Opinions on Bitcoin are always creating a lot of interesting discussions. One of the most recent discussions revolved around whether or not multi-million dollar Bitcoin companies should invest in the development of the protocol. A lot of people will agree with that statement, yet very few of them seem to be doing so.
Several Bitcoin companies are actively investing in the ecosystem already. Whether that is by adding more mining hardware, creating blockchain explorer services, or adding new mining pools, there is a fair bit of productive work going on behind the scenes. However, most of these efforts will only benefit the company itself directly, and not necessarily the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Mainly exchange platforms are getting very rich by riding the coattails of the currencies they support. None of them is actively investing in any cryptocurrency development so far, which is rather surprising. While no one is saying they should actively back altcoin development – that would be a conflict of interest – they could spend a portion of their profits on advancing Bitcoin itself.
Developers contribute a lot of their free time to the future of Bitcoin as an ecosystem. Some coders even do this full-time, albeit not everyone is getting paid the correct amount of money for it. If it were not for the MIT Media Lab, hardly any developers would get funded, to begin with.
The big problem with a company or wealthy individual sponsoring Bitcoin development is their potential political agenda. There are always rumors regarding individual backers trying to push their own agenda in the Bitcoin world. It is a part of human nature to expect something in return, especially when there is money involved.
Moreover, there is also the question of how this funding should be distributed. Based on effort, or backing the group of developers one likes? Should these rewards be issued at a fixed rate, or will a new structure need to be developed? All valid questions which no one has a clear answer to, for now. But one thing’s for sure: Bitcoin companies all need to actively contribute to the Bitcoin protocol, and do things that benefit everybody instead of only themselves.
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