For all of us who lived through that time it is difficult because one or both of these guys caused a lot of tension (some necessary and some not). They weren't really the type of people capable of putting positivity into the world, to encourage development across the broader ecosystem or fostering an environment for new people to discover #bitcoin. Most people intuitively knew to stay away and not engage as it was neither the time nor the place to attack and threaten the US government. Their approach lacked perspective, was tactically unsound and didn't serve Bitcoin in the sense they pushed away more people than they encouraged from both an investment and soft dev perspective. Obviously everyone feels shit about the situation - especially for family members who may not have bought into the 'fight the govt' calling but are now hurt by the outcome.
What we learnt from this is this - don't be like these guys. Don't hate on plebs who don't yet understand self custody, don't be toxic towards other devs who might be taking a differing approach, don't create unnecessary splinters or attempt to fracture community because others can't or won't live up to your standards.
We only really have an avenue to win if we are willing enough to listen to each others ideas, adapt and integrate. If you cut through their child like mantras and direct threats to the US Govt there was a lot of sensible stuff these guys had to say primarily around custody etc however they got tuned out due to the nature of their communication approach.
We don't win by threatening or shouting down the US Govt. We win when our tools and methods are 10x faster than their legacy systems and the market demands access to Bitcoin due to sheer performance preference.
What did these guys not understand?
1. First you prove sustained network resilience for SOV stability
2. Second you build out the fastest horse in the MOE (instant final settlement) race.
3. Third (and only AFTER the first two) do you layer on top of Bitcoin for privacy preservation needs across various market use cases.
We are nowhere near step three and these guys were way out over their skis in that regard.
