BITCOIN SUITS UP

Bitcoin as a technology worked virtually flawlessly since the moment the genesis block was published. Bitcoin as a cultural force, however, ebbed and flowed as its public perception shifted. One moment it was a revolutionary technology; the next it was a haven for darknet drug dealers. In an attempt to move the needle towards Bitcoin as a force for good, a handful of prominent community figures decided to suit up and advocate for broader understanding and acceptance of all things BTC.

Emerging in the wake of Silk Road, and the predictable scaremongering the site’s existence generated in the mainstream media once politicians caught wind of it, in September 2012 the Bitcoin Foundation came to life. The initial idea had been floated by Gavin Andresen, Satoshi’s pick to take up the baton in his permanent absence, as early as October 2011, when he proposed the creation of a nonprofit to enhance Bitcoin’s reputation and help it gain mainstream acceptance. One year later, it was ready to roll.

Operating as a member-driven organisation, it was envisioned that the Foundation could serve a number of purposes, from interfacing with legal authorities when a central entity was needed to provide a clearinghouse for legal issues. It would centralise Bitcoin advocacy but without centralising its most critical component of all: the network itself.

The launch was announced on September 27, 2012, with Gavin Andresen posting on Bitcointalk: “Please visit the Foundation website for details, and please keep in mind that nothing is set in stone; the structure of the Foundation can be changed by a vote of its members, and exactly what the Foundation does will largely depend on who is willing to step up [and] do the work.”

A Foundation Is Formed

The initial members of the Bitcoin Foundation comprised a selection of well-known industry figures in the form of CoinLab co-founder Peter Vessenes, who became the first Executive Director; Gavin Andresen as Chief Scientist; Roger Ver; Mark Karpelès; Charlie Shrem; and attorney and Bitcoin advocate Patrick Murck. With the Foundation formed, the team got to work with the mandate to “standardize, protect and promote the use of Bitcoin cryptographic money for the benefit of users worldwide.”

Within its first year, the Foundation got a lot done. It began paying Gavin Andresen’s salary so he could work full-time on Bitcoin, engaged with regulators to proactively defend Bitcoin’s legality, and issued grants to important Bitcoin projects that lacked funding. Naturally, not everyone within the community was enamoured with its creation: some understandably felt that it undermined Bitcoin’s decentralised ethos. Critics even derided the Foundation as “a wealthy Silicon Valley business club” or “a group of wannabe dictators trying to unilaterally impose their visions on the Bitcoin community.”

From its inception through to 2013 the Foundation was kept busy, organising Bitcoin conferences and meetups and becoming a point of contact for media inquiries and government relations. In November 2013, the Foundation’s legal counsel Patrick Murck even testified at a U.S. Senate hearing on digital currencies, presenting Bitcoin in a positive light to lawmakers.

Despite this positive start, the Foundation weathered its share of controversies, most notably when CoinLab (led by Foundation chairman Peter Vessenes) sued Mt. Gox (led by fellow Foundation board member Mark Karpelès) for breach of contract in May 2013. Then, in January 2014, the Foundation’s Vice Chairman Charlie Shrem was arrested and charged with conspiring to launder money through Bitcoin in connection with the Silk Road marketplace.

Further controversy came in May 2014 when Brock Pierce – the former child actor turned Bitcoin entrepreneur – was elected to the board and unsavoury allegations about his past surfaced. By 2015, the Foundation had raised $4.5 million worth of Bitcoin but had burned through most of it with little to show. “I had an idealistic vision of the Foundation being a member-driven organization, but that never happened,” rued Gavin. The Bitcoin Foundation had served its time, but for the first two years of its existence it played a vital role in serving as a bridge between the Bitcoin community and the rest of the world looking in.