Location: San Fransisco Date: Monday 22nd July Company: Blockstream Role: Co-founder
Pieter Wuille is one of the most influential, respected and prolific Bitcoin developers. While his career began at Google, the appeal of working on Bitcoin's open-source protocol was too tempting and led him to co-found Blockstream.
Pieter has had a significant influence on the Bitcoin project and has the third most commits on the codebase. He has helped to implement some of the most significant changes to the protocol, including Segregated Witness, one of the most contentious hard forks in Bitcoin's history.
As others debate the Bitcoin roadmap, Pieter has managed to remove himself from the infighting; instead, focusing his time on improving Bitcoin. As such, he's now working on implementing Taproot, Schnorr Signatures and MAST.
In this interview, we hear how Pieter first heard about Bitcoin in 2010, entering the world of mining and selling thousands of Bitcoin for $0.20. I also find out what he thinks of Bitcoin in 2019 and what he argues is the threat to its future.
Bonus: we also hear from a Blockstream intern at the end about his experience working at Blockstream and supporting Pieter in developing Bitcoin.