ZoneBitcoin EditorialBitcoin is free software around which a bitcoin community and ecosystem has been built. Who are the people who are part of this community? Who are the people who run and operate Bitcoin?
The question may seem absurd at first glance. Indeed, it is often explained that Bitcoin exists by itself. In fact, it's much more complex than that. Let me explain all this to you simply 😉
Maybe you've never asked yourself this question? Maybe you didn't get concrete answers?
If so, this article will help you find out who controls and manages Bitcoin. You will understand betterbitcoin ecosystem.
We will now see the different players in the Bitcoin ecosystem who allow Bitcoin to be ever more powerful.
Which is part of of the Bitcoin ecosystem?
At the beginning, there was no ecosystem to speak of. There were some cryptographers like Hal Finney for example, cypherpunks, geeks and a few anarchists who knew about Bitcoin.
Since then, and especially since 2020, the ecosystem has evolved a lot. Today, the vast majority of people who are interested in Bitcoin are not dissidents. Far from it even. Traders, investors and banks have entered the ecosystem. The bitcoin ecosystem has become very conventional with all banks and financial institutions owning bitcoin.
The first “bitcoiners” often wrote in forums that they did not identify with the current Bitcoin movement.
Some even think that Satoshi Nakamoto himself (the creator of bitcoin) would be surprised (or even disappointed) to see what Bitcoin has become.
Does everyone have the same “role” in the ecosystem?
The first thing to understand is that Bitcoin is free software. What determines its internal functioning is its mathematical and numerical code.
There is an ultimate mathematical formula for example which determines that no more than 21 million bitcoins will be created. Not one more. This code is not editable, for example.
Furthermore, each block validation on the blockchain is done on a decentralized network. But a network is a group of people.
Thus, all the content of the blockchain (all transactions carried out from the genesis block) are recorded and validated by all miners. Not a particular individual, then.
So understand that the development and maintenance of the Bitcoin blockchain is made possible by thousands of individuals, all over the world.
Most people who have worked on Bitcoin have remained anonymous. The movement of cypherpunks places individual freedom as a standard.
In fact, anonymity is an essential element, desired and claimed by Bitcoin technology.
Thus, consistent with himself, the creator of BTC, Satoshi Nakamoto, has never revealed his identity.
Many claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, but each time they turned out to be impostors.
The different actors and roles in the Bitcoin ecosystem and collaborative work.
In the Bitcoin ecosystem, there are several different players with different functions. Everyone participates in some way to improve the network and think about necessary updates.
For example, everyone can come up with new ideas. This is what we call “Bitcoin Improvement Proposal” (BIP). These are concrete proposals to improve the network which are submitted to the ecosystem and the community for debate. Updates and solutions to address the problem of scalability of bitcoin for example are offered in the form of BIP. Likewise, Lighting Network's solution was a proposal submitted in the form of BEEP.
There are the blockchain developers who are the real builders, so to speak, of the Bitcoin software. We can say that they have the most important place because they write the code that makes the network as a whole work.
Are you saying to yourself that Satoshi Nakamoto has already written the code and that there is no need to rework what he did?
In fact, Bitcoin is software that evolves. Even if we cannot change the IT structure, we can nevertheless modify some elements.
So, these are the developers who do it. They are also the ones who discuss the changes that must and/or can be made. In fact, they have enormous decision-making and practical power. Of course, they explain how, when and why they are going to do it in the interests of democracy with all the actors in the network. The community watches them closely. They still remain the ultimate decision-makers.
Moreover, when we talk about bitcoin developers, it is not a homogeneous entity. There are debates, arguments, conflicts of interest and everything you find in a classic business.
Also, not everyone wants to be a bitcoin developer. You need very advanced knowledge of programming and cryptography on the other hand.
In addition, it is difficult to find a free place. In general, bitcoin developers hold their positions fervently.
And, it is also a position that one can lose quickly because the community can be intransigent.
Developers are very helpful in the evolution of Bitcoin Core
Gavin Andresen is perhaps the most well-known bitcoin developer. He was removed from his position as “Bitcoin Lead Developer” because he wanted to impose a change without having the full agreement of the community.
We can also cite Adam Back, the CEO of Blockstream. It is a company and investment fund that actively works on bitcoin Core software.
The Lightning network, sidechains and other advances have for example been proposed by Blockstream. Developers make it possible to evolve, improve and strengthen Bitcoin.
For example, Blockstream developed the Jade wallet, which is a reference in terms of open source physical wallet.
However, developers are not the only players in the bitcoin ecosystem even if they have one of the most important roles.
Let's see the other essential player to consider.
Miners, the lungs of the network
If developers are the heart of the network, we can say that miners represent the lungs. If there is no miner, the network cannot function.
You should know that the only possible attack to endanger Bitcoin is the famous “51% attack”. In fact, this means that if miners join together and constitute more than half (51%) of the network, then they could modify the network and the transactions recorded on the blockchain.
This is actually the worst scenario imaginable for Bitcoin. This is the only real vulnerability he has.
Fortunately, there are so many miners and mining farms that it is unlikely today to have a group of people that would represent 51%.
Fortunately, the network is decentralized and miners work all over the world. It will be extremely difficult for them to coordinate and agree on such a decision.
So, miners have enormous power in the sense that they can shut down Bitcoin if they wanted to.
Game theory and Nash equilibrium are theories that show us that this would be an unlikely scenario. For what? Miners have to invest a huge amount of money and capital to make bitcoin mining. Why would they team up to destroy something that makes them money?
Furthermore, when the Bitcoin community wants to make changes that are not in the interests of miners, they refuse. It's happened several times already. This tells you how much power they have.
What weight do companies working on blockchain have?
