our neighbors more about the realities of economics. And now I will add that the Bitcoin experiment will also contribute to greater understanding of how nonprofit industry associations are organized to protect the economic interests of for-profit businesses. A lot of new industries have discovered that a few bad actors who screw up early can damage the reputation of the entire industry, and there are many previous examples of "competing" companies in a new industry banding together to promote consumer protection, as they say, and to promote the growth of their market. We'll see how this goes for Bitcoin.

[andrewljohnson]

"A lot of new industries have discovered that a few bad actors who screw up early can damage the reputation of the entire industry"

Please cite some examples. I can't come up with any, and this is intuitively false to me. Productive industries steamroll over bad actors and indiscretion. Railroads, gold-mining, and arguably social gaming were propelled by bad actors.

[volts]

I think an encrypted currency base managed only by computers and the market is fairer than a system run by a few men. Also I like privacy.

[wmf]

I think it could be fairer or it could be a way to get stuck with a broken monetary policy forever.

[olalonde]

Here's a list of all the anonymous donations they have received so far (doesn't include membership donations): http://blockexplorer.com/address/1BTCorgHwCg6u2YSAWKgS17qUad... (currently 26.5 BTC)

[vessenes]

I hope we'll be publishing first-day membership numbers as well. My goal is to publish all our public keys. How cool would that be? Total financial transparency.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

Here's their website:

https://www.bitcoinfoundation.org/

[runeks]

Looks down from here :( (and here: http://www.isup.me/www.bitcoinfoundation.org)

[jboggan]

Ah, the long-storied September announcement. Pretty good idea overall. I'd be happiest seeing a set of security best-practices agreed upon and some sort of mechanism for organizations and businesses to elect for auditing.

[vessenes]

Totally agreed; this and paying Gavin were my two main motivations upfront.

I really desire bitcointalk'ers to have some objective way to assess business quality when they consider how many percent per week return is a reasonable no-risk promise.