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What Happened at DevCore Boston?

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:43 PM
Joel Dalais
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:43 PM

DevCore is a new initiative undertaken by the Bitcoin Foundation to increase funds for supporting grants and development. The DevCore events are run over a full day  and also serve to provide networking experiences and educating current and potential developers about core principles involved with block chain technology.

DevCore Boston was held on February the 11th (2015) and featured an excellent lecture by Gavin Andresen, Chief Scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation.

Starting with the simple fact that bitcoin is only six years old, which might seem not much to some, but to others it might seem like quite a while ago.

Describing how Satoshi and he were unsure whether what they were doing was even legal. Gavin expresses his appreciation how over the years things have developed to clarify use and acceptance of cryptocurrency.

A humorous remark Gavin makes early on, is that he believes that Satoshi might not have realised how annoying some people can be on the internet. How when things were launched people went in for the attack.

Holy <bleep>, someone just reported something privately to Satoshi, and we have to get a release out in the next … day!

Read More: DevCore Boston Launches Bitcoin Foundation’s Developer Roundtables

Gavin goes on to highlight penny flooding, where people who had two instances of bitcoin running (in the early days) could send transactions to each other continuously for free, for no particular reason than just to flood the network.

Penny flooding was an issue that Satoshi did not know how to solve, and Gavin managed to devise a solution to the issue, earning a rare note of appreciation. Today, this solution is known as Proof of Stake .

The lecture continues on to describe basic tenets as to why bitcoin has value, scarcity and utility, and how such principles are used in the functioning of the code. And importantly, that there might be unthought-of potential uses for unspent bitcoins.

Satoshi was a Cryptographer .. or not?

One of the often debated points that early bitcoin developers have been known to bring up was whether or not Satoshi was a cryptographer, often brought up without much explanation. Gavin does some justice in this area by explaining why he personally thinks that Satoshi was not a Cryptographer.

He was a brilliant programmer, but he didn’t have a deep understanding of all the cutting edge crypto research that is going on.

The rest of Gavin’s lecture is insightful and educational. This article does not do the DevCore Boston justice; it does not even do Gavin’s presentation justice. In this article we only talk briefly about Gavin’s presentation; the DevCore is a full day event to be enjoyed by all who attend.

Other talks and presentations from DevCore Boston can be found on YouTube via the Bitcoin Foundation’s YouTube page . Here you can find DevCore Boston talks from Patrick Murck , Andreas Antonopoulos , and more.

The Bitcoin Foundation is hosting the next DevCore in London, it poses to be very interesting, and aims to draw experts and professionals into the space for learning and networking opportunities. You can find out more via our article: Bitcoin Foundation to Host Upcoming DevCore London.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ3e1Pzu7iI