Now, let's move on to the commercial players in the Bitcoin ecosystem. They are not essential players in the technical functioning of Bitcoin. However, they greatly contribute to the accessibility of bitcoin.
The first platformsbuy bitcoin to buy and sell allowed the breakthrough of bitcoin. Its price soared with the arrival of such sites. Peer-to-peer sites like the famous local bitcoin were the pioneers. Even today, for buy bitcoin in Africa, for example, these are heavily used sites.
In fact, Bitcoin adoption was largely made possible by these types of purchasing platforms. It's undeniable.
Some companies are interested in Bitcoin purely for profit. That's a fact, too.
We can cite for example blockstream even if it is difficult to place the company in one box or the other. The company, along with its Bitcoin developers, invested heavily in researching and improving the software.
However, the company is also known for having patented important innovations for Bitcoin. However, this goes against the very idea of this software, which let us remember is free and accessible as open-source!
Creating paid patents simply goes against the philosophy of blockchain.
What is the place of exchange platforms?
Exchanges (exchange platforms in French) are the latest arrivals in the ecosystem. They have enormous commercial power. In fact, they can have a very strong impact on the price of a cryptocurrency.
In just 5 years of existence, the Binance platform has become a world leader. The BNB token has experienced a significant increase because the platform “pushes” if not forces users to buy BNB to reduce platform fees.
Moreover, almost all exchange platforms proceed in this way. All it takes is for a platform to delist/remove a token from its list for it to lose its value.
Thus, crypto trading platforms can manipulate prices in several ways.
The whales, the actors behind the price of Bitcoin
The Whales (whales in English) are people who own a large amount of a given crypto.
They can cause real cataclysm on the markets. You can read our article: How crypto whales can influence crypto prices.
Bitcoin whales are very often the people/miners who got into bitcoin in the beginning. At least for the first 5 years. Now, apart from investment funds and banks, it is very difficult to become a bitcoin whale.
Very often, the whales of other cryptos are the founders of projects.
Media and influencers have the power to create hype
The media has a very important role in the bitcoin ecosystem. In fact, most of the media that talked about bitcoin were basically news blogs. These were free sites where you could make donations. The aim was to inform.
An untold number of people have learned the basics of technology from articles written by enthusiasts.
Concrete explanations, tutorials and knowledge sharing were the key elements for mass adoption.
Without the media and without the blogs, bitcoin could have remained largely unknown to the general public. He might even have been completely hated. The mainstream press has not always been kind to bitcoin, if only for its Pollution (exaggerated). Then, hundreds of times, the press stated that bitcoin was dead. A mistake. In short, this could have been a technology that would have been lost without public enthusiasm.
Crypto media and journalists participated in its mass adoption.
Crypto influencers
Recently, new actors have appeared. Generally, they include content written on blogs.
Crypto influencers have an increasingly important role in the bitcoin ecosystem. Social networks are full of influencers of all kinds and the year 2020 was the full boom of these new professions.
There are several profiles. Some are purely crypto evangelists. They popularize blockchain out of passion and being disinterested in profits. Sometimes, they do it almost in spite of themselves. This is for example the case ofElon Musk who had climbed the BTC price (and especially Dogecoin) with a few tweets..
These are the rarest profiles today. In the past, when YouTube Money was not as attractive, there was a majority of this type of popularizer. We find, for example, the case of Antonio Populous, for example. One of the first YouTubers to talk about bitcoin.
There are also those who already have an audience and influence who can impact the price of cryptos. Typically we can think of Elon Musk who with a simple tweet made it popular dogecoin.
(You can read the incredible history of Dogecoin.)
There are also crypto influencers who create their own products. Training, books or crypto services. They popularize cryptocurrencies, and at the same time try to sell their service to their community.
Crypto influence can be a good thing for the ecosystem because it helps make cryptocurrency known to as many people as possible, in a simple way.
The fault lies in the low quality of the recommendations. Many give visibility to shitcoins or projects without any interest.
This tends to dirty the ecosystem and scare away the best minds.
The community, you and me
Then there are all the people who are interested in crypto. It was then a disparate community that made Bitcoin’s popularity grow.
The community is international and its common base is the approval of this technology, hence a strong commitment (particularly social).
In fact, without community, the market would not exist. It has the power to bring a cryptocurrency into existence in the literal sense.
In fact, if there are no bitcoin users, no bitcoin ecosystem, no community, then bitcoin would cease to exist. The software could work but then it would have no meaning, no appeal.
Community is the blood that flows through the veins. Yes, we wanted to reuse the metaphor of the human body 😉
💊 Note: There is a Orange Pill App which allows you to meet and chat with bitcoiners from all over the world.
Finally, who controls Bitcoin?
Well, you have the answer now. Nobody and everyone at the same time. It is precisely this balance between the different forces of the actors that makes bitcoin so controlled and uncontrollable at the same time. It is the collaborative strength of the bitcoin ecosystem that makes bitcoin what it is today.
Everyone has a role to play. Everyone can help make Bitcoin grow and live.
One of the most beautiful inventions of humanity, that's for sure.
Everything was originally thought of by cypherpunks, cryptographies and the incredible Satoshi Nakamoto…
👨🏼🏫 Read other related articles:
- CypherPunk and how did they influence the creation of Bitcoin?
- The 10 people who shaped the history of Bitcoin from the beginning
- The Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP): What's this?
- The problem of “scalability” bitcoin and the solutions provided
- Read the Ultimate Guide to Bitcoin for beginners
- The 7 preconceived ideas about bitcoin
Note: No financial advice is given in this or any other article on zonebitcoin. This is information of which you are the sole judge and master. Be responsible with your investments and only invest as much as you are willing to lose.
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