CoinDesk
Published on January 2, 2015 at 17:18 GMT
Anarchist activist Cody Wilson has officially launched his candidacy for the upcoming Bitcoin Foundation board elections, and reaffirmed his intention to try and disband the organization from within if successful.
Wilson nominated himself with a post on the foundation’s forums on 20th December and has also launched a website to support his campaign.
A staunch opponent of bitcoin regulation or centralization, Wilson is also best known for co-founding Defense Distributed, a donor-funded nonprofit organization that designs and distributes plans for the 3D-printed ‘Liberator’ pistol and ‘Ghost Gunner‘ CNC milling machine.
He was also part of the founding team of DarkWallet, the project to make bitcoin transaction anonymization easy for everyday users.
“I will run on a platform of the complete dissolution of the Bitcoin Foundation and will begin and end every single one of my public statements with that message,” Wilson said in November when he first announced his intention to run.
Notably, the Bitcoin Foundation‘s November announcement that it would wind down its education, outreach and public policy efforts to focus on developing bitcoin’s software core appears not to have weakened his campaign.
Wilson’s recently posted manifesto also does not hold back on its combative rhetoric and disdain for the foundation, with its introduction that states:
“This Bitcoin Foundation … was always an embarrassing exercise in bad faith and state philosophy. It was always a vessel for frauds and second-rate minds to collude against the public. I invite you now to its ritual sacrifice.”
Elections will be held 13-19th February for the individual board seats being vacated by outgoing executive director Jon Matonis and current chief scientist Gavin Andresen. Election committee chair Brian Goss posted an acknowledgement that nominations including Wilson’s had been received. Official confirmations will be posted mid-January.
The foundation board also voted in November to retire the Founding Member seat of chairman Peter Vessenes, to be replaced with an International Chapter Director Seat to represent non-US affiliates. The goal is to eventually have a board 100% elected by foundation members.
Structure is the problem
Speaking to CoinDesk, Wilson said his complaint is not with any individual or group within the foundation, but the structure of the organization itself.
The problem with the Bitcoin Foundation goes all the way back to its inception and original mission, Wilson said, adding:
“The best way to help your business is to be part of a trade group and lobby Congress for preferential or beneficial regulation.”
Rather than forming a body to standardize and protect an open-source technology a la the Linux Foundation, he said, the Bitcoin Foundation gave itself a wider role with lobbying power and creation of global policy strategies.
Incoming executive director Patrick Murck promised a new era of openness and consultation with the foundation’s constituents, and conducted surveys into what members wanted most. This led to the promise to focus only on bitcoin’s technology.
This refocus on development only, however, is superficial and there is no meaningful break with its current incarnation, Wilson believes. He notes that public statements have not changed the foundation’s by-laws, its established channels of communication or its affiliate programs around the world.
Even if current leaders are sincere, those in the near or longer-term future could simply come in and pick up the threads previous lobbying efforts have left in place, he said.


