Coinbase's new software removed by Bitcoin.org

Original title: Coinbase tested the new version of Bitcoin software Bitcoin XT but was removed by Bitcoin.org

According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, the company is running a new version of its Bitcoin software, Bitcoin XT, a move that has separated it from the Bitcoin Foundation in the past few days. The company stressed that they were just testing the software; however, the move was criticized by some online Bitcoin forums and even removed from Bitcoin.org.

Coinbase is currently only testing Bitcoin XT (BIP101), more details will be available in an upcoming blog post.

— Brian Armstrong (@Brian_Armstrong) December 27, 2015

Brian's blog post on Coinbase caused a stir among Bitcoin players. Many people asked Armstrong about this on Twitter, so he clarified:

I should be clear that we remain open to other proposals in order to keep moving things forward and #helpBitcoinscale.

— Brian Armstrong (@Brian_Armstrong) December 27, 2015

There is a huge disagreement over what protocol Bitcoin uses, and much of the debate, including at the Scaling Bitcoin conference, revolves around whether to update the Bitcoin protocol, as the current block size is only 1MB.

Many people believe that Bitcoin should become some kind of global currency, but in order to achieve this goal, the existing Bitcoin protocol does not process enough transactions per block - which would save about 10 minutes - to power the development of a modern economy.

As an experiment, Coinbase, one of the world's largest Bitcoin companies, chose to run a new Bitcoin center using BIP101 technology. As advocates of the XT protocol, many Bitcoin companies expressed their support for this.

Coinbase was founded in June 2012 and received $5 million in funding in its first round of financing in May 2013. In December 2013 , the company received $25 million in funding led by three venture capital firms , Andreessen Horowitz , Union Square Ventures, and Ribbit Capital. Before receiving $75 million in investment, including from the New York Stock Exchange, Coinbase had already established good partnerships with Overstock, Dell, Expedia, Dish Network, Time Inc., and Wikipedia.

Coinbase has considerable influence in the Bitcoin space, so this move could have had an impact on the fintech sector.

However, as soon as the announcement was made, Coinbase was removed from Bitcoin.org.

Wow…Coinbase experimenting with scaling Bitcoin only to be removed by Bitcoin.org? Very disappointing.

— Brian Armstrong (@Brian_Armstrong) December 27, 2015

The debate, which emerged over the weekend, is likely to prompt the Bitcoin Foundation to make a faster decision on what protocol should be used for the future of bitcoin, and now Coinbase is at the center of the debate.