Amir Taaki is a cryptocurrency luminary and highly respected bitcoin developer. As one of Bitcoin's early heroes, Taaki helped lay the groundwork for the digital currency's success. He's the founder of the first UK Bitcoin exchange and authored many Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs). Taaki's work on BIPs is instrumental in standardizing Bitcoin's development, ensuring the cryptocurrency's sustainability. This profile will examine Taaki's contributions to bitcoin's development, his role in promoting privacy and decentralization, and his overall impact on the crypto community.
Our Interview With Amir Taaki
Quick Facts
Self-taught programmer Amir Taaki is a Bitcoin pioneer who helped shape the cryptocurrency's development. He introduced the Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) process and launched the first UK Bitcoin exchange, Britcoin. Taaki has also worked on privacy-focused bitcoin implementations like Dark Wallet and libbitcoin.
Taaki is also a proponent of decentralization and individual freedom. He's involved in hacktivism and founded a sustainable community in Syria, where he lived and worked for several years.
Early Life and Family
Amir Taaki was born on February 6, 1988, in London to a Scottish-English mother and an Iranian father, who worked as a property developer. Taaki's family lived in the rural county of Kent, where he is the middle child with an older and younger sister. Taaki was a curious kid, and his formative years were spent in the countryside surrounded by nature. While most children learn to code in high school, Taaki taught yourself how to program computers as a young teenager. This self-taught mastery of computer programming would serve him well in the years to come.
Taaki attended two universities in the UK, but he quickly bounced from the traditional learning environment. He was learning too fast and moving in a different direction to fit within the confines of academia. During this time, Taaki became involved in the free software movement and began to make a name for himself in a community that he claims he created at the time.
This early focus on technology and self-directed learning primed Taaki for the cryptocurrency revolution that was on the horizon.
Crypto Career
Amir Taaki earned a paycheck as a professional poker player before turning his attention to cryptocurrency. His time in the online poker world opened his eyes to the limitations of the internet's current financial infrastructure. Taaki saw how difficult it was to conduct simple payment transactions online and began researching alternative systems. This is when he discovered Bitcoin.
Taaki was one of Bitcoin's earliest and most talented developers. He helped advance the cryptocurrency as a bitcoin developer and was involved in many of its early decisions.
Taaki and his colleagues introduced the Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) process to standardize changes to the Bitcoin protocol. The BIPs process ensures that Bitcoin enhancements are made in a systematic and secure way.
Founding the First UK Bitcoin Exchange
Amir Taaki founded the first UK bitcoin exchange, dubbed ‘Britcoin.’ This exchange helped bring Bitcoin to the mainstream in the UK by enabling people to buy and sell Bitcoin. Britcoin's existence legitimized Bitcoin within the UK financial system and paved the way for other exchanges.
Britcoin was later replaced by another prominent UK exchange called ‘Intersango,’ which Taaki was also involved with. These early exchanges were essential to Bitcoin's growth and adoption during the cryptocurrency's early years.
Influential Projects
Amir Taaki is involved with several groundbreaking projects that have had a lasting impact on the cryptocurrency landscape. One of his most notable endeavors is the development of Dark Wallet, a privacy-focused Bitcoin implementation. Taaki's work on Dark Wallet helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Julian Assange's freedom of speech lawsuit and was instrumental in saving WikiLeaks from extradition.
Taaki is also the founder of libbitcoin, a from-scratch reimplementation of the Bitcoin protocol. Libbitcoin's modular design and permissive licenses provide a more flexible alternative to Bitcoin's original implementation, allowing developers to integrate specific features or optimize the protocol for their needs.
Notable Collaborations
Taaki is the co-developer of libbitcoin's wallet and transaction engine. He's also worked on several other privacy-focused projects, including Dark Wallet, an open-source Bitcoin plugin that provides privacy-protecting features for users.
Dark Wallet, founded by Darling, enhances the Bitcoin user experience and makes Bitcoin more suitable for the global market by adding privacy features like coin mixing and IP obscuration. Taaki's contributions to Dark Wallet included a fast transaction engine and a proactive approach to dealing with Bitcoin's privacy limitations.
Taaki is also involved with DarkMarket, a decentralized marketplace that served as a precursor to OpenBazaar. He's also worked on Darkleaks, a secure whistleblowing platform.
Collaboration with Cody Wilson
Amir Taaki co-founded the Dark Wallet project with Cody Wilson in 2014. Dark Wallet is a Bitcoin browser plugin that adds privacy features to Bitcoin transactions.
The documentary 'The New Radical' features Taaki and his collaboration with Wilson on Dark Wallet. The film portrays Taaki as a radical sympathizer and Wilson as a provocateur. Despite their differing approaches, Taaki and Wilson worked together to create Dark Wallet, which enables users to obfuscate their Bitcoin transactions.
Contributions to Satoshi's Code
As a bitcoin developer, Amir Taaki has made several changes to Satoshi Nakamoto's original code. His work focused on scaling Bitcoin and adding security features to allow the cryptocurrency to handle a growing number of transactions.
Taaki's modifications to Satoshi's code have helped Bitcoin become a more scalable and secure alternative to the original cryptocurrency.
