The bitcoin community is aroused by the proposal to make amendments to the founding document of the first cryptocurrency project. Many theories come up as to who stands behind the message.
A mysterious user nicknamed Cobra-Bitcoin suggested in a Github post altering the Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin paper.
“Since the paper is so outdated, I believe it doesn't do a good job anymore of giving people a firm understanding of Bitcoin. At some point, I think the paper will start to do more harm than good, because it tricks people into believing they understand Bitcoin.”
The author notes that a difference is growing between the bitcoin described in the paper and the bitcoin described on bitcoin.org. The document does not mention mining pools, and some bits concerning privacy and simplified payments verification may be in need of revision.
Besides, the explanation of nodes functionality is also out-of-date, Cobra-Bitcoin states in the comments. He proposes to solve these problems the same way as it is done in scientific research.
“Normally issues like this in other projects would be solved by regularly updating the learning resources, and documents, such as producing new editions or versions of the document to keep it in line with the current status of the project.”
The statement became a matter for a heated discussion. One of the bitcoin core developers Peter Todd admitted that there is a rational core to it.
“Replacing /bitcoin.pdf with a landing page that in turn links to the multiple versions known of Satoshi's bitcoin.pdf paper, along with an explanation of the historical context and what's changed since, could however be a reasonable idea if done well,” he wrote.
But most of the bitcoin community went furious about the idea to amend the sacred text. Many users start talking about “censorship” and a conspiracy against the foundations of bitcoin.
Some supposed Cobra-Bitcoin to be backed by one of Blockstream developers, as the company has been more than once suspected of plotting against the decentralised system. A news website headline once stated: “Blockstream wants to rewrite Bitcoin whitepaper.” But a few hours later the headline was changed to “Someone Wants To Rewrite The Bitcoin Whitepaper” with the initial heading kept in the URL address of the article.
This theory was contested by a Blockstream representative Greg Maxwell who claimed on Reddit that Cobra-Bitcoin is neither a member of the Blockstream team nor a bitcoin core developer. His statement seems confusing, as Cobra’s signature is actually present on the scaling bitcoin roadmap, along with the most famous bitcoin advocates. An average bitcoin supporter not being a developer would hardly be invited to sign the seminal bitcoin document.
Some people suggest that Cobra-Bitcoin is an alternative nickname of another bitcoin enthusiast Theymos, well known for his harsh statements concerning the state of affairs in the bitcoin system. At least, both authors are holders of the bitcoin.org domain. However, all this hardly helps, as nearly nothing is truly known about the identity of both users outside the virtual reality.
