The developers of the most popular software for the implementation of the Bitcoin network have big dreams of creating a truly global form of money.
The breadth of the to-do list was easy to see at the recent annual meeting in New York, which brought together many of the most active software developers. In a conversation outlined by Brian Bishep, they discussed development priorities for the coming year.
While not all developers were present at the meeting, it is still getting an inside look at the short-term benchmarks of several key developers of the Bitcoin network, including longtime contributors Peter Vuile, Mat Corallo and Corey Fields. In addition, Bishop took a behind-the-scenes look at the code that now powers the $ 147 billion network.
Indeed, most of the conversations at the New York meeting focused on understanding how the team is analyzing and adding new code. One of the main problems is that although developers submit tons of code changes, there are always opponents who are knowledgeable enough not to agree with the changes due to possible errors.
One developer reported:
As a reviewer, I will not be able to go through all this, and this is actively discouraging.
Some code changes are even lost due to load. Another developer even went so far as to call the growing list of proposed changes "a graveyard of cool ideas."
Prioritization
However, this does not prevent developers from working on other new features. The field of activity of the Massachusetts University of Technology (MIT) has long been working on the creation of a peer-to-peer network code that connects all nodes in a global network.
In an earlier interview, MIT representatives called the bitcoin code a "monolithic blob" that the developers have been trying to unravel since it launched back in 2009. Although there have been many years of work on end-to-end code layers, the developers reported in the meeting that they were “almost done”.
The developers are also working on creating a function for Bitcoin's UTXO. Although the description of the new feature has been small, the developers say they are planning to e-mail the details to their colleagues on the Bitcoin network soon.
This is done to emphasize the distributed nature of the work on open source, where each developer works on the part of the system that he chooses. Although the developers are constantly writing about their work on the Internet, someone may not be aware of other people's developments until the latter are on a well-known forum.
Peter Wuile – perhaps the best-known Bitcoin Core developer who is responsible for SegWit – has been very praising the network scaling code change that went live for bitcoin last year.
His speech at the meeting was brief, but he reiterated that he was focusing on another promising scaling change, signature aggregation. In addition, he is considering solutions to improve the privacy of the bitcoin network.
Speech Corallo, perhaps, was the most technical, describing in detail how he breaks the code base into pieces, which is easier for developers to work with.
There is one particularly difficult thing, which he describes as a "supercomplex", which several developers tried to figure out at once. However, he is not happy with what is happening. "I want to try again," Corallo said.
Protection of sovereignty
Corallo is one of many developers who have focused on making it easier for casual users to work with the underlying Bitcoin Core nodes. While this code is widely accepted to offer the safest way to use Bitcoin, it is generally difficult to set up and can take days or even weeks to complete.
Chaincode co-founder and Bitcoin Core developer Alex Morcos explained at the meeting why he believes why it is so important to facilitate the work.
Although there is a “cultural push” for launching nodes, Morcos said that he is worried that many users do not understand the “real reason” for launching it. He thinks that this network should be “sovereign” or be able to confirm the validity of the transaction, without the need to trust a third party.
Morcos put forward several ideas to make this “full sovereignty” possible for all.
Perhaps one of the biggest problems with Bitcoin nodes is the software is so big that smartphones can't handle it. The software is so powerful that users can only deploy the node on a computer that is permanently at home or at work.
But Morkos believes there is a way to change the situation. He hopes that one day users will be able to connect smartphones to nodes working at home, which will increase the security of the network.
Morcos also advocated the idea of using a full node to verify information about keys stored elsewhere, such as a hardware wallet, which is considered one of the safest ways to store private keys. But while it would have made the software more convenient to use, Morcos was having trouble implementing it.
Morkos said that although he is interested in these ideas, it is not his main task now. However, he stresses that the inconvenience of using a full node is a pressing issue.
Morkos added:
Of course, the goal is to reduce the time to set up and run everything as quickly as possible.