Gavin Andresen - A Profile of the Man Behind Bitcoin
Early Days
The figure pulling the strings behind the now globally famous Bitcoin, Gavin Andresen has been putting his long development experience to use in making it the premier and most widely traded cryptocurrency available.
Born Gavin Bell in Melbourne, Australia, Andresen moved to the United States at the age of five and grew up along the North American west coast, from the Santa Ynez Valley of California to Anchorage, Alaska and Seattle in between.
The techno-savvy culture of his early years on the West Coast fostered a move to Princeton University, where he excelled in Computer Science.
Post Graduation
Post graduation, Andresen dedicated eight years to software development at Silicon Graphics Computer Systems. His early work there resulted in Open Inventor and VRML, 3D Graphics software tools. Upon his wife's graduation from Stanford the couple moved to Madison, Wisconsin where Andresen experimented with a cooperative venture and also co-authored the guide The Annotated VRML 2.0 Reference Manual with Rikk Carey.
1998 led him to a new base of operations in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he would begin to churn out many works. From Amherst he worked on an Internet Walkie-Talkie, utilities for Prosper lenders, and internet based games for the blind and their sighted friends.
Andresen's work in Amherst included a web-based content management system for Gravity Switch, as well as a portion of the back-end for a search engine for computer science research literature, a gift back to the academic field that shaped his career.
Gavin Andresen and Bitcoin
It was in May of 2010 that Bitcoin came to Andresen's attention, revealed to him for the first time in an InfoWorld article. The mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin and who to this day the public is not able to identify as an individual or a group, gave Andresen the reins on the Bitcoin project.
Andresen proudly contributed to the project and became its core designer and maintainer. His many contributions include the creation of the first alt-coin, the Bitcoin Testnet, the Bitcoin Payment Protocol, and multi-signature transaction support.
He has written nine Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs), and his time curating the code has resulted in the addition of 62,000 lines of new code and the removal of 76,000, an increase in simplicity and efficiency which exemplifies his development style.
Personal Life
Given the current and growing success of Bitcoin, Andresen admits he tries not to let it overwhelm his life. He dedicates numerous nights each year to the Amherst Town Meeting as an elected member, giving his input and time to a town that has been the foundation for many of his endeavors.
Between coding and municipal politics Andresen tries to find opportunities to read science fiction, take a spin on his unicycle, or stay tuned into the musings of his friends on Facebook.
