Today’s Bitcoin Weekly continues the regular discussion of the Bitcoin block size debate–with new links to discussion ongoing that includes both community and Bitcoin Core contributors. There has also been an interesting open letter released by multiple signatories, all of whom are contributors to Bitcoin Core, that addresses the need for Bitcoin governance workshops this year as this debate continues.

Some schadenfreude is also on the horizon as the second federal agent, an ex secret service agent, has admitted to stealing over $8,000 in bitcoins from the Silk Road during the investigation. The trial and conviction of Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road’s administrator aka the Dread Pirate Roberts, is cooling in the news, but may see a little more attention as details continue to surface.

The Vermont state government may be looking into using the Bitcoin blockchain, the global ledger that contains every bitcoin transaction, in the future to prove the provenance and existence of documents, records, and facts, according to legislation. With Factom already working with the government of Honduras to use the blockchain to store and secure land ownership records, this could become the next example of using blockchain technology for government security.

Finally, today’s video is Gavin Andresen, chief scientist of the Bitcoin Foundation, speaking to the Bitcoin block size and how community and code governance works.

Block size debate continues

This last week has continued to see further debate about the block size. Reddit’s daily posts also continue: August 27, August 28, August 29, August 30, August 31, September 1, September 2.

To help visualize the debate’s sides and those choosing to promote one solution or another, CoinDesk has published a dynamic graph of who supports what. Looking at the chart most major Bitcoin mining outfits (21 Inc., BitFury, BTCChina, etc.) support BIP 100, whereas amid services (BitGo, BitPay, Circle, Blockchain.info, etc.) most support BIP 101.

An Open Letter to the Bitcoin Community from the Developers

A letter has surfaced from “the developers” of Bitcoin signed by a lot of names that many in the Bitcoin community may recognise. For example, amid the signatories are Wladimir J. van der Laan, the current maintainer of the Bitcoin Core repository; Pieter Wuille, developer and co-founder at Blockstream who has also made a proposal in the block size debate; Peter Todd, Bitcoin Core developer; Gregory Maxwell, co-founder and chief technology officer at Blockstream; and Luke Dashjr, Bitcoin Core developer and founder of the Eligius mining pool.

photo credit: Bitcoin IMG_1924 via photopin (license)

Notable absences from the list include Mike Hearn and Gavin Andresen (creators of the Bitcoin XT client), see below; it also was not signed by Jeff Garzik, Bitcoin Core developer and author of the BIP 100 proposal [PDF].

The signatories seek to calm the community as it comes to Bitcoin scalability–which is manifesting currently in the block size debate–as to how the developers and contributors to Bitcoin Core intend to address it and future issues. The letter also calls for a methodical and careful approach to dealing with both security and scalability now and in the future.

The letter also mentions that communication is key to community and as a result two Bitcoin scalability workshops have been scheduled: the first will take place in Montreal, September 12-13, whereas the second workshop is planned for December 6-7 to be hosted in Hong Kong. The idea is to provide global cover to Bitcoin’s userbase.

Read the whole letter at Bitcoin Magazine.

Mike Hearn has responded to the open letter. He did so on the /r/Bitcoin subreddit on Reddit in a thread dedicated to the Open Letter. He starts his reply with, “I wasn’t asked to sign it. The first time I saw it was today,” and adds that he found a few statements he “would have found it tough to agree with.”

Jeff Garzik also appeared in Mike Hearn’s comment thread, who said that he would present his material at one of the workshops.

OKCoin restricts bitcoin deposits from US customers

China-based Bitcoin exchange OKCoin (OKCoin.com OKEX Technology Pte Ltd.) has started restricting deposts of bitcoins from United States residents. The reason is cited to be regulatory pressures in China.

US-based users of the exchange are greeted with this message:

“Notes: Due to regulation, we don’t accept the charge from the US.”

According to a OKCoin spokesperson who contacted CoinDesk the move was voluntary and messages from the company suggest it may be temporary.

“The latest change is part of an internal review we made on our policies,” OKCoin head of international Jack Liu said, “and affects Level 1 individuals who self-indicated as US citizens.”

Government of Vermont looking into blockchain technology

The Vermont state government may be the next government to start using the Bitcoin blockchain. CoinTelegraph unearthed a piece of legislation signed into law by Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, “No. 51. An act relating to promoting economic development. (S.138),” which contains a section named “Sec. A.3. Study and Report; Blockchain Technology.”

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin photo credit: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

The takeaway from the legislation appears to be that if the committee formed to study blockchain technology found favorable news the state could use it for “verification of a fact or record” and that facts or records verified in this manner would “have a presumption of validity for matters to be determined subject to, or in accordance with, the laws of the State of Vermont.”

The other takeaway is that the legislation refers only to the Bitcoin blockchain as “blockchain,” and surreptitiously leaves out Bitcoin. While there are other blockchains–such as Ethereum, Litecoin, and other private-possible implementations–none of them has the security and hashpower provided by the Bitcoin blockchain. As a result it could be extremely useful for such purposes as providing provenance to facts or records. To understand more about this see the City of Paradigm column about the “world wide ledger.”

Factom, a company that uses the Bitcoin blockchain to secure “facts” and provide provenance for records, has been working with the government of Honduras to secure records of land ownership already. As the deal is still cooking, details are scarce, but it is one of the current best examples of how the blockchain could be used by a government entity.

US federal agent admits to bitcoin theft in Silk Road investigation

The fall of Silk Road, and the trial of Ross Ulbricht, the Dread Pirate Roberts admin of the dark web site, led to a lot of interesting revelations. One of those happened to be the involvement of two federal agents thought to have stolen money from the site.

According to The Guardian, Shaun Bridges, former US secret service agent, appeared in federal court and admitted to multiple charges of money laundering and obstruction of justice. He also pled guilty to the theft of over $8,000 worth of bitcoin.

Previously, Carl Force, former undercover DEA agent in the same task force as Bridges, pled guilty to similar charges before another federal court.

The Silk Road trial led to discussions about bitcoin and its involvement in the dark web marketplace. However, for the most part the use of bitcoin as a currency on the Silk Road did not feature in the trial itself.

Oxford Dictionaries adds “blockchain” to the lexicon of informal words, it joins “bitcoin” and “cryptocurrency.”

Oxford Dictionaries Online adds “blockchain” to lexicon

The online version of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford Dictionaries Online at OxfordDictionaries.com, has just added the word “blockchain” to the lexicon of informal language.

The definition follows the basic concept of what a blockchain is, “A digital ledger in which transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are recorded chronologically and publicly.” The definition even mentions Bitcoin, which is the definitive infrastructure for a broadly adopted, operating blockchain right now.

For readers interested “bitcoin” and “cryptocurrency” are both also in the Oxford Dictionaries lexicon; added in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Gavin Andresen: On the Blocksize and Bitcoin’s governance

Gavin Andresen: On The Blocksize And Bitcoin’s Governance

With the Bitcoin scalability and block size debate ongoing, roping in the developers and community, it may be a good time to catch up with how it all works. Gavin Andresen, chief scientist of the Bitcoin Foundation, spoke to what’s important about the block size and how Bitcoin governance and community works when it comes to the code.

Featured image credit: via Associated Press