Gavin Andresen

Last updated
Gavin Andresen
Gavin Andresen at 2014 Web Summit.jpg
Gavin Andresen on the centre stage during Day 3 of the 2014 Web Summit
BornNovember 11, 1966
Other namesGavin Bell
Alma mater Princeton University
Known for Bitcoin, software
Scientific career
FieldsComputer science
Website gavinandresen.ninja

Gavin Andresen (formerly Gavin Bell [1] ) (born November 11, 1966) is a software developer known for his involvement with bitcoin. He is based in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Contents

Originally a developer of 3D graphics and virtual reality software, Andresen became involved in developing products for the bitcoin market in 2010 and was declared by himself as the lead developer of the reference implementation for bitcoin client software after Satoshi Nakamoto departed silently. [2] In 2012, Andresen founded the Bitcoin Foundation to support and nurture the development of the bitcoin currency, and by 2014, left his software development role to concentrate on his work with the Foundation. [3]

Career

Andresen (at the time Bell [4] ) graduated from Princeton University in 1988. [1] He began his career working on 3D graphics software at Silicon Graphics Computer Systems. In 1996, he co-authored the VRML 2.0 specification, [5] and later published a reference manual for VRML 2.0. [6]

Since leaving Silicon Valley in 1996, Andresen has tackled a wide variety of software-related ventures, including CTO of an early Voice over IP startup and co-founder of a company that made multiplayer online games for blind people and their sighted friends. [3]

Bitcoin

Andresen was the lead developer for a part of the bitcoin digital currency project, working to create a secure, stable "cash for the Internet." Andresen discovered bitcoin in 2010, considering its design to be brilliant. Soon after he created a website named The Bitcoin Faucet which gave away bitcoin. [1] In April 2011, Forbes quoted Andresen as saying, "Bitcoin is designed to bring us back to a decentralized currency of the people," and "this is like better gold than gold." [7] After joining the developers contributing to Bitcoin along with Satoshi Nakamoto, he went on to become lead developer of the client software for the bitcoin network. [1] In June 2011, he attended an "emerging technologies conference for the US intelligence community" held by In-Q-Tel to present on Bitcoin. [3] [8] He stepped back as lead maintainer in 2014. [2]

Andresen also created ClearCoin, an escrow-type of service, which was closed on about June 23,[ citation needed ] 2011. After several years working on the software, Andresen left the role of lead developer of bitcoin to work on the strategic development of its technology. He conceived of the Bitcoin Foundation which became reality in September 2012. [3]

In May 2016 Andresen stated that the Australian programmer and entrepreneur Craig Wright was Nakamoto, [9] but later expressed regret getting involved in the "'who was Satoshi' game", [10] and stated "it was a mistake to trust Craig Wright." [11]

Andresen has not contributed to Bitcoin since February 2016. [3] He had become critical of the failure of bitcoin developers to increase network capacity, and helped put together Bitcoin XT as alternative software. [2] His commit access to Bitcoin Core on GitHub was revoked in May 2016 after stating Wright was Satoshi Nakamoto. [12] In November 2017, Andresen expressed support for rival currency Bitcoin Cash, stating "Bitcoin Cash is what I started working on in 2010, a store of value AND means of exchange". [13] [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Kleiman</span> American computer investigator

Dave Kleiman was an American computer forensics expert, an author or co-author of multiple books and a frequent speaker at security related events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Back</span> British cryptographer and cypherpunk (born 1970)

Adam Back is a British cryptographer and cypherpunk. He is the CEO of Blockstream, which he co-founded in 2014. He invented Hashcash, which is used in the bitcoin mining process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hal Finney (computer scientist)</span> Cryptograph and cypherpunk

Harold Thomas Finney II was an American software developer. In his early career, he was credited as lead developer on several console games. He later worked for PGP Corporation. He was an early Bitcoin contributor, and received the first Bitcoin transaction from the currency's creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitcoin</span> Decentralized digital currency

Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Nodes in the peer-to-peer bitcoin network verify transactions through cryptography and record them in a public distributed ledger, called a blockchain, without central oversight. Consensus between nodes is achieved using a computationally intensive process based on proof of work, called mining, that secures the bitcoin blockchain. Mining consumes large quantities of electricity and has been criticized for its environmental impact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satoshi Nakamoto</span> Pseudonym of the designer and developer of Bitcoin

Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, Nakamoto also devised the first blockchain database. Nakamoto was active in the development of bitcoin until December 2010.

Namecoin is a cryptocurrency originally forked from bitcoin software. It uses proof-of-work algorithm. Like bitcoin, it is limited to 21 million coins.

Litecoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open-source software project released under the MIT/X11 license. Inspired by Bitcoin, Litecoin was among the earliest altcoins, starting in October 2011. In technical details, the Litecoin main chain shares a slightly modified Bitcoin codebase. The practical effects of those codebase differences are lower transaction fees, faster transaction confirmations, and faster mining difficulty retargeting. Due to its underlying similarities to Bitcoin, Litecoin has historically been referred to as the "silver to Bitcoin's gold." In 2022, Litecoin added optional privacy features via soft fork through the MWEB upgrade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of bitcoin</span> Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a digital asset that uses cryptography to control its creation and management rather than relying on central authorities. Originally designed as a medium of exchange, Bitcoin is now primarily regarded as a store of value. The history of bitcoin started with its invention and implementation by Satoshi Nakamoto, who integrated many existing ideas from the cryptography community. Over the course of bitcoin's history, it has undergone rapid growth to become a significant store of value both on- and offline. From the mid-2010s, some businesses began accepting bitcoin in addition to traditional currencies.

