In this interview, I talked to Christian Keroles to discuss why I started Brink, and the process of establishing the organization.

Christian then turned the conversation to the bigger picture of Bitcoin development. We discussed the difference in developing Bitcoin in a bear market versus a bull market, what the Bitcoin development process looks like and how a distributed group of stakeholders can make sure that developers are working on the most important things in the protocol.

Lastly, we discussed Taproot and how it demonstrates that the Bitcoin community has improved its coordination. We also discussed the concept of ossification in the Bitcoin protocol and how developers think about Bitcoin’s code.

Additional topics discussed included:

  • Launching Brink with Mike Schmitt
  • Bitcoin Optech
  • Becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
  • How the donation landscape is changing for Bitcoin development
  • Comparing and contrasting development in a bull vs. bear market
  • Bitcoin and ossification
  • Reflecting on the taproot process