Sure, everyone is important in different ways.

The 50%+ only applies to miners though, if one dev out of 1000 convinces the miners the change is good it happens. And as long as there are some users who continue using it then the changes protocol continues to exist as a real/used thing.

Bitcoin is not a multimillion dollar enterprise, yet. In fact, isn't worth much at all if there isn't major development done to improve the network to allow for explosive growth. While I do have a lot to lose if Bitcoin fails, I am not afraid of risk and the rewards are worth the investment. I have a lot of faith in the bitcoin community. Pick a BIP and let's roll.

I agree that would increese the danger of loosing coins by loosing the keys stored on the 2nd device. One would need to run two programs and some ppl would end up storing both on the same device (if it would be possible to do) negating the security.

Fascinating thread.

I'm not a bitcoin developer but I'm a sw developer with some years experience and I found very, very useful this article by genjix:
http://bitcoinmedia.com/the-truth-behind-bip-16-and-17/

By not knowing completely the bitcoin protocol, when I began reading the objections of Luke to Gavin I was unconsciously taking Gavin side because I have a lot of trust in him.
But after studying genhix work (who takes no sides, I think) I'm now leaning towards BIP17: it seems a better choice from a general software good development practice.

did you notice deepbit pool voted with 1 block so far?
http://blockchain.info/p2sh

I missed the info however that he [Tycho] chosed a side in the 16 vs 17 poll.
was this 1 block vote an accident or just saying "I'm watching you, here's my .5 % of voting capacity"

Tycho, are you waiting for 50%+ of hashing power to confirm to activate any of the BIPs?

I've started a discussion on BIP 16/17 support moving forward (including trying to improve the testing process) here:
  https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/61922.0

(please reply there so the discussion stays mostly in one place)

BIP16 and BIP17 don't invalidate existing bitcoins.  If you have savings in a wallet, paper or not, you will absolutely be able to spend them.


Absolutely you can choose not to use multiple private keys.  I would think it's something you have to opt in to.

You should be able to use your present wallet but would probably be required to upgrade your client.


I don't think computer literacy is quite the right term - to me, this means familiarity with e-mail and surfing the web, using a word processor and a spreadsheet.  I consider myself a computer expert, and of course I can make do with the current client.  I am sure you are referring to the ability to keep one's computer secure, not just use a spreadsheet, so I'll assume you mean expert.

The problem is that computer expertise is a very high prerequisite to use a currency, and even computer experts get malware and hacked all the time, often without even knowing it.  I think it is a foregone conclusion that we need multisig to counter this.

This thread has been great. It appears that too many are trying to avoid the inevitable - that is, the forking of the bitcoin chain. When there's difference in opinion, well fork that chain please!

Gavin mentioned that the number 1 road block to alternate crypto-currencies being more successful was that of infrastructure (i.e. exchanges, block explorers, etc.).

It's my opinion that we should not be scared of competing currencies (also bitcoin forks) and that we should embrace it and hope for it.
Bitcoin is not just about decentralization, it is also about freedom. If we embrace freedom, this project will excel faster than anyone can imagine IMHO. Many of the fears for going this route stem from selfishness and greed, but also consider that there might be many newcomers to this technology that would not have done so otherwise.

So, the challenge would be to make bitcoin more fork friendly at all levels (exchanges, mining pools, clients, etc). That would be the first great step in Bitcoin's improvement and then all the other potentially great ideas out there would come into these crypto currencies at a much faster pace and I'd bet you would all be more the wealthier. Also, the  BIP 16 vs BIP 17 would quickly become a non-issue in my opionion.