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Michael Perklin: I do Not believe the Bitcoin Foundation Should Interact with Regulatory Bodies

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:42 PM
Joel Dalais
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:42 PM

Michael PerklinWe have reached out to the candidates for the upcoming Bitcoin Foundation Elections and asked each candidate a set of questions. In the interest of fairness, all candidates were asked the same questions at the same time, and all responses (that did respond) have been received before the publication of this article.

Michael Perklin

Michael Perklin is Director of Bitcoin Alliance of Canada, President of C4, President of Bitcoinsultants , Cyber Security Expert, Public Speaker, and a self proclaimed Geek.

He is a cybersecurity expert who has fallen in love with Bitcoin and decentralization so much that he left his full-time job to work with bitcoin technology full-time.

Tell us a little about your involvement in the Cryptocurrency (or related) sector?

I’ve served on the board of the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada where I’ve educated Canadian regulators about Bitcoin so they don’t make knee-jerk reactions like has been seen in other countries. I’ve also founded a non-profit standards and certifications body to establish a bar for personnel, security, and development in the cryptocurrency space.

What is your primary reason for running for a Director seat?

I’ve been working on standards and certifications for a year now, and when I read Patrick Murck’s Reddit AMA where he explained the BF’s pivot and their concentration on standards I felt it was a perfect fit. I want to work with the Bitcoin Foundation to provide these much-needed standards to the global cryptocurrency community

How do you plan to achieve this goal?

I plan on achieving this by continuing to work with whoever’s interested to make the best draft standards possible and publish them to the community for critique and feedback. After the constructive criticism is received and integrated into the draft, I’m confident our community will have a strong standard that will elevate the state of all bitcoin services we use

Once achieved what would be your secondary aim(s) as a Director?

My secondary aim is to continue the Bitcoin Foundation’s drive for educational events aimed at developers. We have too many conferences aimed at businesses and investors, and I feel the biggest thing we lack in our community is the human capital. We need more developers, and we need those developers to understand not only how to interact with Bitcoin but also decentralization, cryptography, and security.

What are your thoughts on the free market?

I’m a firm believer that everyone who is old enough has the right to take whatever actions they choose and suffer whatever consequences come with them. Newton’s 3rd law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and that doesn’t just apply to physics. While I believe in a free market, I also believe that everyone should abide by the laws that exist in their particular jurisdictions, but recognize that this is a choice that they may make for themselves.

Should there be interaction from the Foundation with regulatory bodies?

No, I do not believe the Bitcoin Foundation should interact with regulatory bodies. There are a variety of bitcoin-centric organizations in many countries that are leading this charge, for example in Canada we have the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada.

What is your reasoning for the above answer?

I am a supporter of the Foundation’s recent pivot to focus exclusively on development and developers, and see regulatory interaction a distraction from these focuses.

What do you think about alternative coins?

I think they’re a great way to play with different algorithms and strategies for things, however am wary about the pump-and-dump nature of many of them. There are too many coins that are allowed to languish to the point where they die which could give less knowledgeable people a bad impression about cryptocurrencies in general. I personally focus solely on Bitcoin, but respect the innovation that has come out of some of the alternative cryptocurrencies.

What is your contact information for interested parties?

Email: (please use Bitcoin Foundation forum)
Website: https://cryptoconsortium.org 
Bitcoin Foundation: https://bitcoinfound…ichael-perklin/ 
Any other: Reddit: mperklin
The Distributed Opinion: https://bitcoin-election.consider.it/michael-perklin

Is there anything else relevant you would like to mention?

Yes. There are a few candidates who are running that have stated their intentions of destroying the Bitcoin Foundation. I believe these destructive goals will only hurt our community as a whole because – despite some scandals with some board members’ actions – the majority of the work done by the Bitcoin Foundation is positive for our community and provides progress. The development-centric events like the DevCore Boston event is an example of what the Bitcoin Foundation needs to continue doing without being distracted by people trying to hinder those efforts.

We at CCN.com would like to thank Michael for taking the time out to reply to us and to wish him luck for the upcoming elections!

Other recent articles related to the elections that you may find of interest include Bitcoin Foundation Elections: Distributed Opinion and Bitcoin Foundation Elections – February.

Continue to follow us for more updates and interviews as we move closer to the election date.