Gavin Andresen

Gavin Andresen (formerly Gavin Bell^[1]) (born November 11, 1966) is a software developer known for his involvement with bitcoin. He is based in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Gavin Andresen
Gavin Andresen on the centre stage during Day 3 of the 2014 Web Summit
Born	November 11, 1966
Other names	Gavin Bell
Alma mater	Princeton University
Known for	Bitcoin, software
Scientific career
Fields	Computer science
Website	gavinandresen.ninja

Originally a developer of 3D graphics and virtual reality software, Andresen became involved in developing products for the bitcoin market in 2010 and was declared by himself as the lead developer of the reference implementation for bitcoin client software after Satoshi Nakamoto departed silently.^[2] In 2012, Andresen founded the Bitcoin Foundation, and by 2014, left his software development role to concentrate on the Foundation.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Andresen (at the time Bell^[3]) graduated from Princeton University in 1988.^[1] He began his career working on 3D graphics software at Silicon Graphics Computer Systems. In 1996, he co-authored the VRML 2.0 specification,^[4] and later published a reference manual for VRML 2.0.^[5]

Bitcoin

Andresen was the lead developer for a part of the bitcoin digital currency project, working to create a secure, stable "cash for the Internet." Andresen discovered bitcoin in 2010, considering its design to be brilliant. Soon after he created a website named The Bitcoin Faucet which gave away bitcoin.^[1] In April 2011, Forbes quoted Andresen as saying, "Bitcoin is designed to bring us back to a decentralized currency of the people," and "this is like better gold than gold."^[6] After joining the developers contributing to Bitcoin along with Satoshi Nakamoto, he went on to become lead developer of the client software for the bitcoin network.^[1] In June 2011, he attended a "conference on emerging technologies for US intelligence agencies" held by In-Q-Tel to present on bitcoin.^[7][8][9] He stepped back as lead maintainer in 2014.^[2]

Andresen also created ClearCoin, an escrow-type of service, which was closed in June 2011. By 2014,, Andresen had left the role of lead developer of bitcoin to focus on the Bitcoin Foundation, which he had founded in September 2012.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2016 Andresen stated that the Australian programmer and entrepreneur Craig Wright was Nakamoto,^[10] but later expressed regret getting involved in the "'who was Satoshi' game",^[11] and stated "it was a mistake to trust Craig Wright."^[12]

Andresen has not contributed to Bitcoin since February 2016.^{[citation needed]} He had become critical of the failure of bitcoin developers to increase network capacity, and helped put together Bitcoin XT as alternative software.^[2] His commit access to Bitcoin Core on GitHub was revoked in May 2016 after stating Wright was Satoshi Nakamoto.^[13] In November 2017, Andresen expressed support for rival currency Bitcoin Cash, stating "Bitcoin Cash is what I started working on in 2010, a store of value AND means of exchange".^[14][15]