Nicholas Szabo is a computer scientist, legal scholar, and cryptographer known for his research in smart contracts and digital currency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nxt</span> Cryptocurrency

NXT is an open source cryptocurrency and payment network launched in 2013 by anonymous software developer BCNext. It uses proof-of-stake to reach consensus for transactions—as such, there is a static money supply. Unlike Bitcoin, there is no mining. NXT was specifically conceived as a flexible platform around build applications and financial services, and serves as basis for ARDR (Ardor), a blockchain-as-a-service multichain platform developed by Jelurida, and IoTeX (cryptocurrency) the current steward of NXT as of 2021. NXT has been covered extensively in the "Call for Evidence" report by ESMA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitcoin Core</span> Bitcoin node and wallet software

Bitcoin Core is free and open-source software that serves as a bitcoin node and provides a bitcoin wallet which fully verifies payments. It is considered to be bitcoin's reference implementation. Initially, the software was published by Satoshi Nakamoto under the name "Bitcoin", and later renamed to "Bitcoin Core" to distinguish it from the network. It is also known as the Satoshi client. Bitcoin Core includes a transaction verification engine and connects to the bitcoin network as a full node.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Ver</span> Early promoter of Bitcoin (born 1979)

Roger Keith Ver is an early investor in Bitcoin, Bitcoin-related startups and an early promoter of Bitcoin, and sometimes known as Bitcoin Jesus. He now primarily promotes Bitcoin Cash as Ver sees it as fulfilling the intended and original purpose of the "Bitcoin White Paper," first published in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, in which Nakamoto referred to Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.

Craig Steven Wright is an Australian computer scientist and businessman. He has publicly claimed to be the main part of the team that created bitcoin, and the identity behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. These claims are generally regarded as false by the media and the cryptocurrency community. In March 2024, Mr Justice James Mellor in the British High Court ruled that Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto. In July 2024, a British High Court judge referred Craig Wright to UK prosecutors for alleged perjury related to his claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto. As of 2019, Wright lived in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitcoin Cash</span> Cryptocurrency that is a fork of bitcoin

Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency that is a fork of bitcoin. Launched in 2017, Bitcoin Cash is considered an altcoin or spin-off of bitcoin. In November 2018, Bitcoin Cash further split into two separate cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV).

Wakefield Scott Stornetta is an American physicist and scientific researcher. His 1991 paper "How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document”, co-authored with Stuart Haber, won the 1992 Discover Award for Computer Software and is considered to be one of the most important papers in the development of cryptocurrencies.

Stuart Haber is an American cryptographer and computer scientist, known for his contributions in cryptography and privacy-preserving technologies and widely recognized as the co-inventor of the blockchain. His 1991 paper "How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document”, co-authored with W. Scott Stornetta, won the 1992 Discover Award for Computer Software and is considered to be one of the most important papers in the development of cryptocurrencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitcoin Satoshi Vision</span> Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) is a cryptocurrency that is a hard fork of Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Satoshi Vision was created in November 2018 by a group of individuals led by Craig Steven Wright, who has claimed since 2015 to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of the original bitcoin.

<i>Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery</i> 2024 documentary

Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery is a 2024 documentary film, directed and produced by Cullen Hoback. It explores the origins of the crypto currency Bitcoin and the identity of its pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Simonite, Tom (15 August 2014). "The Man Who Really Built Bitcoin". MIT Technology Review . Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 Popper, Nathaniel (2016-01-14). "A Bitcoin Believer's Crisis of Faith". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Stankovic, Stefan (6 August 2018). "Who is Gavin Andresen - Complete Profile". unblock.net.
  4. ↑ "Buying into Bitcoin". Princeton Alumni Weekly . 13 November 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  5. ↑ "VRML 2.0".
  6. ↑ Carey, Rikk (1997). The Annotated VRML 2.0 Reference Manual. Addison-Wesley Developers Press. ISBN   0201419742.
  7. ↑ "Crypto Currency". Forbes. 2011-04-20. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
  8. ↑ Andresen, Gavin (26 April 2022). "Eleven years ago today..." gavinandresen.ninja. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
  9. ↑ Davies, Caroline; Safi, Michael (2016-05-02). "Craig Wright: scepticism surrounds bitcoin inventor's identification". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  10. ↑ Andresen, Gavin (16 November 2016). "Either/or : ignore!". gavinandresen.ninja. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  11. ↑ Mullin, Joe (2016-05-04). "Craig Wright promises "extraordinary proof" that he is Satoshi, coming soon". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  12. ↑ HAL 90210 (2016-05-06). "Bitcoin project blocks out Gavin Andresen over Satoshi Nakamoto claims". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2019-06-12.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ↑ Lee, Timothy B. (2017-11-12). "Bitcoin rival doubles in price in four days as Bitcoin price slumps". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  14. ↑ Lee, Timothy B. (2017-12-20). "Bitcoin rival Bitcoin Cash soars as Coinbase adds support". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.