Big fan of Cory Doctorow and really appreciate his work, though I’ve never been able to get with his critiques of Bitcoin. It feels like his arguments against Bitcoin get mixed up with 💩 coins. I understand he sees them the same way, but having a legitimate debate isn’t possible if you can’t separate them. Also, some points, like high transaction fees, feel a bit outdated, as the network has evolved with solutions like the Lightning Network. He didn’t talk about climate in this clip, but he normally brings that up too, an issue Bitcoin not only is improving in, but is realigning incentives to encourage renewables in interesting ways.
His argument Elon Musk tweets and it affects your “crypto mortgage” value is true, but that’s not unique to crypto. Billionaires tweet and markets move. Just because these moves are currently obfuscated behind fiat doesn’t mean they’re not affecting you. Also, it would take a lot more tweeting if the market cap were that of fiat.
It feels like he focuses on the potential harms of a new system while downplaying the very real, existing harms of the one we have. I respect his skepticism, but hoping for a better regulator in a flawed system is like staying in a burning building hoping for a better fire department.