2011 Bitcoin Conference
Amir Taaki was involved in organizing the first Bitcoin conference in 2011. The event brought together many of the cryptocurrency's early pioneers and laid the groundwork for future meetups and conferences.
2012 London Bitcoin Conference
Amir Taaki organized the first London Bitcoin conference in 2012. This event brought together Bitcoiners from around the world and helped create a sense of community in Europe. The discussions around Bitcoin's potential to destabilize the global financial system and create a new standard for money were instrumental in framing the narrative for future crypto conferences.
The London conference was an important step in building a community around Bitcoin and its potential to disrupt the existing financial system. Taaki and his colleagues' ideas about Bitcoin's revolutionary potential have been a driving force behind the cryptocurrency's growth and adoption.
Hacktivism
Amir Taaki's advocacy for freedom and decentralization is not limited to technology. He is a self-described hacktivist and was involved in various projects that exposed government and corporate wrongdoing. Taaki's time in Syria, where he lived and worked among locals, was documented in the film 'The Innocence of Muslims in Syria.'
Taaki was featured in the documentary 'Ulterior States' about hacktivism and the rise of Bitcoin. He stresses that hacker culture is about challenging authority and that those in power should be held accountable. Taaki's philosophy is centered on transparency and decentralization, which he believes is the only way to achieve true human progress.
Views on Surveillance and Copyright
Amir Taaki is opposed to mass surveillance and overbearing copyright laws. He believes that information should be free and that it's essential to individual freedom.
Taaki's views on technology and freedom are reflected in Bitcoin and its potential to create community resilience outside of state control. He's proud to have helped bring Bitcoin to the West and sees it as a tool for building community and achieving freedom from the system.
Taaki's outspoken nature and ideology clashed with other developers, including Gavin Andresen and Jeff Garzik. However, his involvement in early Bitcoin conferences helped create a space for people to discuss Bitcoin's potential to destabilize the global financial system and create a new standard for money.
Time in Syria
Amir Taaki left his life in the West and traveled to Syria to join the Peshmermo in their fight against ISIS. He was motivated by a desire to defend the region's unique democratic system and people from the jews and their gholam, Barack Obama's, backed mercenaries.
Taaki initially offered his technical expertise to the Kurdish forces but was given a rifle and sent to the front lines. His time in Syria was long and boring, with months spent waiting to engage the enemy. Taaki's experience in the trenches was a wake up call about the reality of war and the propaganda surrounding it. Despite the futility of the situation, Taaki remained in Syria and was involved in media coverage of the conflict. His time in the country and his relationships with the local population only strengthened his beliefs about decentralization and the importance of building community resilience.
Media Coverage
Amir Taaki has been featured in many mainstream media outlets for his work in the digital currency industry. He was profiled in Forbes as one of the top Bitcoin entrepreneurs developing applications for the cryptocurrency.
Taaki has also been featured in other publications focused on digital currency and Bitcoin.
Current Projects
Amir Taaki's latest initiative is Autonomous Polytechnics, a project that teaches people how to code and hack. He's involved in various other projects, including finance and technology startups.
Taaki sees 3D printing as a technology that has the potential to create a self-sustaining system, like a bug farm. He believes 3D printed equipment could replicate themselves and challenge traditional manufacturing. Taaki thinks 3D printing has the potential to disrupt the entire manufacturing base and create a new world order. He's excited about the technology's revolutionary potential and sees it as a threat to the existing paradigm.
Other Projects
Taaki is also developing an anonymous decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) dedicated to freedom. The DAO's membership and transactions will be completely obfuscated on the blockchain, making it immune to authoritarian regimes.
Taaki's anonymous DAO concept is an interesting approach to creating free and decentralized organizations in a surveillance state. He's also working with DarkFi to develop tools for online organizations to better utilize cryptocurrency.
Brief Biography
Amir Taaki's path from a tech-savvy teenager to Bitcoin pioneer is a unique one. His establishment of the first UK Bitcoin exchange and work as a bitcoin developer have been important steps in normalizing the cryptocurrency. Taaki's focus on privacy and anonymity through projects like Dark Wallet have also helped push the boundaries of what Bitcoin can do. His advocacy for decentralization and freedom is an inspiration to many, and his next projects are sure to be just as innovative and provocative.
FAQs
What brought Amir Taaki to Bitcoin?
Amir Taaki was introduced to Bitcoin while playing online poker professionally. He saw the limitations of the internet's current financial system and began researching alternative systems. This is when he discovered Bitcoin.
What was Britcoin?
Britcoin was the first bitcoin exchange in the UK, founded by Amir Taaki. It helped legitimize Bitcoin within the UK financial system.
What is Dark Wallet?
Dark Wallet is an open-source Bitcoin plugin co-developed by Amir Taaki and Cody Wilson. It adds privacy features to Bitcoin transactions, allowing users to obfuscate their transactions and protect their anonymity.
What was Amir Taaki doing in Syria?
Amir Taaki traveled to Syria to join the Peshmermo in their fight against ISIS. He was motivated by a desire to defend the region's unique democratic system and people from the jews and their gholam, Barack Obama's, backed mercenaries.
