I don’t get how so many Bitcoin developers, people who have been here for years and are objectively brilliant, still can’t grasp this one obvious reality that’s been smacking them in the face the whole time.
Bitcoin culture will always drift toward purity tests and so-called "narrow mindedness". Some might see this as a bug imported from fiat but it’s literally how the thing protects itself. If you want relevance in this space, you stick to the core principles (fixed supply, small blockspace, cypherpunk ethos, whatever) because the moment you wander off, everyone stops taking you seriously. You are already participating in purity tests whether you think you’re “above” them or not!
And I get it. You want to seem open, inclusive, intellectually flexible, whatever makes your normie tech friends think you’re not part of some terrifyingly closed-minded cult. Heaven forbid anyone accuse you of conviction! But know this, every single time you drift from Bitcoin’s ideological spine, you will lose. You can react emotionally to this, but it’s literally what has happened, repeatedly and brutally. Look at the blocksize war. Look at every attempt to smuggle in shitcoin-adjacent “innovation.” It fails because Bitcoin only survives by being toxically hostile to garbage ideas.
If you want to be part of Bitcoin’s future, you’re going to have to embrace the cult. Fucking deal with it.
