Jameson Lopp’s thoughts on Bitcoin and its development
Jameson Lopp has contributed to the Bitcoin core, created Statoshi — a fork of Bitcoin Core that analyzes statistics of Bitcoin nodes, and founded Mensa’s Bitcoin Special Interest Group. He is currently employed by Casa, a personal key management system, as an Infrastructure Engineer.
Jameson hosted an AMA on Hashnode and here are excerpts of the important questions he answered:
Do you think AI plays role in Blockchain in near future?
I could see it playing a role with stuff such as analytics or running dapps, though I’d have great skepticism if someone tries to merge AI with consensus algorithms.
What do you think are some problems in computing that need to be solved?
I think that computing hardware and software should be designed with privacy and security front and foremost as the default, rather than as an afterthought. This is less of a technical problem and more of a social one; users aren’t demanding these things and thus companies aren’t prioritizing them.
How do you think software updates to blockchain apps will work in the future? Given there is no easy way to enforce individual nodes to run a newer version.
There are a multitude of ways that developers could go about it, and they should really make it clear when users are downloading the software for the first time. You could build the app with built-in versioning that detects when other apps no longer speak the same “language” and then old versions would organically become less and less useful as most of the users upgraded. More drastic measures such as a kill switch that disables the app could also be written, though of course any such open source dapps could be altered by another developer to disable it.
In general, it’s like consensus upgrades — if a new version offers a better experience then a lot of people will upgrade to it and this will likely then incentivize the laggards to upgrade as well.
Do you think that cryptocurrencies such as stablecoins will become something we’ll be able to use in regular stores, or will they remain as a proxy to FIAT?
I don’t really see the value in using stablecoins for retail purchases; their primary value seems to be for moving money between exchanges or as a short-term hedge against the volatility of crypto assets. Credit cards, for example, are likely going to provide a better user experience for payments while being much more scalable. Stablecoins could potentially provide better privacy, though it really depends upon the stablecoin. I’m also generally skeptical of the long-term viability of any stablecoin that it will remain functional and be able to hold its fiat peg.
If Bitcoin were to fail, would be the most likely reason for its demise? Protocol bug?
If a critical protocol bug was exploited and not found for a long time after being exploited (weeks or more) then it would cause a huge loss of confidence.
I still believe that the most likely cause of Bitcoin’s death would be apathy. Everyone has to agree to stop supporting the project in order for it to die.
Will sidechains be able to compete with altcoins for developer mindshare? Do you have an idea what scaling will look like beyond lightning? What roles do you see for prediction markets?
It’s probably going to boil down to the incentives issue — I’d bet it will be harder to become rich overnight by launching a sidechain that is pegged to bitcoin than to launch a new altcoin from scratch (especially if it’s funded by an ICO.) On the flip side, hopefully, that means that developers who are more inspired by building ideas than by the prospect of overnight wealth will end up experimenting with sidechains tech because there’s also less downside if you fail.
With regard to lightning, we’re already seeing some “layer 1.5” solutions such as eltoo that are trying to make channel opens and closes more scalable. I’ve also heard of some folks working on “layer 3” infrastructure though it’s too early to tell what the time frame is to see working software.
Prediction markets, or more generally, information markets, have long been theorized and in my opinion, are sorely needed if we want to build truly free markets. Theoretically, we should be able to make better collective decisions if we just enable people to put their money where their mouth is… of course, there are also a number of negative consequences that can result. It seems like the “wisdom of the crowd” can work in many cases, but not all… and such markets can create perverse incentives that lead to things such as assassination markets. But you have to take the good with the bad when you’re building new tools — it’s difficult if not impossible to build a useful tool that can’t be abused.
What are some of your favorite Blockchain projects?
Lightning
Grin
BTCPay
OpenBazaar
Can you assess the current and future threats to bitcoin from state or central banking actors? What counterrevolutionary moves could we see against the Bitcoin protocol in the future?
While some nations such as China and India have cracked down a lot on crypto, others like Japan have become much more risk averse and want to protect users, while some such as the US seem to be generally embracing it. From what I hear, a number of politicians already own bitcoin, so hopefully, that number continues to rise to disincentivize them from legislating such counterrevolutionary moves… but I do think that the most devious thing nation states could be doing is working to pit us against each other in order to distract us and slow down the pace of innovation.
What is your advice for a beginner Bitcoin-holder regarding wallet security? What are the best practices that anyone can follow?
If you have more than a few hundred dollars in bitcoin, buy a trezor — it’s the best combination of user experience and security that you can get with such little effort. As for best practices, paranoia helps — assume that everyone wants to steal your bitcoin and assume that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Eliminate all single points of failure by keeping multiple redundant backups of your private keys in geographically separated, access-controlled locations.
What do you think 2019 will bring to the crypto market?
Some ups, some downs, and some sideways. There will be no shortage of drama and fud as folks jockey for relevance.
If this got you going, do check out the complete AMA ↓
Thanks, Jameson Lopp for finding the time to host this AMA and help out other devs!
Feel free to suggest other AMA participants in the comments section below and stay tuned about upcoming events on Hashnode.
