Good work on that write up @tranthidung, I also wasn't aware of some of the forum's history (namely the passage of "torch" that came to be to theymos) so for sure I can say that today I've learned a bit more. I would also like to share the following AMA[1] from Martti Malmi who supposedly is the original founder of this forum. The introduction is quite clear:
To put it briefly: Back in 2009 when I was studying computer science at Helsinki University of Technology, I was looking into the possibility of decentralized monetary systems as a means of actually changing the world for the better - giving people the control over their own life and money. Bitcoin, recently published, was the only completely decentralized and feasible option out there. I emailed Satoshi offering my help and ended up working on bitcoin.org, setting up the Bitcointalk forums and also contributing to the Bitcoin release 0.2.
Here is the section of the AMA that is applicable to this discussion:
Why did you handover the bitcoin.org and the forum to theymos? Did you know him? And why only to one single person?
I don't know him personally. He was made a forum and server admin back in 2010 because he had proven himself trustworthy and was able to spend time working on it. Bitcoin.org and bitcointalk.org domains are owned by someone trusted by Satoshi, while theymos has management rights. I resigned from the management, because I'm not active in the community and don't want to be involved in the politics. I don't want to say too much about the debate, as I'm not that familiar with all that's going on.
On another topic regarding "how does this website stay up" I also managed to found the initial thread[2] where theymos first asked about help regarding holding the forum wealth:
I am holding too much money for the forum. This is contrary to the forum's otherwise decentralized structure. I'd like to get some extremely trustworthy people to hold smaller chunks of the forum's money (maybe 250-500 BTC per person).
- You probably need to have been active in the Bitcoin community for at least a year.
- You probably need a very high OTC rating.
- You need to have dealt with far more BTC at one time than what you'll be holding for the forum.
- The list of "treasurers" and how much money they're holding will be public.
- The contract will be quite complex (I haven't finished writing it yet), as this is the forum's money, not mine, so you'll have to know what "the forum" is and in exactly which circumstances you can release the money.
- Full reserve is not a requirement, but you will be responsible for returning the money within a few weeks of a legitimate request no matter what.
If you're interested, post here with how much you would charge for this service and what your reserve policy would be.
To learn more about theymos interaction within the userbase I also found this excellent thread[3]that tries, according to the OP (@Steamtyme), to collect posts that
"either clarified misinformation or provided an expanded explanation of the forum mechanics.".
[1]
https://forum.bitcoin.com/ama-ask-me-anything/i-m-martti-malmi-early-bitcoin-developer-and-the-original-founder-of-the-bitcointalk-org-forums-ama-t2770.html[2]
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=141503.0[3]
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5136271.0