TL;DR: When the recent Infrastructure Funding Plan for Bitcoin Cash (IFP), from BTC.TOP mining pool founder Jiang Zhuoer, hit the peer-to-peer electronic cash community, anonymous developer imaginary_username (imaginary) was not pleased (to put it mildly). However similar his criticisms are of the IFP, one thing about him is different: he’s building an alternative to rival what he considers its major faults. This episode is available embedded in the article below, and on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Breaker, PocketCasts, PodBean, YouTube for Newer Episodes, YouTube Older Episodes, and Overcast.

imaginary_username Speaks

George Takei, that was among my thoughts when I heard his voice. It was nice to finally speak with him beyond the 2D limitations of text. On Telegram, imaginary_username is among the go-tos I have in trying to understand a given technical issue. I’ll bug him, asking a stupid question, and he’ll answer me until I come to at least some sort of dim understanding.

When the IFP emerged last month, imaginary was among its earliest skeptics. He railed against it, insisting the proposal was nothing less than a complete alteration of peer-to-peer electronic cash as we’ve understood the concept. It was interesting coming from him because he is a developer, though admittedly not a protocol dev, and he has been deep in the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) community since its inception.

You’d think a developer would welcome funding explicitly set aside for engineers. Those factors, being a dev and a BCH idealist, makes his criticism of the IFP worth grappling with. His Assessment and proposal re: the Bitcoin Cash infrastructure funding situation became a rallying point, and was among the first read.cash posts to earn more than $1,000 in tips.

Clearly, he’s struck a nerve. More importantly, he and a few others, are attempting to build an alternative to the IFP. They’ve created a skeletal mockup, and nabbed the flipstarter.cash domain name. It’s unclear as of publication how far along they are or if the plan will end up being a viable solution. In any case, our commitment at CoinSpice is to document the discussion, and imaginary_username deserves a hearing.

TIMESTAMPS

02:15 imaginary’s background

12:00 Reaction to the IFP

14:05 Clarifying his stance

17:00 The heart of the problem

22:10 Miners v. developers

25:20 Is there a need for protocol dev funding?

29:15 imaginary’s alternative

32:30 The human problem

33:30 The ad hoc team

35:50 Is voluntary funding practical?

37:45 Getting it shipped

40:45 IFP impact potential

43:30 Following imaginary

LINKS

CoinSpice Podcast 68 Host C. Edward Kelso imaginary_username Twitter



LISTEN

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