One of the main developers of Blockstream, a pioneer company specialized in blockchain, announced its withdrawal from the project to work independently in the technical development of Bitcoin.
Gregory Maxwell stopped working with the company since this year. After having submitted his resignation in November 2017, he notified the other Blockstream members via email about his decision on Friday, January 19.
In order to spend more time working independently on the protocol, especially in new cryptographic privacy and security technology for Bitcoin, I resigned Blockstream last November. It was until the end of December that I canceled my participation.
Maxwell pointed out that the objectives set out at the beginning with Blockstream have been met successfully. In addition, his words make him look confident to have left the company at a time when it is mature enough to continue its course facing the challenges to come.
We hoped that Blockstream could function as a support anchor for the development of technology, and thereby help grow the community. I think it has been a great success. The Bitcoin Industry has matured a lot and nowadays Bitcoin Core receives contributions from many organizations (such as Chaincoide, DCI, Blockstream, Coinbase, Bitmain, Blockchain and probably others that I am missing or that I am not yet aware of) and a a much larger and more active community of volunteers than there has been before.
Blockstream also published some farewell words for Maxwell on behalf of Samson Mow, in which they support his decision and wish him success. "Although we will miss having him around daily, we are also happy that he can focus his attention more on the Bitcoin ecosystem," the company said.
The company notes that Greg worked in Blockstream since its founding in 2014, contributing to the development of side chains, confidential transactions and what was his idea, the Blockstream Satellite, a tool designed to transmit blockchain nodes by radio waves. The company announced that CTO (Chief Technical Operator) will be shared by Andrew Poelstra, Research Director, and Adam Back, CEO of blockstream and one of several developers in which Satoshi Nakamoto entrusted the Bitcoin project.
We wish Greg the best and we thank him for his many contributions to Blockstream during these years. Since our commitments to Bitcoin and the development of open source are still valid, we will continue to collaborate with Greg in the development of the Bitcoin protocol and in the expansion of the Blockstream Satellite capabilities.
This week, Blockstream launched an online store to test the operation of Lightning Network, a sidechain protocol designed to work in the Bitcoin blockchain, which aims to make transactions faster and cheaper.
However, this launch was received with mixed opinions within the Bitcoin community, among which expressions of support and rejection were appreciated. For example, Cobra, creator of Bitcoin.org, wrote on Twitter to catalog the promotion of the use of Lightning Network in the main network as an irresponsible act, since users are in danger of losing their money.
Recently, Blockstream partnered with Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE), which owns and operates the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The alliance aims to open a channel of information on the prices and financial behavior of the main cryptocurrencies that has been called Cryptocurrency Data Feed.