Lets revisit some of Gavins original ideas about the foundation:
I said:
To get the conversation started, here are some functions I think a Bitcoin Foundation could perform:
- Interact with the legal system, where a centralized entity is needed: for example, to hold the Bitcoin trademark, own/control the bitcoin.org domain name, etc.
- Act as a central library for accurate information about Bitcoin, so journalists and policymakers have an 'official' place to learn about Bitcoin.
- Collect donations to fund infrastructure necessary for Bitcoin's growth (organize regular developers' conferences or get-togethers maybe? pay for development of cross-implementation testing tools? pay core developers' salaries? create a certification/testing program for Bitcoin implementations? create a central clearinghouse for information about legal issues surrounding Bitcoin across the world?)
I like decentralized approaches, because failures are less catastrophic and because I think smaller, focused organizations are more effective than big, try-to-be-everything-to-everybody organizations.
So I'm happy that the
Cryptocurrency Legal Advocacy Group is working on legal issues, starting with figuring out what the issues are.
And I'm happy that
LoveBitcoins have been starting PR/Marketing efforts for Bitcoin.
Today I created the Bitcoin Testing Project to tackle some infrastructure needs that I think are being ignored (rigorous quality assurance / testing):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80019.0I really like the idea of small decentralized independent groups instead of a central foundation.
Maybe a central foundation could server more as an umbrella for these task forces.
One of Gavins initial points was the payment of the core developers. It is now covered by the foundation but could be better handled from a more open and democratic structure.
Why not create a project where any bitcoiners can contribute with donations to the core dev team to get the independence back?
It would be really a shame if the community could not collect the money needed for salary and other development costs. Many people have already made a fortune with bitcoins so lets share some of that!