The Bitcoin Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation.It was founded in September 2012 with the stated mission to "standardize, protect and promote the use of bitcoin cryptographic money for the benefit of users worldwide."[1]The organization was modeled on the Linux Foundation and is funded mainly through grants made by for-profit companies that depend on the bitcoin technology.[2]In March 2014, the Foundation hired Jim Harper of the Cato Institute as Global Policy Counsel and Amy Weiss of Weiss Public Affairs as a media consultant.[3]Contents 1 2 3 4 5 6 According to its founding documents, the Bitcoin Foundation's original members included Gavin Andresen, Charlie Shrem, Mark Karpeles, Peter Vessenes, Roger Ver, and Patrick Murck.Current board members are divided into one of three categories: Founding Members, Industry Members, and Individual Members.The board is made up of a combination of elected members of the aforementioned categories.Former lead bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen is employed by the foundation as "chief scientist."[2]

In June 2013, the foundation received media attention when it published a letter from the California Department of Financial Institutions requesting that they "cease and desist from conducting the business of money transmission in this state,"[4] and again when it published their detailed response to the regulators.[5]In November 2013, Patrick Murck, general counsel of the Bitcoin Foundation, testified before a United States Senate committee convened to assess digital currencies, at which the reception of bitcoin by lawmakers was generally positive.[6]Bitcoin Foundation's board of directors, as of May 2014, included chairperson Peter Vessenes, Gavin Andresen, Bobby Lee, Micky Malka, Jon Matonis, Brock Pierce, and Elizabeth Ploshay.[7]In October 2014, Jon Matonis resigned from his position of Executive Director of the Foundation, and at the end of the election cycle on 31 December 2014 stepped down from the group's board of directors.[8]BTC China CEO Bobby Lee and venture capitalist Brock Pierce were appointed to the foundation's board of directors following a May 2014 runoff election, filling vacancies left by the earlier resignations of former BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem and Mt.

Gox CEO Mark Karpelès.[7]Nine members of the foundation resigned following the May election, citing opposition to the appointments and the direction of the organization.[9]On 13 April 2015, the board appointed investor and financial consultant Bruce Fenton as Executive Director of the Bitcoin Foundation.[10]At the Blockchain Training Conference / DEVCORE Toronto, the Bitcoin Foundation announced the appointment of Llew Claasen as Executive Director, effective 1 July 2016 [11] On 29 March 2016, the Bitcoin Foundation was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 27 in the list of 100 Most Influential Blockchain Organisations.[12][13]The Foundation and its leadership have been criticized by some in the media.[14][15]Former vice-chairman Charlie Shrem pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business related to his role in assisting agents of the online marketplace Silk Road.[16][17][18]Executive chairman Peter Vessenes' business relationship to former board member Mark Karpeles, the former CEO of collapsed Bitcoin exchange Mt.

Gox, has been highlighted as inappropriate.[15]The Foundation has also suffered scrutiny and resignations over its hiring of former child star Brock Pierce.[19]In November 2014, the Bitcoin Foundation announced that it would seek to wind down its education, outreach and public policy initiatives as it turns its focus to core development.bitcoin faucet legalThree surveys conducted earlier by the Bitcoin Foundation suggest that many community members, both inside and outside of the organization, want to see it adopt a stronger focus on bitcoin's open-source technology development.[20]bitcoin news hard forkThe bitcoin community itself is divided over the role of the Foundation as a community or industry representative.[14]ethereum explorer

Some libertarian bitcoin advocates have criticized the organization's strategy of political lobbying and participation with federal regulators.[14]In November 2014, Cody Wilson announced his run for board seat in the Bitcoin Foundation, stating "I will run on a platform of the complete dissolution of the Bitcoin Foundation and will begin and end every single one of my public statements with that message."bitcoin cashless society[21] Professor and author Mark T. Williams criticized the Bitcoin Foundation's priorities, writing in a Business Insider editorial that "A Foundation of 'B' players has no business claiming it is a protector of a system that remains vulnerable and untrustworthy."[22]litecoin conversion to dollarsIn early 2015, Jim Harper, a fellow at the Cato Institute and Olivier Janssens, a founder of the Freedom Investment Group, were elected to the Bitcoin Foundation's Board.[23]bitcoin xcubicle

In July 2015, towards the beginning of his term as board member, Janssens made a public announcement on both the Bitcoin Foundation online forum and Reddit concerning the near-term insolvency of the Bitcoin Foundation, which had been kept secret by the board.As a result of this and a lack of cash flow, various staff were terminated.[24]Following disagreement over the future of the organization—Harper and Janssens having both cast votes to dissolve the Foundation—Harper resigned and Janssens was removed the Board in December 2015.[25]Although their philosophies and interests differ, Fenton, Janssens and Harper may all be considered reformers.[]^ ^ a b ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ a b ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ a b c ^ a b ^ Jerving, Sara (September 6, 2014) "Bitcoin Promoter Charles Shrem Pleads Guilty" The Wall Street Journal ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Jump to: , Blocks are limited to 1MB in size.Miners can mine blocks up to the 1MB fixed limit, but any block larger than 1MB is invalid.

