I think it was after my first year at Blockstream I asked if I could have regular 1x1s with then-CTO Gregory Maxwell. I was, perhaps, too inexperienced at that point to take full advantage of that, but his form of thinking has been a model for me on how to think about Bitcoin, though I don't always agree with him.
Needless to say, his receipt of the #finneyprize along with Pieter Wuille is fully deserved. It's hard to think of who could even follow that pair, to be honest!
finneyprize.org
truly living legends!
Can you say a little more about his form of thinking about Bitcoin
Hmmmm, there are screeds of text I could throw here: nullc on Reddit, describing various things. But two examples:
1. He described Bitcoin upgrades as like carving from a block of granite, in that you can reveal new things within the space but you can't add things. This captures the counter-intuitive nature of soft forks, where rules can be added but not removed.
2. He pushed back against the idea that Bitcoin was inherently anti-fragile, with an understanding that we, ourselves, are what makes us so! If we all stop pushing (say, because we believe it's inherently resilient!), it fails.
In general, he rejects over-simplification, preferring to understand details. I appreciate that!
true legends, both of them
