Luke de Wolf

I can't believe how anyone can suggest without a hint of irony or sarcasm that you have to contribute to a specific open source project in order to have an opinion about Bitcoin. This is simultaneously elitist and mind-bogglingly stupid. It's correct that Bitcoin Core is an important part of the Bitcoin technology stack, but it isn't the only client available, which is a good thing. Being able to understand the code of Bitcoin Core gives you the ability to do exactly one thing: understand the code of Bitcoin Core. It says absolutely nothing about your ability to understand the implications of changes to the system, of what users want, or the purpose of Bitcoin itself, for that matter. Bitcoin Core developers are developing a product, and their customers are the users of the Bitcoin network. The Core developers don't get to dictate what the users are supposed to think. It's entirely the other way around. If the users don't like something Core plans to do, Core shouldn't make the change. Core ignored its users, so now they're getting fired, by users switching to an alternate client.

The biggest flaw of the pro-Core position, in my view, is that it's purely an appeal to authority, specifically the authority of the Core developers. In Bitcoin, you're supposed to not trust, but verify. But we're being told to trust this group of developers who ram through a controversial change without listening to the community. And you can verify what they're doing, too. This change doesn't need to happen. It's perfectly valid to oppose the changes made in Bitcoin V30. It's sickeningly elitist to suggest that you're not supposed to have an opinion about Bitcoin unless you contribute to the code. That's not how this works.

Bitcoin is as much an idea as it is a technology. Bitcoin adoption doesn't happen because the code is impeccable. Bitcoin adoption doesn't happen because the tech is cool. Bitcoin adoption doesn't happen because you can put pictures on a blockchain. Bitcoin adoption happens because it is the best form of money we've ever seen, and because the people who figure that out tell other people about it.