Gavin Andresen (formerly Gavin Bell) (born November 11, 1966) is a

software developer Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

known for his involvement with

bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

. He is based in

Amherst, Massachusetts Amherst () is a city in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Connecticut River valley. Amherst has a council–manager form of government, and is considered a city under Massachusetts state law. Amherst is one of several Massach ...

. 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 In the software development process, a reference implementation (or, less frequently, sample implementation or model implementation) is a program that implements all requirements from a corresponding specification. The reference implementation ...

for bitcoin

client software is a computer that gets information from another computer called server in the context of client–server model of computer networks. The server is often (but not always) on another computer system, in which case the client accesses the service ...

after Satoshi Nakamoto departed silently. In 2012, Andresen founded the Bitcoin Foundation to support and nurture the development of the bitcoin currency, and by 2014, left his software development role to concentrate on his work with the Foundation.

Career

Andresen (at the time Bell) graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1988. He began his career working on

3D graphics software 3D computer graphics, sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics, are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for the purposes of perfor ...

at Silicon Graphics Computer Systems. In 1996, he co-authored the VRML 2.0 specification, and later published a reference manual for VRML 2.0. Since leaving

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

in 1996, Andresen has tackled a wide variety of software-related ventures, including CTO of an early

Voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

startup and co-founder of a company that made multiplayer online games for blind people and their sighted friends.

Bitcoin

Andresen was the lead developer for a part of the

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. 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." After joining the developers contributing to Bitcoin along with

Satoshi Nakamoto Satoshi Nakamoto ( – 26 April 2011) is the name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation. As part of the ...

, he went on to become lead developer of the client software for the bitcoin network. In June 2011, he attended an "emerging technologies conference for the

US intelligence community The United States Intelligence Community (IC) is a group of separate US federal government, U.S. federal government intelligence agencies and subordinate organizations that work to conduct Intelligence assessment, intelligence activities which ...

" held by In-Q-Tel to present on Bitcoin. He stepped back as lead maintainer in 2014. Andresen also created ClearCoin, an

escrow An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party (the stakeholder or escrow agent) receives and disburses money or property for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the transact ...

-type of service, which was closed on about June 23, 2011. After several years working on the software, Andresen left the role of lead developer of bitcoin to work on the strategic development of its technology. He conceived of the Bitcoin Foundation which became reality in September 2012. In May 2016 Andresen stated that the Australian programmer and entrepreneur Craig Wright was Nakamoto, but later expressed regret getting involved in the "'who was Satoshi' game", and stated "it was a mistake to trust Craig Wright." Andresen has not contributed to Bitcoin since February 2016. He had become critical of the failure of bitcoin developers to increase network capacity, and helped put together Bitcoin XT as alternative software. His commit access to Bitcoin Core on

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

was revoked in May 2016 after stating Wright was Satoshi Nakamoto. 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".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andresen, Gavin People from Amherst, Massachusetts People associated with Bitcoin Princeton University alumni Living people American computer programmers Place of birth missing (living people) 1966 births