This limit cannot be modified without a hard fork.To prevent Bitcoin from temporarily or permanently splitting into separate payment networks ("altcoins"), hard forks require adoption by nearly all economically active full nodes.Contents 1 2 3 4 5 6 Change block size limit based on miner votes, but don't leave the range (1MB, 32MB) without a softfork or hardfork respectively.Increase to 8 MB after both January 11, 2016 has passed and 75% of miners are supporting.Double the limit every two years with the size increasing linearly within those two year intervals.Increase to 2 MB on November 11, 2015.Increase by 17.7% annually until 2063.Hard Fork to 2MB in 2016.Dynamic max_block_size in 2017.Positions below are based on a suggested fixed block size increase to 20MiB.Positions against these larger blocks do not necessarily imply that they are against an increase in general, and may instead support a smaller and/or gradual increase.Entity Supports Larger Blocks Supports Hard Fork Magnr Yes: "We believe an immediate 2mb blocksize increase is important and urgently required to enable Bitcoin to flourish and deliver more utilitarian use to more people all across the world."[5]

Yes: "We support the Bitcoin Classic proposal[6]."- Magnr[7] Bitcoinpaygate No: "We do NOT support the blocksize increase"[8] Bitrated No"At this time, I oppose increasing the block size limit as per Gavin's proposal" - Nadav Ivgi (founder)[9] GreenAddress No: "In our mind increasing the block size like this is just pushing the problem a little further at potentially unfixable costs."[10]MPEx No[11] Paymium No: "[allow] a sane transaction fee market to emerge, by letting the blocks actually fill-up."- CTO David Francois[12] Ethereum Neutral: "If [the niche of digital gold] is what Bitcoin users want, then they should keep the limit, and perhaps even decrease it.But if Bitcoin users want to be a payment system, then up it must go."- Vitalik Buterin (founder)[13] F2Pool Neutral: "We do support bigger blocks and sooner rather than later.But we cannot handle 20 MB blocks right now.... I think we can accept 5MB block at most."[14]

Armory Yes"This *is* urgent and needs to be handled right now, and I believe Gavin has the best approach to this."- CEO Alan Reiner[15] BitcoinReminder also supports 20MB blocks (or even more?"[16] BitHours Yes: "We support @gavinandresen and his proposal for 20mb blocks"[17] BitPay Yes"Agreed (but optimistic this will be the last and only time block size needs to increase)" - CEO Stephen Pair[18] Yes: "In summary, we believe BIP 101 will safeguard Bitcoin’s decentralized nature while providing a reliable, immediate path toward greater network throughput, and we would like to express our support for merging BIP 101 into Bitcoin Core."- Stephen Pair[19] Bittiraha.fi Yes: "We are supporting increasing #Bitcoin max block size to 20MB."[20]"I'mstrongly in favor of the block size cap increase to 20MB."- CEO Henry Brade[21] Yes"And I'm in favor of releasing a version with this change even with opposition."- CEO Henry Brade[22] Blockchain.info Yes"It is time to increase the block size.

Agree with @gavinandresen" - CEO Peter Smith[23]"Scaling #bitcoin is a big deal.Increase the block size."- Nic Cary[24] Blocktrail Yes"We'd love to see BIP101 with 4mb start, alternatively BIP100 with something to deal with the 21% attack could be good too."[25]Breadwallet Yes"[...] in support of the Gavin's 20Mb block proposal."- CEO Aaron Voisine[26] BTC Guild Yes"Needs to happen, but needs future expansion built in at a reasonable rate."- Eleuthria[27] BX.in.th Yes: "http://BX.in.th will support the 20MB block size"[28] CoinBase Yes: "Coinbase supports increasing the maximum block size"[29]"Why we should increase the block size" - CEO Brian Armstrong[30] Yes: "5/ hard forks probably shouldn't happen frequently, but periodically they are an elegant solution that helps bitcoin keep growing" - CEO Brian Armstrong[31] Coinify Yes"We see Bitcoin XT as the best solution for ensuring the future scalability of the Bitcoin network."- CTO Hamed Sattari[32] Adam Back Yes: "For the record I am not aware of a single person who has said they do not agree with scaling Bitcoin.

Changing a constant is not the hard-part.The hard part is validating a plan and the other factors that go into it.It's not a free choice it is a security/scalability tradeoff.No one will thank us if we "scale" bitcoin but break it in hard to recover ways at the same time."[33] No"I strongly urge that we return to the existing collaborative constructive review process that has been used for the last 4 years which is a consensus by design to prevent one rogue person from inserting a backdoor, or lobbying for a favoured change on behalf of a special interest group, or working for bad actor" - Dr. Adam Back[34] Kryptoradio Yes"#Kryptoradio dev @zouppen supports 20MB block size in #bitcoin."- Joel Lehtonen[35] OKCoin Yes: "OKCoin's tech team believes it's the right decision"[36] Third Key Solutions Yes"Gavin is right.The time to increase the block size limit is before transaction processing shows congestion problems."- CTO Andreas Antonopoulos[37] Xapo Yes: "One meg is not enough: Xapo supports increasing the maximum block size" - CEO Wences Casares[38]