MLTalk with Joi Ito and bitcoin developers Gavin Andresen, Cory Fields, and Wladimir Van der Laan

On Tuesday, November 17, the MIT Digital Currency Initiative hosted bitcoin developers Gavin Andresen, Cory Fields, and Wladimir Van der Laan for a conversation with MIT Media Lab Director, Joi Ito, as part of the Lab’s MLTalks series.

This 90 minute talk covered a large range of topics that will interest many people involved in or intrigued by bitcoin, from open source developers, to entrepreneurs, to large companies and governments.

Joi Ito, Cory Fields, Gavin Andresen & Wladimir Van der Laan (on skype audio)

Topics included:

• The need for multiple implementations of bitcoin to create a more resilient network
• Ways to engage more people, cultures, and languages
• Governance — how changes to bitcoin core are made through Bitcoin Improvement Proposals and who needs to agree for the changes to be adopted
• Ways to encourage miners to adopt new features via bug fixes and efficiency improvements
• The block size debate and the reasons behind the most recent fork in March
• What it means to be a bitcoin core developer
• The development of bitcoin developers over the years
• The role academia can play in supporting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
• Centralization in mining and how it might become more decentralized
• Gavin’s pitch for someone at the Media Lab to develop a bitcoin heating blanket
• State-backed digital currencies and the role of government in bitcoin
• Whether altcoins, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies compete with bitcoin

We hope talks like these are helpful to the community and look forward to hosting more in the future.

Special thanks to Chelsea Barabas and Laura Seretta for organizing this event!

Brian Forde is the Director of Digital Currency Initiative at MIT Media Lab