Bitcoin: Code of Conduct stifled open source concerns
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.
10:00 Tue, 24 Feb 2026
If BitCoin is just another ponzi scheme, how did it grow over fifteen years to achieve $4 trillion valuation in broad daylight?
One of the tactics used has been the affiliation with the open source or free software methodologies and communities.
Some contributors embraced it early on. Others were openly sceptical but had to bite their tongues because of the Code of Conduct gaslighting.
As more and more communities were tricked into adopting the Code of Conduct gaslighting, there were fewer and fewer ways insiders could raise concerns that BitCoin might be nothing more than a ponzi scheme based on cryptography.
Here is a comment that Paul Boddie made to the FSFE misfits in 2011 ( source):
Chris Woolfrey: What about BitCoin?
Boddie: I think there are huge trust and credibility issues with BitCoin, sadly. But there are apparently alternative payment services out there that are as easy to adopt as PayPal, so it’s just a matter of using them. And again, it’s easy to get hung up on matters like this, but one effective means of taking registration payments is bank transfers. If you are only dealing with people from countries whose banks don’t regard you as being insane when you ask to make a transfer to someone else’s account, especially in another country, then just accepting bank transfers is a viable option.
From the debian-private (leaked) gossip network, I found a message where Phil Hands suggests third parties could be given licenses to use the Debian trademark in exchange for BitCoin.
Subject: Re: Webian? Resent-Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2011 19:58:19 +0000 (UTC) Resent-From: debian-private@lists.debian.org Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:07:31 +0100 From: Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> To: Faidon Liambotis <paravoid@debian.org>, debian-private@lists.debian.org, leader@debian.org
On Thu, 9 Jun 2011 18:53:22 +0300, Faidon Liambotis <paravoid@debian.org> wrote: > Hi, > > On this week's LWN there is an article about Webian, a project aiming to > create an operating system based on Mozilla and web technologies a la > ChromeOS (as I understand it). > > Apparently, there is no relation to Debian at all, besides both having > the goal of producing an operating system. > > Personally, I find the use of the name "Webian" and the similarity to > our name a bit unfortunate and perhaps as a trademark infringement (but > IANAL).
*sigh*
Likewise IANAL, but as I understand it, if one does not defend a trademark, one risks losing it.
I suppose if we were to decide that we didn't mind too much, rather than telling them to change the name, we could sell them a license to use it (for some bitcoins perhaps?), just so that we can demonstrate that we're defending the mark when someone we really don't like comes along.
It would be better if they changed it though.
Oh, and if we're telling people off about that, perhaps there's another candidate here:
https://launchpad.net/webian
although that does look like a dead project, but it might be worth submitting a Cease&Desist as a bug report, asking them to leave the notice at that URL as something for Google to find, so the next person to think they're being original can find out that they're not.
Actually, we (well, sort-of we) have apparently been using the name since 2006, not that this seems to have come to anything:
http://wiki.debian.org/JoseParrella#Webian
bit it does rather nicely demonstrate that they should have expected trouble.
Also, this is _Mozilla_ violating our trademark, right? *raise eyebrow*
Cheers, Phil. -- |)| Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560] http://www.hands.com/ |-| HANDS.COM Ltd. http://www.uk.debian.org/ |(| 10 Onslow Gardens, South Woodford, London E18 1NE ENGLAND
In 2012, Stéphane Glondu traveled from France to London for the Bitcoin conference:
Subject: [VAC] 12-16 September, London Resent-Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2012 09:17:24 +0000 (UTC) Resent-From: debian-private@lists.debian.org Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:17:02 +0200 From: Stéphane Glondu <glondu@debian.org> To: debian-private@lists.debian.org
Hi,
I'll be in London from the 12th to the 16th, attending the Bitcoin conference[1] during the week-end.
Other than that, I would be happy to share some keys and sign some beer. My (French) cell number is known to LDAP.
Cheers,
-- Stéphane
¹: http://bitcoin2012.com/
Martin Krafft told us One day, Bitcoin will rule. As the saying goes, every dog has its day. Maybe that day has been and gone when it peaked in October 2025.
Subject: Re: Want to buy Bitcoin? Have a US credit card? Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2014 20:19:27 +0200 From: martin f krafft <madduck@debian.org> Organization: The Debian project To: debian private list <debian-private@lists.debian.org>
Thank you for all your kind responses and offers. I found exactly my model on Ebay, one week old (post-exhibition sale, almost 50% off, so I went for that and shelled out to Paypal. One day, Bitcoin will rule…).
Here's a bit of info coming back. People suggested other sites, but none of them had the model I sought. Notably, overstock.com came close and does accept Bitcoin.
So I am all set now, but obviously, … if someone from the US still wanted Bitcoin, we could set up a deal and avoid exchange commissions on both sides (as I will be needing USD for DC14)…
-- .''`. martin f. krafft <madduck@d.o> @martinkrafft : :' : proud Debian developer `. `'` http://people.debian.org/~madduck `- Debian - when you have better things to do than fixing systems "the only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future." -- oscar wilde
Continue reading the inconvenient truth about cryptocurrency.
The author holds an MIT MicroMasters in Data, Economics and Development Policy. He does not hold any crypto "assets". Swiss financial regulator FINMA will neither confirm nor deny an investigation on this blog precipitated the resignation of their deputy CEO . █