BUIP117: Open Letter from BU members to the BCH / BSV communities

[Christoph Bergmann]

After the recent drama about the role of Bitcoin Unlimited within or without BCH or BSV, I thought it would be nice to have an open letter signed by Bitcoin Unlimited members, directed to the BCH, but also the BSV community.

To be honest: It makes me sick that BU has been attacked left and right for trying to act responsible facing a controversial hard fork and for having members voicing opinions which are not welcomed by some other. Adressing this in a clear way was the intention of the letter.

Also, it could be very helpful to make clear where BU stands in the current situation of our unfortunately split Big Block Bitcoin project. The letter could detail out how other teams can cooperate with Bitcoin Unlimited. In my opinion, the strategic position of BU has never been stronger than today. Both BCH and BSV terribly need Bitcoin Unlimited, and it's about time to express this with a self-confident letter instead of saying sorry for staying sane.

I wrote the letter in a rush, expressing a lot of what has gone through my head during the social media attacks against BU, both after the May hardfork (when BU was attacked for opposing nChain) and after the November hardfork (when BU was attacked for not opposing nChain hard enough). It reflects my personal take on the things, and I am very open to discuss and change it so it can find support of a maximum number of BU members.

It's on github, so everybody can fork it, change it and make pull requests, which we can discuss openly and transparently. If someone doesn't know how to GitHub, I'm happy to help or to take his suggestions via personal message.

Ideally the letter finds enough support that we can take it as a general BU statement. If not, we can publish it with the signature of every members which supports it.

Her's the letter:

https://github.com/theBergmann/openletterbu/blob/master/letter.md

 

[kostialevin]

> as well as bullying will not prevent them to develop and run clients for BSV and offer business a software to use Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin Cash.

I think there's something to fix..


100%. I agree.

 

[Christoph Bergmann]

Thanks, will fix it. Nice you agree.

 

[freetrader]

Ideally the letter finds enough support that we can take it as a general BU statement.

I think that the document that should speak for BU generally are the Articles of Federation.
If this BUIP proposes something that BU should generally advocate, it should be cast as a change to those.
I'm not ok with an "open letter BUIP" that maybe slightly over 50% vote for, and which is then misrepresented as the general BU opinion.

could detail out how other teams can cooperate with Bitcoin Unlimited

If there are issues along these lines to clarify, the Articles would be the right place to do so.

In my opinion, the strategic position of BU has never been stronger than today. Both BCH and BSV terribly need Bitcoin Unlimited

I disagree. BSV leadership has practically pissed on any need for BU publically. Sorry if you cannot see it. BU has distanced itself from ABC (and vice versa).

BU foothold among those who operate network nodes currently seems good, but I wouldn't call the strategic position strong without a similar share of hashpower - and that's something I don't see.

I've made suggestions before on how BU could pursue to pool idea mentioned in its Articles, but these suggestions were met with complete silence in the Slack.
Now BU officials may not see this (lack of miner support) as a problem at all - I don't know. It is not discussed much openly afaics. And the membership generally doesn't seem to care much about it either - or doesn't understand the problem.

As I wrote in GCBU thread, I see BU as a whole still in search of its identity and role.
Your letter may be a step towards that, but as I don't agree with much of its content and the tone in general, it doesn't get my signature, and neither will this BUIP get my vote in current form.

 

[imaginary_username]

BU the client can improve its standing by both improving stability (where it has made massive strides through 2018!) and adding desirable features. Addition of Electrumx protocol in the works is massive - BU should look to implement P2Pool as well in my opinion. I might draft a BUIP for that if there's support.

 

[79b79aa8]

I've made suggestions before on how BU could pursue to pool idea mentioned in its Articles, but these suggestions were met with complete silence in the Slack.

i've also asked for the pool idea to be revived, as has @AdrianX . care to discuss your suggestions in this forum? maybe on a separate thread?

 

[Jonathan Silverblood]

I find this letter written in a disrespectful and arrogant tone. Both properties I do not want associated with BU.

While I'm not a fan of political correctness as a concept, I do understand the value it holds and think that BU's members are free to act as their hearts desire, but the organization should not engage in political debate without treading carefully as to not needlessly hurt other people.

 

[AdrianX]

@79b79aa8 as far as I know its only mentioned in the articles of the federation.