<div>I think this is an excellent idea. I consider myself to be extremely data-driven and logical in my thinking, and have still fallen victim to thinking "oh great, what's <person I've been annoyed by in the past> on about now?" when seeing something posted or proposed. </div><div><br></div><div>And vice versa, it prevents people from being more partial to a bad or not so great idea simply because it was posited by someone they hold in high regard.</div><div><br></div><div>Simple, yet effective. I would actually even go a step further and say that all BIPs should be done this way as a matter of procedure, I can't think of a downside. </div><div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div>On Sat, Mar 18, 2017 at 10:46 AM Chris Stewart via bitcoin-dev <<a href="mailto:bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org">bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_msg"><p name="fd62" id="m_7222116867636760401gmail-fd62" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p gmail_msg">As everyone in the Bitcoin space knows, there is a massive scaling
debate going on. One side wants to increase the block size via segwit,
while the other side wants to increase via hard fork. I have strong
opinions on the topic but I won’t discuss them here. The point of the matter is we are seeing the politicization of protocol level changes. The critiques of these changes are slowly moving towards critiques based on who is submitting the BIP -- not what it actually contains. This is the worst thing that can happen in a meritocracy. <br class="gmail_msg"></p><p name="fd62" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p gmail_msg"><strong class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-markup--strong m_7222116867636760401gmail-markup--p-strong gmail_msg">Avoiding politicization of technical changes in the future</strong></p><p name="da39" id="m_7222116867636760401gmail-da39" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p gmail_msg">I
like what Tom Elvis Judor did when he submitted his MimbleWimble white
paper to the technical community. He submitted it under a pseudonym,
over TOR, onto a public IRC channel. No ego involved — only an extremely
promising paper. Tom (and Satoshi) both understood that it is only a
matter of time before who they are impedes technical progress of their
system.</p><p name="0987" id="m_7222116867636760401gmail-0987" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p gmail_msg">I
propose we move to a pseudonymous BIP system where it is required for
the author submit the BIP under a pseudonym. For instance, the format
could be something like this:</p><blockquote name="36af" id="m_7222116867636760401gmail-36af" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--blockquote m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p gmail_msg">BIP: 1337</blockquote><blockquote name="89e3" id="m_7222116867636760401gmail-89e3" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--blockquote m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--blockquote gmail_msg">Author: <a href="mailto:9458b7f9f76131f18823d73770e069d55beb271b@protonmail.com" class="gmail_msg" target="_blank">9458b7f9f76131f18823d73770e069d55beb271b@protonmail.com</a></blockquote><blockquote name="9b18" id="m_7222116867636760401gmail-9b18" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--blockquote m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--blockquote gmail_msg">BIP content down here</blockquote><p name="4816" id="m_7222116867636760401gmail-4816" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--blockquote gmail_msg">The
hash “6f3…9cd0” is just my github username, christewart, concatenated
with some entropy, in this case these bytes:
639c28f610edcaf265b47b0679986d10af3360072b56f9b0b085ffbb4d4f440b</p><p name="fdcc" id="m_7222116867636760401gmail-fdcc" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p gmail_msg">and then hashed with RIPEMD160. I checked this morning that protonmail can support RIPEMD160 hashes as email addresses. Unfortunately it appears it cannot support SHA256 hashes. <br class="gmail_msg"></p><p name="fdcc" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p gmail_msg">There is inconvenience added here. You need to make a new email address, you need to make a new github account to submit the BIP. I think it is worth the cost -- but am interested in what others think about this. I don't think people submitting patches to a BIP should be required to submit under a pseudonym -- only the primary author. This means only one person has to create the pseudonym. From a quick look at the BIPs list it looks like the most BIPs submitted by one person is ~10. This means they would have had to create 10 pseudonyms over 8 years -- I think this is reasonable. <br class="gmail_msg"></p><p name="769a" id="m_7222116867636760401gmail-769a" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p gmail_msg"><strong class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-markup--strong m_7222116867636760401gmail-markup--p-strong gmail_msg">What does this give us?</strong></p><p name="5cda" id="m_7222116867636760401gmail-5cda" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p gmail_msg">This
gives us a way to avoid politicization of BIPs. This means a BIP can be
proposed and examined based on it’s technical merits. This levels the
playing field — making the BIP process even more meritocratic than it
already is.</p><p name="faa8" id="m_7222116867636760401gmail-faa8" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p gmail_msg">If
you want to claim credit for your BIP after it is accepted, you can
reveal the preimage of the author hash to prove that you were the
original author of the BIP. I would need to reveal my github username
and “639c28f610edcaf265b47b0679986d10af3360072b56f9b0b085ffbb4d4f440b”</p><p name="a4fb" id="m_7222116867636760401gmail-a4fb" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p gmail_msg"><strong class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-markup--strong m_7222116867636760401gmail-markup--p-strong gmail_msg">The Future</strong></p>Politicization of bitcoin is only going to grow in the future. We need to make sure we
maintain principled money instead devolving to a system where our money
is based on a democratic vote — or the votes of a select few elites. We
need to vet claims by “authority figures” whether it is Jihan Wu, Adam
Back, Roger Ver, or Greg Maxwell. I assure you they are human — and
prone to mistakes — just like the rest of us. This seems like a simple way to level the playing field. <br class="gmail_msg"><p name="1227" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--trailing gmail_msg">Thoughts? <br class="gmail_msg"></p><p name="1227" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--trailing gmail_msg">-Chris<br class="gmail_msg"></p><p name="1227" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--trailing gmail_msg"><br class="gmail_msg"></p><p name="1227" class="m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf-after--p m_7222116867636760401gmail-graf--trailing gmail_msg"><br class="gmail_msg"></p></div>
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</blockquote></div></div><div dir="ltr">-- <br></div><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Andrew Johnson<br><div><br></div></div>