Earlier today the Bitcoin whitepaper has been removed from the bitcoincore.org website. A decision I strongly disagree with but nevertheless fully respect and understand.
I hope the Core maintainers would reconsider this decision, but in case it is final, this PR fixes the link which the README.md has to the whitepaper by targeting the bitcoin.org website instead of the bitcoincore.org, where the page no longer exists.
Craig Wright is a Fraud
Not sure why it was on that other url before
Personally I would prefer to just remove any reference to the white paper in this repo and not waste any more valuable time of the maintainers and regular contributors.
bitcoin.org seems to attract unproductive drama. I'd rather not link to the white paper at all given the choice.
@michaelfolkson That would make sense too. I don't see a reason to completely remove it tbh, but I could do that (practically revert https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/commit/67958519fe22105dff84a3a8118bfc23a8035fb0) if that's what most prefer.
@ben-kaufman: It means we then have to monitor a link on an external site that attracts drama on a regular basis. Reduce the time wasting attack surface and just not link to it at all.
Probably it will be hard for anybody to get this link down? https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/training/annual-national-training-seminar/2018/Emerging_Tech_Bitcoin_Crypto.pdf
It means we then have to monitor a link on an external site that attracts drama on a regular basis. Reduce the time wasting attack surface and just not link to it at all.
There's nothing to "monitor" because we won't ever take it down at bitcoin.org.
I think capitulation to CSW by removing all references to the Bitcoin whitepaper, both on the Core site, and this repo, is quite crazy. Especially the quickness of merges, and the instant locking of community member's attempts to revert the change.
There's nothing to "monitor" because we won't ever take it down at bitcoin.org.
Even if you could 100 percent guarantee that (which you can't, you were stepping down as maintainer a few months ago) then there's the question of whether it should be bitcoin.org or btcinformation.org or an alternative.
I think capitulation to CSW by removing all references to the Bitcoin whitepaper
Not capitulation. Just choosing which battles to tackle head on and which to avoid. There is no slippery slope argument to removing it. This nips it in the bud and lets people focus on more important things.
Especially the quickness of merges, and the instant locking of community member's attempts
Something to discuss on IRC or on the mailing list. This PR is focused on a specific doc change.
@michaelfolkson btcinformation.org is controlled by @achow101. Not sure about his stance on whether he'll keep the whitepaper up on that site.
Not sure about his stance on whether he'll keep the whitepaper up on that site.
I'm not sure either to be fair (no criticism of you or Andrew in that respect). I'd rather not be forced to make a decision between bitcoin.org and btcinformation.org, just remove it and move on.
Preface: I'm willing and available to help Bitcoin Core maintainers in any way needed. If you prefer private talk - I follow most of you Twitter, DM for more secure communication channel.
ACK on PR.
I think capitulation to CSW by removing all references to the Bitcoin whitepaper, both on the Core site, and this repo, is quite crazy.
Agree. This highlights an issue about what else can be removed from bitcoin core and bitcoin core website if a scammer with money and time has issues with something.
Especially the quickness of merges
Yes. Similar things happened few months back and I am not sure why some PRs are merged in few hours with couple of ACKs that may not affect the functionality of bitcoin core but still lead to controversy and other issues. Whereas on some important issues and PRs people don't even respond after tagging them.
This is a PR to fix a broken link. This is not a discussion forum on past maintainer merge decisions. Feel free to discuss that elsewhere (tbh I have been perplexed on occasion too but lots I don't know).
Choices for this PR
I personally won't be spending any more time on this as there are an infinite number of better things to do.
We can always change the link to the following:
bitcoin-cli getrawtransaction 54e48e5f5c656b26c3bca14a8c95aa583d07ebe84dde3b7dd4a78f4e4186e713 | sed 's/0100000000000000/\n/g' | tail -n +2 | cut -c7-136,139-268,271-400 | tr -d '\n' | cut -c17-368600 | xxd -p -r > bitcoin.pdf
It's available on all bitcoin forks
Personally I would prefer to just remove any reference to the white paper in this repo and not waste any more valuable time of the maintainers and regular contributors.
Agree, just remove the link imo.
@laanwj I don't understand why you are hesitant to even link to bitcoin.org hosting the whitepaper.
It's pretty crazy to submit to CSW to the extent that you won't even link to other sites hosting the whitepaper, I get "avoiding drama" but this is just too far IMO. At least link to bitcoin.org, or one of the countless sites now hosting the whitepaper.
Another option is to link to the IPFS version of the file: https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRA3NWM82ZGynMbYzAgYTSXCVM14Wx1RZ8fKP42G6gjgj
Craig, now go and try remove this! Do NOT worry what you give you get back with full force!
bitcoin-cli getrawtransaction 54e48e5f5c656b26c3bca14a8c95aa583d07ebe84dde3b7dd4a78f4e4186e713 | sed 's/0100000000000000/\n/g' | tail -n +2 | cut -c7-136,139-268,271-400 | tr -d '\n' | cut -c17-368600 | xxd -p -r > bitcoin.pdf
So, can we merge this? Considering the fact that @Cobra-Bitcoin kept whitepaper up past the deadline he was threatened with, I think this PR should be merged. Plus, he also gave public promise to keep whitepaper up indefinitely and not tamper with it,
As for any future drama regarding lawsuits (whether they have to do with CSW, whitepaper or whatever) - I already offered my help... as did many others in the community. I understand the desire of developers not to be bothered with issues like this, but the reality is that this attack vector is not going away.
Instead of giving in to bullying and troll lawsuits (https://github.com/bitcoin-core/bitcoincore.org/pull/740), I think it's much better to designate few people from the community who are willing to go to court and can easily bear stress/financial burden to uphold the principles of freedom we all should stand for. Then, for resolving PRs like this - one of those people can merge and if CSW (or whoever) comes back and threatens to sue - you can just punt the request to them.
LFG
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So, you put a pathological liar and a bully ahead of all of us who spent countless hours supporting Bitcoin and you as Bitcoin Core developers.
Thank you for showing how much you personally support us.
A project that's ashamed to link to a document that started it all. Good thing Satoshi is dead so he doesn't need to witness what we've come to.
