Thomas Giacomo: The BSV Association wants to be the Linux Foundation of BSV blockchain

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

“The BSV Association is the open-source body of the ecosystem. We want to be for the BSV blockchain what the Linux Foundation is for operating systems,” says Thomas Giacomo.

Giacomo, the BSV Association’s Director of Utility, was among the speakers at the BSV DevCon 2024, where he discussed the Association’s role in shaping the future of the BSV blockchain ecosystem. CoinGeek Backstage caught up with him on the sidelines of the event to delve into the Association’s roadmap.

“We want to be the neutral entity in the ecosystem focused on building open-source components,” he told CoinGeek’s Jon Southurst.

These components include the node software, the overlay services, and the SPV wallets.

The Association also plays a key role in standardizing the BSV libraries, availing the core BSV blockchain features to developers in their preferred programming languages to reduce barriers to entry.

In recent years, regulators have become laser-focused on the industry, leading to dozens of convictions, imprisonments, and billions of dollars in penalties. One area of contention is on what digital currencies qualify as securities under U.S. law, and at the BSV DevCon, Giacomo broke down why BSV passes the Howey test due to its set-in-stone protocol.

“If no one can change the rules, then you don’t have centralization of power. As you can’t change the rule, you can’t affect the price of BSV [as an individual]. That’s the reason BSV shouldn’t be considered as a security,” he said.

The debate on whether tokens are securities has made Gary Gensler the ‘crypto’ sector’s biggest enemy, a role he has embraced and even capitalized on to bring down some of the industry’s kingpins, from SBF to CZ.

In his presentation, Giacomo also discussed transitioning the BSV topology to a Mandala network. Under this model, first proposed in May, a core node center acts as the foundational layer, with sublayers built on top of it.

“The Mandala network has small-world capabilities, meaning that the distance between two participants is very low. It’s considered one of the most resilient networks on earth,” Giacomo explained.

Watch: Teranode & the Web3 world with edge-to-edge electronic value system