im a bit confused with this bitcoinxt stuff, is it another coin? why do we really need it? if its a fork, then we could have 2 chains of btc? is gavin an ass? how many coins have more than 1mb size? thanks
As far as I know:
What everybody calls "bitcoin" consists of two things: the "bitcoin blockchain" that was started by Satoshi on 2009-01-03, and the "bitcoin protocol", a set of rules that say how the blockchain must be changed and used in response to client requests.
"Bitcoin-core" is a software that implements the bitcoin protocol. The first version was written by Satoshi sometime in 2008 or earlier. It has been patched and improved since then by a handful of people, the "core devs". Gavin inherited control of that software after Satoshi's rapture in 2010. Recently he passed the job to another core dev, and now he works for a project at MIT.
"Bitcoin-XT" is another implementation of the bitcoin protocol, started by Mike Hearn. It is still compatible with Bitcoin-core; either version can be used with the same wallet files. Gavin recently said that he would be joining Mike in the development of this software. Gavin mentioned very recently that he may use this version to push for the 20 MB change, since the current core devs do not seem to be in a hurry,