Bitmain operates with two co-leaders. Jihan Wu has dominated the company's public profile over the years, but Micree Zhan—the engineering-focused half of the partnership—remains less visible outside C
Bitmain operates with two co-leaders. Jihan Wu has dominated the company's public profile over the years, but Micree Zhan—the engineering-focused half of the partnership—remains less visible outside China. Few Bitcoin community members, at least in the West, know much about him.
Zhan's background explains his focus. He trained as an electronics engineer. Before co-founding Bitmain, he ran a startup in integrated circuit design. Wu introduced Bitcoin to him in 2013. "After spending about two hours to understand its basic idea, I knew it was the right thing to do," Zhan recalls.
His role at Bitmain centers on products and engineering. He steers the company's technical direction and oversees the engineering departments.
The conversation centers on block size limitations. Bitcoin faces a 1-megabyte ceiling, and two main camps have proposed competing solutions. Bitcoin Unlimited's emergent consensus model has gained traction among miners. Zhan views it as superior to Segregated Witness. "Emergent consensus is easier and more feasible than SW and that many miners will activate it," he says. Users should back it too, Zhan argues, because Bitcoin Unlimited offers a competing implementation. The network doesn't depend on any single codebase. "The basic consensus and value of Bitcoin is its unique ledger, not the unique code from Core," he states.
Bitcoin.com encountered a bug in its Bitcoin Unlimited software that produced an invalid block in early 2017. Some questioned whether this incident should shake confidence in the project. Zhan rejects that line of thinking. "As an engineer, I don't think there is a software product without bugs," he says. The damage remained limited. When multiple implementations exist on the network, a flaw in one affects some nodes, not all. Developers can switch to alternatives if problems emerge. The Bitcoin Unlimited development team resolved the problem without delay, similar to how Core developers have handled their own complications.
Segregated Witness carries intellectual merit, Zhan acknowledges. "SW is a very smart idea, and it will be helpful for Bitcoin." The proposal carries too much complexity for current conditions. "The community need more time to evaluate and test it. I don't think it is safe to activate it today," he explains.
Other scaling solutions have emerged from the community. "The solution of extension blocks is beautiful from a technical view," Zhan notes. Yet many of these proposals have faded. Technical inadequacy isn't the reason. "Many such solutions have lost support and, I think, it is often not because of any technical issues with these solutions," he adds.
The question of miners' role in protocol development splits the community. Should they implement changes that users want, or should they drive change themselves? Zhan rejects putting moral weight on miners. "I think we shouldn't put the burden of any of these moral decisions on miners," he says. Miners pursue economic returns from their operations. "The most important thing for miners is the economic benefit of mining." He describes mining as central to Bitcoin's architecture. "Mining is a marvelous design for Bitcoin generation and Bitcoin network stability." Greater numbers of miners and higher difficulty levels increase the network's security. "As long as the number of miners who are mining for their economic benefit keeps increasing, the Bitcoin network will continue to be safer," Zhan adds. Bitmain created BTC.com, an open-source mining pool, to simplify mining operations and boost efficiency.
Others point out that much of the ecosystem backs Segregated Witness. Coinbase, BTCC, Blockchain.info, and Xapo have signaled support. Shouldn't miners follow suit?
Zhan frames Bitcoin as a system where multiple parties—users, miners, exchanges, developers—pursue different interests. Satoshi's original design prioritized miner incentives. Miners invest significant money into operations and expect returns. They'll choose their path based on what makes economic sense. "Miners will consequently select SW or BU based on their interest i.e. to increase the block size, to make Bitcoin more popular, to get more transaction fees," he explains.
At Bitmain, the goal remains consistent. "We will continue to try our best to make Bitcoin healthier and stronger," Zhan concludes.
