“One of the many ways Bitcoin is an experiment is through the decentralized development model,” Amiti Utarwar explained. Whether it is a non-profit or private company, the vast majority of software projects have a central structure to direct funding, prioritize projects and coordinate efforts. But Bitcoin’s community consensus model is essential to resist constant censorship. While it is not easy to convince tens of thousands of individual computers to agree, convincing thousands of humans to agree is arguably the greatest challenge.”
As a Bitcoin Core developer, Uttarwar is understandably fascinated by Bitcoin’s unique consensus model. She chose to focus on this community-led open source project full-time in 2019, taking a significant pay cut from her engineering role with Coinbase, and has since received grants to continue her work from OKCoin, BitMEX operator HDR Global, and twin.
Her previous contributions to her database It changed the logic of Bitcoin address managementAnd Basically the contact address shifted And Reduce privacy leaks caused by broadcasting the transaction. Today, its development focus is improving support for privacy-enhancing communication layers such as Tor, I2P, and CJDNS by collaborating with Chaincode Labs’ Martin Zumsande.
“While bitcoin users can run nodes on multiple networks at the moment, the benefits are limited and often require a deep level of understanding from the node operator,” Otarwar said. Our current project is to enable automatic connections to nodes on every network that a user has enabled. With our work, if a user has enabled clearnet (with IPv4 or IPv6 interfaces) and Tor on their Bitcoin node, the node will seek to ensure that at least one of its external connections Tithe with an onion counterpart on the Tor network.”
For Uttarwar, which has seen its work integrated into the Bitcoin Core update and which relies on the larger community of Bitcoin developers for feedback and critical review of its work, the decentralization that underpins this software project is more than a development model, it is also a responsibility.
“Honoring decentralization in the world of Bitcoin development requires the participation of Bitcoin users at different levels of expertise,” she said. “For example, a protocol upgrade can only happen if users around the world decide to adopt the code and activate the new logic… The question of what makes Bitcoin better evokes strong opinions in the community, but whether or not it advocates ossification.” Fork methodology, funding developers or moderators choice, the question underpinning all of these conversations is: How do we agree on what Bitcoin needs in a decentralized way?
Exploring this existential question will be Otarware’s focus at the upcoming Bitcoin 2023 conference, where she is He is appointed to give a keynote speech Entitled “Decentralization Application”. Rather than advocating for a specific Bitcoin project, use case or implication, Uttarwar will use these spotlights to address the nature of regulatory regimes and the unique value of Bitcoin development in context.
“I talk with a cognitive lens, identifying meaningful mental models by looking at the world around us,” she described. “By starting with these examples, I encourage the audience to broaden their understanding of how decentralization works in practice. The rest of the talk relates these questions to daily challenges in the Bitcoin builder ecosystem. Bitcoin relies on nodes running code around the world to ensure resistance to censorship on the network. Requires This goal also supported a decentralized model of development – the community needs to ensure that making changes to the code is not vulnerable to a single point of failure.”
You will also participate in a panel discussion alongside Bitcoin Magazine Aaron van Werdumfounder of Judica Jeremy Rubin and developer of the Lightning Network Tadge Drya Called “Evolution Bitcoin Code” to further explore when and how changes can be successfully made to the underlying Bitcoin software.
Uttarwar sees Bitcoin 2023 as an opportunity to stand up for the work that she and the rest of the Bitcoin development community do every day, furthering what decentralization really means to all of us who enjoy the tools built on top of this technology.
“In Bitcoin 2023, I aim to encourage people to develop a richer understanding of the complexity of what it means to build truly decentralized technology, and how Bitcoin’s success depends on the individuals within the community who contribute their unique interest,” she concluded. . “I’m looking forward to getting a pulse from the larger community, and learning more about what turns people on as well as their current pain points. I’m also excited to connect with different people and discover conversation angles that fuel my enthusiasm for this space.”