Transparency and future plans for the Bitcoin Foundation: speakers bureau, DevCore, core development, board elections, conferences, governance and membership engagement. From the Inside Bitcoins New York conference, April 2015 by newly appointed Executive Director, Bruce Fenton.
2. Who we are
• We don’t represent Bitcoin
• We don’t control Bitcoin
• Bitcoin is independent and decentralized
• In the past we funded some portion of core dev – the foundation
never made code requests of developers
3. Core Dev Today
• Before I joined the foundation, it was decided that Core Dev would
not be funded by the Bitcoin Foundation
• Shortly after this, it was announced that MIT has stepped up to fund
three key core developers
• Gavin Andreesen is remaining as Chief Scientist of the Bitcoin
Foundation and we will still do all we can to support core
development
4. Do we need a foundation?
• No
• Bitcoin does not need any central organizations
• The measurement we seek to use is whether an organization can
benefit Bitcoin
• We believe that there is a space for benefit to Bitcoin by a non profit
other than 100% commercial or lone individuals
5. View as Executive Director
• Appointed on April 13.
• That day I reviewed a transparency report of how I was appointed on
the Bitcoin Foundation Forums
• First act was a tweet “To remind Satoshi that she has a board seat per
the bylaws if she produces a PGP key”
• Next act was to ask for feedback on Bitcoin Foundation forums, b
email, Bitcoin Talk, Reddit and ZapChain – total 170+ replies
• It took 4 days to get financial records- when I received them on April
17, I tweeted and posted the results within 3 hours of receipt
6. About Satoshi
• Actually I’m going to make a suggestion to the board that we remove
Satoshi as a founding member because its not accurate
• I’d also like to suggest we remove all founding members
• Overall we should reduce power of individuals but work to remain
effective using decentralization, crowdfunding and other means
• Two things I did when I took the role for example was not accept
salary and ask for a Board Chair to be elected – at the suggestion of
Jim Harper
7. Most common request: Transparency
• What does transparency mean?
• National Council of Non-Profits Lists 10 Items:
• Release of IRS 990 forms
• Published Executive Compensation and Travel Policy
• Published Conflicts of Interest Policy
• Accurate solicitation materials
• Financial management policies
• Clear expense policies
• Identities of Board Members
• Info about the tax exempt status of the organization
• Ensure board reviews financial records
8. Additional Transparency
• Hash financial data on the Blockchain in a permanent record using Factom
Member Inclusion
• Use Swarm for blockchain voting
• Use Coinsider-It for open discussion
• Member Forums and interaction
• ED access
• Published Bylaws on GitHub
• 100% Member Elected Board (Now in place)
9. Implementation
• The Bitcoin Foundation will implement every single item on these lists
– making the organizational structure among the most transparent of
any organization of any type, anywhere
10. Next Steps
• What will the Bitcoin Foundation do?
• DevCore – Conference Series
• Speakers Bureau
• Media Network
• Annual Meeting
• Education
• Bitcoin.org and grants
• Strong Committees
• Activities well suited for a non-profit
• Study on Threats to Bitcoin
• Defense of Bitcoin
• Standards, Unicode
