Hang on a minute. Writing toy kernels for an OS is an exercise that grad students do. The other Unix OS for PCs at the time, Minix, was the work of a single individual, Andrew Tanenbaum. There are plenty of other examples.
I don't really know what I'm talking about when I talk about crypto or Bitcoin. I was just musing out loud. In fact, don't even read this comment that I'm writing. :)
BTW, I think the best comment in this thread so far is by myprasanna, who seems to be saying that the premise of the entire question is wrong. Those of us who came late to Bitcoin marvel at how this brand new idea and an implementation came out of nowhere. But it seems to have had a history on crypto mailing lists, and implementation ideas were even discussed in public. Maybe the idea has a longer gestation than it appears.
I specifically said "robust" kernels for this reason. While I wouldn't call Minix a toy kernel, it definitely was not as robust as Linux after a while into Linux's infancy. I'm guessing it was considered something a single person could probably manage due to its size.
I think this actually furthers my point as well. Minix was created by a world-renowned computer scientist. Linux was created by a college student. Did it really require an elite genius computer scientist to make Linux? No, it just required a kid who was interested in programming (as it happens, he was also very smart). Couldn't the same be true of bitcoin?
I don't really know what I'm talking about when I talk about crypto or Bitcoin. I was just musing out loud. In fact, don't even read this comment that I'm writing. :)
BTW, I think the best comment in this thread so far is by myprasanna, who seems to be saying that the premise of the entire question is wrong. Those of us who came late to Bitcoin marvel at how this brand new idea and an implementation came out of nowhere. But it seems to have had a history on crypto mailing lists, and implementation ideas were even discussed in public. Maybe the idea has a longer gestation than it appears.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5548682