We are a community that has created a decentralized peer to peer currency that allows shareholders with a mere $20 stake to have direct influence over important decisions regarding the network. We don’t trust authority. At all. I have been deeply saddened and disturbed by the violence and corruption that has resulted from centralized authority structures outside the scope of Nu. I know many of the people here have similar feelings that serve as the motivational foundation for their involvement here. Most people have a strong emotional motivation to find reasons to align themselves with authority and the crowd. It feels safe and brings people the social approval they crave. The people in this forum are the people who are so strongly attracted to a peaceful and mutually beneficial model of human interaction that they are willing to become social misfits for the chance to pursue and articulate this alternative and positive vision of human interaction. But we don’t just dream and complain about what is wrong in the world. We dedicated ourselves to building an alternative in the real world. We created something completely open which is a powerful facilitator of human cooperation that is simultaneously completely incapable of being coercive to anyone.
So, it is no surprise that this community is extremely sensitive to anything that even looks like it might have a hint of authority in it. That tendency is helpful in enhancing the open and decentralized network we are trying to grow.
I’m the developer who started this project. In the very beginning I was the only one. In that moment the project was perfectly centralized. Mine was a plan to create a pure peer to peer network. But there were no peers at that time. Just me. Since that day in December 2013, month by month we have decentralized the network. It is remarkably decentralized today. Other peer to peer networks have centrally issued checkpoints. Even though I would be the one with the power to issue those checkpoints I said no, there will be no such ability. Other networks have centrally issued alerts and automatic software updates. Again, I said no. I could have designed the system so I held reserves. But I said no to being a trusted authority. I advanced this motion that will end my power to distribute network equity. I have articulated plans to end the centralized reserves that provide buy support. I have asked for people to come forward to provide interim reserves using a multisig addresses in a manner that completely excludes me. I haven’t desired nor reached for power over the network or any individuals. I’m also aware that having any power over the network is a threat to my personal safety, because someone who is willing and able to threaten my safety could gain some control over the network if I held any control over the network.
Much of the angst displayed here seems to center around my influence over the passage of motions. Shareholders are perfectly capable of rejecting my proposals for actions, as they did here. I have always complied with motions and indicated a willingness to cooperate to facilitate potential motions. This does not mean I can be commanded to do anything, however. Motions must relate to network actions. To the extent they require action from me, they must not bring undue harm to me. If that is the case, I have the right to say I won’t participate, so long as I don’t prevent the mandated action from being performed by others.
I understand this network. I’ve demonstrated a talent for understanding what will and won’t work. Most shareholders appreciate my expression of my professional and informed opinion about actions proposed by others and my own initiative in proposing improvements.
I acknowledge the important contributions of @Nagalim and @creon. We have provided an open forum for the expression of dissenting opinions. I’m only aware of one individual who has been banned from the forum, and that was for personal attacks which were abusive and behavior that was clearly intended to be harmful to the network.
At risk of irritating @Nagalim, I will point out he has simultaneously criticized me for articulating a vision that in one case was different than his while simultaneously criticizing me for being silent about his work in other contexts. That seems inconsistent.
Finally, I encourage everyone to be positive while refraining from being negative, because it just repulses people. For instance, we can oppose centralized authority or we can promote voluntary cooperation. We ought to choose to promote voluntary cooperation in that case.
