Quote from: casascius on October 22, 2012, 12:17:37 AM

Quote from: Atlas on October 22, 2012, 12:01:53 AM

The momentum I am referring to is the userbase that continues to grow which is not fully due to the post-2010 work of Bitcoin-Qt/Bitcoind.

I think it would be very hard to argue that it was because of the efforts of Mr. "Bitcoin is just a experiment, don't bet the house." that Bitcoin is trading over $12 a coin.

Satoshi Nakamoto made 98% of what the core Bitcoin protocol is today. That was the Big Bang. Every other software development is a secondary footnote. The real success is in user support of Satoshi's core product.

I recognize people want to be important, they want people to depend on them for Bitcoin to work but that's not how free societies work. We don't indebt ourselves to a supposed leader. We shouldn't have to owe Bitcoin's success to a certain class of people. We all stand on equal ground and stand independently. Bitcoin as a decentralized currency should represent that.

Satoshi also made 98% of SolidCoin, NameCoin, I0coin, IXCoin, and every other coin out there that is presently deep in the toilet.

Bitcoin trades at over $12 a coin because of the collective actions and frequent releases of the Bitcoin devs, entities like MtGox/BitInstant/BitPay, utilities like BlockChain.info, the many businesses who accept Bitcoin as payment, promoters like Bitcoin Magazine and WeUseCoins.com (not to mention my own coins), and like it or not, things like the Silk Road. When you say "Hey Gregory, you didn't build that!", that's being a douche and has nothing to do with how much money you have in Bitcoin - it's just plain and simple being a douche.

The frequent releases of the Bitcoin devs play a very small part especially when most users use custom GUIs or a web client to conduct Bitcoin business.

I am not saying other people haven't built anything. I am saying the Bitcoin.org dev team hasn't built everything and that we owe them nothing. They are doing this out of their own interest and their own time, especially when they want to force certain things down our throat.

All I am calling for is no recognition of significant power in this community: Bitcoin.org implying they have great say and clout in this offends that ideal. They imply it when they want to push radical changes. This change may not be too radical but I am waiting for the day a radical push comes.

Also, I have no shame in being a douche. I am just out for the long-time survival of Bitcoin. I have no agenda besides keeping things as they are: Working.

Anyways, I agree, we all built Bitcoin. As for the Bitcoin.org developers, no they don't have exclusive ownership over it.

TLDR: Nobody should be dependent on the work of anybody in the Bitcoin community.