If all the development is done by one company it could lead to monopoly or pursuing of their own interests and centralization.

"That misty goal" refers to "universal payments" ("both a laudable goal and a shopworn bitcoin marketing slogan.")

The sooner the public understands "universal payments" may fit into Layer 2, but certainly not Layer 1, the better.

OK - you accept that it is implicit - but why then go off on the "many other lies" tangent? I'm not interested in the "many other lies" that can or cannot be implied from a loosely worded whitepaper.

We were discussing the issue of consensus and what it means -  Core have nurtured a false understanding that somehow it is written that consensus within Bitcoin means 95% or better. But this is not the case.  Without any explicit definition of what consensus means then we can fall back to the default - in this case the whitepaper - where it is very obvious that the idea of consensus within Bitcoin is that of a simple majority.

The fact that any hardfork is designed with a threshold of 75% should be considered a bonus.

He used the right word, I used the wrong one.

Majority means 'the greater number', to me its pretty explicit, but I'll accept that it is implicit if it makes you happy.

It's explicit to me that your only rebuttal to claims that (in summary) "51% is a majority, this is consensus, it is implicit/explicit" is pedanticism over the linguistics.

Unless you want to argue about what the word majority means then we can agree that the definition amounts to 'the greater number'. So if it was 3 vs 1 that would be a majority. If it was 1000 vs 999 that would also be a majority. The 51% figure has been commonly used recently to express hashrate majority, but it is probably more accurate to state >50%.

Take a look at the closing sentence in section 12 of the white paper.

"Any needed rules and incentives can be enforced with this consensus mechanism."

The phrase "this consensus mechanism" refers to the immediately prior descriptions of the mechanisms that detail how the majority of CPU power will prevail by working on the chain they think is valid. If >50% accept and work on blocks that follow particular rules then inevitably leads to that blockchain becoming longer over time. The longest chain is the valid chain (as per the line in the abstract which states: "The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU power.")

So the white paper explicitly states that consensus is achieved through a majority of CPU power. It is implicit that majority is >50%.

This is all logically and linguistically consistent (subject to Skitt's law!).

This OTOH is your opinion:

AXA SV have updated their site with this:


Sounds to me like they have bought Bitcoin. I wasn't aware that Blockstream had an alternative implementation that they were flogging, so I assume they mean Bitcoin Core. Were Blockstream in the position to do that? I guess core feel they were, if AXA  can feel justified in writing that on their website.

so we have had 3 corporate filled implementations which were rightfully beaten to the ground,
even if atleast 2 proposed code chances that the community wanted, they still dont deserve to survive due to the hidden corporate agenda


but where are these anti-corp bigmouths, now that blockstream has revealed their corporate hand aswell??..

is it, 'the first rule of blockstream club, is you dont talk about blockstream'?

i really hope the blockstream defenders are going to get paid, otherwise their lack of morals and blind devotion will be their downfall

If Bitcoin Core was controlled by one company, it would be indeed bad. However, it isn't the case, so your question is answered.

The beauty of bitcoin is that anyone can create a new hard fork version any time given a little bit IT expertise, so it is just a matter of whether enough people will use that new version. And I think over 51% of hash power is enough to present the major consensus, because that is how bitcoin was designed: With over 51% of hash power, you essentially control the bitcoin network consensus. People will move to the new chain and dump their coins on the old chain to kill it in a few days

Of course any company can lead the develop of bitcoin, only one condition: They must step down if the majority of community request it. That's the only requirement any company can lead the code development, otherwise it is a hostile corporation take over and can be solved by a hard fork

is gmaxwel still trying to flog the dead horse of classic, as a dead horse. rather then talking about the cancer inside blockstream

yes gmaxwell XT is dead, classic is dead, but lets talk about the blockstream cancer that is eating up bitcoin and mutating it. and isnt willing to listen to the community either

and here is my rebuttal