I don't agree with the statement that Bitgo was doing things behind the scenes, it sounds to me as if they were following the process of the USPTO. I know my fair share of lawyers, and patents are made public 18 months after they are filed. It's not a secret thing, it's just how the process works. Was bitgo sitting around in a dark room twirling their evil mustaches dreaming about the date their patent was to be released to the public, BUAHAHAHAHA? No. It just happened and they were busy. It probably felt like a good idea at the time they filed it.

The purpose of patents is to assign economic value to ideas. Patents make creating something unique valuable, and can in some situations provide the economic incentive an inventor or company may need to invest lots of time and energy into creating something cool so that others can't immediately copy it. Not all inventions are created by a single person coding something on github. Some take different levels of effort, and there is a valid and defensible purpose in creating economic protections for these sorts of research projects.

Now, has the patent system in the US kept pace with the open source software movement and other changes in the speed of innovation? No. Was it ever worth it's cost? Not sure, I'm not a historian. Does the patent system create unfair barriers to entry for smaller companies and individuals? I'm sure it does, assuming the company ever makes enough of a splash to warrant a lawsuit. But does that mean that we should go around hunting witches and burning people at the stake?

I think the idea of patents is a curiosity, and the views I've read recently are so tied to a specific world view that the need for critical thought has apparently been made unnecessary.

Also, I fail to see why MIT directly compensating developers is OK. MIT profits from both private and government partnerships, including defense companies. I don't see how knowing core developers or MIT asking someone personally about whether it was OK changes matters. Sure are a lot of rocks flying around here with all of these glass houses.