Quote from: casascius on October 21, 2012, 11:42:38 PM

Quote from: gmaxwell on October 21, 2012, 11:14:07 PM

it's not generally considered polite to demand what people do with their time if you're not paying them.

The way I see it, by downloading the software, they are paying, just not with money, the same way they "pay" Google by seeing ads. These people are offering Bitcoin (the idea) a share of their mind and their time. They are incrementally adding to the entire Bitcoin-based economy by considering accepting Bitcoins in exchange for their goods and services. They are paying with their willingness to change how they see a BTC as something worth 0.00 to them, to something worth over $10. Of course, I am also respectfully keeping in mind that you have contributed substantially to bitcoind, and I have not.

The fact is Bitcoin would live on without his support. If a feature is truly needed, it will be done anyway by another party or two. There is enough capital and value here to sustain Bitcoin on a as-it-goes basis. Bitcoin as a protocol is sustaining just fine after all. There are no major vulnerabilities. Client innovation is being advanced by various people. The Satoshi client will likely become a relic.

Bitcoin could not live without the users putting their money and time into this. It's the user that is God in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

This isn't Ubuntu Linux or another hippy open-source software project. This is money. Real money. It's beyond the leagues of anything else in the development world.

Yes, I will continue to be a douchebag because I have too much money in this thing.