In a recent episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Jad Wahab, Director of Technology for the Bitcoin Association for BSV, shares insights on his work and the general mission of the Bitcoin Association. A larger part of the episode focused on how the Association is nourishing the Bitcoin (SV) ecosystem. Let’s take a closer look.
The Bitcoin Association’s global mandate – Protect the protocol and empower builders
Jad Wahab describes how his work is ‘a lot more global’ than compared to his previous role at nChain, a company that develops technology and patents it based on Craig Wright’s ideas and work. He further explains that the Bitcoin Association is ‘exposed to the rest of the whole ecosystem, the whole economy’. A hint to the broader mission of the Association.
The Bitcoin Association’s global mandate is to protect the protocol of Bitcoin as it was originally designed. Part of that mandate is to help builders (developers and entrepreneurs) understand what it can do and how to apply its utility to their specific sectors and services.
This approach is reflected in the work of the different bodies of the Bitcoin Association. While the Bitcoin Association promotes Bitcoin and the usage of it, it is clear over the past couple of years that that has not been sufficient, as Jad Wahab clarifies in the conversation.
‘We’re not salesmen – we empower builders and Bitcoiners to use the tech to advance their projects!’
As Jad explains, selling the technology itself is a difficult and thankless task that does not give off a strong signal to people. Similarly to how the creators of Uber did not sell the GPS technology itself, they just went off, built a business around it that solved a problem for users and created value. In the same vein, the Bitcoin Association wants to give builders, i.e. entrepreneurs and developers tools, guidance and connections.
Ultimately, the goal is to empower these builders to more easily deliver value using the technology and serve other Bitcoiners in ways not possible without this new technology.
Perhaps the Bitcoin Association is most famous for the events that it sponsors and that it partakes in. Conferences, congresses, workshops, meetups and other events are often BSV branded or mention the Bitcoin Association as a partner or sponsor. However, the Bitcoin Association rarely organises events itself.
Most commonly, BSV blockchain events are organised by entrepreneurs that build on the BSV protocol. For them, this approach offers many advantages. Not only do they create awareness and thus important peers for their own local community, but above all, they make their own products and brands better known. People promoting their own products and brands is a much stronger signal than people just promoting Bitcoin and the technology itself. An important part of this work is also to create understanding for their own work among legislators and regulators.
Advocating for positive legislation
A prime example of this is the engagement of Domineum Blockchain Solutions in Nigeria, which not only had several thousand visitors at its Blockchain Developers Summit 2022, but was also able to successfully explain to representatives of the Nigerian government what BSV is and what enormous potential it offers.
As a result, the Nigerian government included BSV blockchain in the national strategy for emerging technologies and blockchain. As Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director-General and CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in Nigeria, explained in our article ‘how BSV blockchain is creating a system of trust in Nigeria’ this also led to much more positive legislation for blockchain and digital assets in Nigeria.
The story was similar in Pakistan, where the government previously decided to outright ban blockchain and so-called ‘cryptocurrencies’, as Jad Wahab recounts. He compared this to the early stages of the Internet, where porn was a widespread ‘use-case’. Obviously, banning the Internet at that point would have meant to exclude a whole society from big technological advancements. Thankfully, the Pakistani government changed its mind after they started to understand the true utility of a blockchain through the technology of BSV blockchain.
However, getting the legislative framework to use BSV blockchain is one thing. Another thing is to actually put BSV blockchain into practice and use it as an infrastructure.
Providing infrastructure for developers
Jad Wahab gives a good overview of the technical work, which the Bitcoin Association does. He explains that there were no technical specialists at the Association when he joined it. There was clearly a need for the technical understanding required to mediate between builders, entrepreneurs, users and the ones who actually provide the infrastructure.
Infrastructure in Bitcoin mainly refers to software that falls within the scope of scaling. This includes, for example, node software, LiteClient, as well as blockchain services and documentation. Developing this infrastructure is mostly done by contracting out to other companies. However, this software has to be developed in consultation with those who use them for real use cases and therefore mediation plays an important role here.
Another important body of the Bitcoin Association besides the technical team is also the Technical Standards Committee (TSC) of BSV blockchain. The practical experience of building on BSV blockchain must be easy to implement, understandable and practical for developers. Therefore, the TSC is composed mostly of builders who have actual hands-on knowledge and experience pain points themselves. Jad mentioned how the TSC will work on being more reactive instead of proactive in the future in order to be more effective and deliver better results.
Learn more about Bitcoin Association for BSV
This article provides only a brief insight into the work of the Bitcoin Association. There are many more aspects to it. If you want to better understand our work, or better yet, BSV blockchain itself, attend an event within the BSV blockchain ecosystem and follow us on Discord, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.