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My understanding is that whoever built bitcoin was pretty darn good at what they were doing. I question whether the best of the best in cryptography would choo

by rattray 14y ago

My understanding is that whoever built bitcoin was pretty darn good at what they were doing. I question whether the best of the best in cryptography would choose to work for a government over earn enough money to spend time building something awesome, like bitcoin. This is coming off watching the video Gary Tan posted recently [1]. To me, the only question left is about leaking. What's a greater incentive against leaking: coercion by a bureaucratic, nontechnical employer (ie; a government), or the bonds of secrecy between close friends in a common cause? Call me an idealist, but I think the latter has a pretty good shot. The number of leaks coming from Apple vs the number of leaks from Google (higher from Apple, IIRC) seems to support this viewpoint. [1] http://sub.garrytan.com/hackers-can-be-business-guys-and-other-lessons-from-an-interview-with-paul-graham-during-the-first-yc-batch-in-2005 http://sub.garrytan.com/hackers-can-be-business-guys-and-oth..., around 12:30 iirc. EDIT: sentence structure.

jiggy2011 14y ago
I may be wrong, but I don't think that being an amazing cryptographer is necessarily that lucrative of a career. Most of your options are going to be government employment (intelligence services/military) or working in academia. If bitcoin was a top secret government development then it's quite likely they would assign different people to different parts of the project with a minimal number of people overseeing the entire thing.
sliverstorm 14y ago
I question whether the best of the best in cryptography would choose to work for a government over earn enough money to spend time building something awesome, like bitcoin. I question whether the best of the best in cryptography couldn't just work for the government TO earn enough money to spend time building something awesome. I mean, at least in the field of cryptography, it has always seemed like the government would be high on the list of places to work anyway. Crypto is a big deal to government, so they are going to be on the cutting edge, and plenty of other top crypto guys work there.
- rattray 14y ago
  Fair point. I rescind the first paragraph of my post. Thanks

by rattray 14y ago

jiggy2011 14y ago

I may be wrong, but I don't think that being an amazing cryptographer is necessarily that lucrative of a career. Most of your options are going to be government employment (intelligence services/military) or working in academia. If bitcoin was a top secret government development then it's quite likely they would assign different people to different parts of the project with a minimal number of people overseeing the entire thing.

sliverstorm 14y ago

I question whether the best of the best in cryptography would choose to work for a government over earn enough money to spend time building something awesome, like bitcoin. I question whether the best of the best in cryptography couldn't just work for the government TO earn enough money to spend time building something awesome. I mean, at least in the field of cryptography, it has always seemed like the government would be high on the list of places to work anyway. Crypto is a big deal to government, so they are going to be on the cutting edge, and plenty of other top crypto guys work there.

rattray 14y ago
Fair point. I rescind the first paragraph of my post. Thanks