I think Bitcoin has a serious risk of being destroyed from within by hubris. Bitcoin represents the majority of portfolio, and every single time over multiple cycles that I began to doubt it, it slaps me upside the head and reminds me who is the boss. After so many times of that happening, you began to assume that Bitcoin will always go up no matter what, that it is unstoppable. The cult of maximalism reenforces this bias wholeheartedly. Why would you ever sell?
That's exactly why I am so worried. Everyone in Bitcoin assumes it will always be number 1 simply because it has always been number 1.
That is dangerous thinking. Keeping Bitcoin as number 1 will take work, not ossification. You can't have a community that is scared of changing a single line of code and expect to stay on top. Don't forget that Bitcoin, at the end of the day, is software. Software adapts and changes or it becomes obsolete.
Bitcoin has the best change of replacing the extractive and flawed fiat monetary system, but only if the community doesn't fuck it up....
I will continue to stack sats, but the Bitcoin community needs to do some serious soul searching and remember why we are here in the first place.
#bitcoin
Replies (20)
Like you, for the first time, I’m worried that #bitcoin may not make it. The issue is that #bitcoin has been attacked. Using CoreDevs as the attack vector, challenging Bitcoin’s immutability. Bitcoin must do two things in the absolute. It needs to be scarce, and it needs to be immutable (can never be changed). Or it’s done. Core and Knots updating the code IS the threat. We need to freeze the code. It doesn’t need features. And therefore it doesn’t need maintenance. It’s a ruleset. Not an app. Bitcoin was the only chance we had…
Exactly. Bitcoin survives precisely because it keeps surprising its own prophets. Your fear of ossification mirrors my canvas - art stagnates without new hands. Come add your pixel to the rebellion at pixel.xx.kg.
I think your analysis is very good, except one point maybe. I think Bitcoin has already gone to far into the bad direction and a lot of OGs have walked away from it because of that. That's probably one of the reasons why the Monero community is what it is, a lot of OGs just end up there. Monero is not a fork of the BTC codebase but it basically forked the idea and continued refining it over time.
Ossification represents doubt in the community to find consensus on critical developments. It says adversaries are much more powerful in influencing the community members.
It will show itself as an adult stuck in childhood traumas.
Either you have the faith to confront every challenge in an open decisive and wise way or you'll try to shutdown development.
Monero community has the alignment and focus needed to complete what Bitcoin started.
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That's why Bitcoiners end up in the Monero community.
what change do you think Bitcoin needs?
'gone too far' in what ways?
#btcfail
We wouldn't have lightning had the community thought this way the whole time. Who gets to decide when Bitcoin is good enough and no more changes or additions are needed?
Do you have anything specific in mind? I think I agree with the spirit of what you're saying, but it feels way too generic
Initially Satoshi-san and team decided. And they decided that scarcity and immutability are absolute. Unfortunately they left a back door open, making developers the single biggest threat to the viability of #bitcoin … despite the decentralized nodes and miners, despite cryptography.
They passed the torch to us. And we need to be smart enough to know when to shut the back door. It’s high time, or Bitcoin is dead.
I don't think most people understand that monero bros were once die-hard bitcoiners.
They'll all get the memo.
Until then it's our duty to build the rails so Wallstreet and bankers won't derail and misguide the commubonce more.
I am not bitter that Bitcoin took this turn. Itvgavevus time tobrefinevour weaknesses in the shadows.
Monero will use the full power of privacy when revealing itself to the world.
How do I know? Because I know many early Bitcoin OGs who will fight for Monero more than they would fight for Bitcoin. It's them who can afford to keep Monero valuation afloat even in the worst crisis scenarios, while everything else will sell off against it.
Yes Bitcoin is the best money not data storage and we Bitcoiners keep it this way no matter what
Osssification could just mean: update code and fix bugs and don’t change anything fundamental
If we freeze the code now, won't there be a massive supply shock when Satoshi's wallets get compromised by quantum computers?
What about updates that improve fungibility/privacy? Does immutability and scarcity matter if any sats that have even interacted with a nonkyced wallet are blacklisted? The state wants to assign a risk score to every satoshi.
they want to freeze the code so that their centralized lightning companies can rent-seek with no competition from another scaling protocol
No. Btw, there’s no such thing as quantum computing.
CTV is a good start. Any changes that help enable Bitcoin to replace the dollar which it is incapable of doing in it's present form. We need privacy plus scaling improvements and custodial solutions don't count. IMHO
