BUIP028: Candidacy for Secretary role - digitsu
Proposer: Jerry Chan
Submitted: 2016-09-03
Status: closed

BUIP028: Candidacy for Secretary role - digitsu
Hi fellow members,

I know that my userid here may indicate that I’m a ‘new member’ but I’ve
been in crypto since I bought my first bitcoins in 2013. I have largely
been a holder and steered clear from getting involved in the community
until the XT project split off in early 2015. It was then that I felt
that market pressures have worked to centralize the Bitcoin development
roadmap and that the Bitcoin that I believed in might not achieve its
full potential without everyday folks like us with a day-job taking more
of an active role in the community.

My background is engineering, and have worked most of my professional
career in financial technology in Wall Street banks. Not unlike Bitcoin,
the software that financial institutions run on their trading floors are
responsible for moving billions of dollars of risk a day, and you can
imagine it can be a pretty high stress environment, but tends to hone
one’s critical thinking. I am very thankful for the lessons I learned
while working “in the system”.

I got interested in Bitcoin thanks to its economic implications, and its
potential to revolutionize what is the conventional thinking in monetary
theory. I maintain a blog that talks mostly on these topics at
http://WallStreetTechnologist.com

I was one of the earlier members (#41) though I haven’t spent much time
in the forums as much, spending more time on slack channels (Classic and
BU) and twitter (@digitsu) instead. I am an organizer for the
http://OnChainScaling.com virtual conferences, and I look forward to
being able to contribute more to the community on an interactive
basis.

I firmly believe in a decentralized Bitcoin, which means that there
should be power balances and fair choices that every user is free to
make as an individual. Not just the illusion of free choice – like
choosing between 3 state-produced brands of soap in the former USSR. One
of these choices is the nature of Bitcoin itself, and whether it should
prioritize growth and market penetration vs conservative protectionism.
I believe that Bitcoin is an experiment in money, and thus should aim to
be the best in this regard. Money is a collective delusion, and its
value is only dependant on the number of people valuing it over
something else. Therefore, it is a network effect.

Bitcoin’s value, is therefore its network effect. To grow its value is
to grow the network.

The effort to grow and foster this network effect is analogous to
growing its value, or market price. This can be accomplished by either
making the existing market value(or appraise) the asset more than
before, or by growing the size of the market itself. I believe that we
have exhausted the limits of the former, and it is time to focus on the
latter strategy.

It is in these tumultuous but exciting times that I officially submit my
application for the role of Secretary. I hope to be able to serve and
honor the spirit of Satoshi’s Bitcoin. I hope you will support me in
this endeavour.

Jerry Chan (digitsu)
Thank you.