When it comes to development of the Bitcoin protocol and related technology, it’s important to have a solid foundation in mathematics. Blockstream’s resident mathematician, Andrew Poelstra, at a quick glance seems to check all the boxes necessary to qualify for his position within the company. If you dig beneath the surface some troubling information seems to indicate this might not actually be the case.

Many consider the minimum of a doctorate or M.Sc. to be the threshold for calling oneself a mathematician. Poelstra’s bio on the Blockstream website indicates that “while completing his Masters of Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, he wrote and co-wrote several papers about Bitcoin, practical cryptography and mathematics.” A quick search of the UT repository indicates no results for a thesis or dissertation written by Poelstra. Similarly the library catalog at UT when searched indicates no published work from him either. A wider search online turns up surprisingly little regarding Poelstra’s post graduate education. Admittedly, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, however his résumé on his website being the only other online indication of him having completed a Masters degree is curious.

Poelstra does have a number of published papers on Bitcoin and mathematics, but the number you can find online may be fewer than one might expect to qualify it as “several.” Indeed, as is often the case with Blockstream employees, it’s important to note how carefully words are parsed in any statement they make. Closer examination reveals that Poelstra’s Blockstream bio only indicates that he was in the process of completing his masters when he wrote the aforementioned papers, which is an intriguing way to qualify that statement.

This is not to say that Poelstra hasn’t made contributions to Bitcoin, cryptography, and mathematics, and it’s also possible he did complete a Masters degree without it being verifiable online. The takeaway however is that for a company that so vociferously denounces and condemns every technical statement that threatens their own proprietary work, specifics matter. Blockstream’s website indicates that they have only one resident mathematician. It’s noteworthy that his education is possibly just that of a B.Sc. with a 3.6 GPA, and bears some consideration when weighing their criticism of the soundness of the competing arguments that they disparage.