14 DAY TRIAL // Some of Bitcoin's developers have left the project and are now starting their separate digital currency called Decred, promoting an open governance model, which they say is missing in Bitcoin.
Few people have an idea of how Bitcoin works, and even fewer know who the men and companies behind the cryptocurrency are, and who takes the decisions.
According to a press release put out by Company 0 LLC, formed by former Bitcoin developers, there are a few external entities that fund the actual development of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, forming a power-group that is in sole command of the direction the currency takes.
A conflict of interest in Bitcoin's decision-making structure
These developers say that the group limits outside input in the currency's governance, cherry-picks only options favorable to their own interests, and generally ignores the developers' and community's best interests.
"The Bitcoin software is controlled by a small group of people who decide exclusively what can and cannot be changed," Jacob Yocom-Piatt, CEO at Company 0, says.
"This is in part due to a lack of mechanisms and pathways for funding development work directly from the community, and, as a result, Bitcoin development is funded by external entities that create conflicts of interest between the developers and the representative power of the community that uses Bitcoin," he also notes.
A new currency is created, with an open governance model
In an effort to address this issue, many of Bitcoin's developers have teamed up with the people behind the btcsuite project and are now creating their own new cryptocurrency called Decred.
This new cryptocurrency will be funded and managed by newly formed Company 0 LLC, but will also adopt a more decentralized community-based governance model.
The former Bitcoin developers recognize the success of their former project, and they aim to bring all the good parts of the Bitcoin project into their new Decred initiative, but they also want to fix what they're seeing as a problematic management structure.
More details are available on Decred's website.