Nic's Unpopular BTC Opinions @[email protected]

Bitcoin isn't a panacea for the world's evils. It's just one tool. Monetary policy is not the root of all evil, it's just very prone to mismanagement

Satoshi's intentions DO matter. But they aren't binding.

Applications like Opentimestamps are both an incredible application of Bitcoin and also an oblique threat to its security model. Embedding high-value arbitrary data in Bitcoin increases the incentive to attack it and makes it more vulnerable

BCH and BSV have claims to being Bitcoin, as do Litecoin and Dogecoin and every other derivative of Bitcoin. None of them have good claims though

Attempting to impose behavior codes on Bitcoiners is a veiled attempt to gain control over Bitcoin. If speech or behavior codes are ever instituted, Bitcoin will have been captured.

Bitcoin has governance! Governance just means 'a mode through which power is distributed and changes occur.' Bitcoin changes, so it has governance. It's just hard to directly perceive

BCH and BSV have claims to being Bitcoin, as do Litecoin and Dogecoin and every other derivative of Bitcoin. None of them have good claims though

Bitcoiners should be preparing themselves for full Bitcoin criminalization. This won't be an easy road

Bitcoin may well be environmentally costly, but it is absolutely worth it, even if it cost 10x more. Because Bitcoin disempowers debt-financed consumerism which the ultimate environmental scourge

BCH and BSV have claims to being Bitcoin, as do Litecoin and Dogecoin and every other derivative of Bitcoin. None of them have good claims though

Many Bitcoiners lack the mettle to continue to support Bitcoin when the going gets tough and it becomes more regulated, criminalized, and so on.

Lightning has a reasonable chance of not working. I think that's fine

The more unilateral discretion developers have in the system design, the more scope for lobbying and capture. Being extremely resistant to change is a great feature

Bitcoin developers are not unimpeachable. They have no special purchase on traits like the economics of bitcoin, and their proximity to the code might actually impair their ability to take a 10,000 foot view of the system

Bitcoin absolutely has a teleology, not because its creator intended it, but because its design narrows the scope of possible usage. Some usage modes (millions of retail txns) are fundamentally incompatible with its design constraints

Some early Bitcoiners got into Bitcoin for perverse or self serving reasons or because they completely misunderstood the protocol. Being early should confer no automatic credibility

Bitcoin banks are appropriate and inevitable, as is credit creation on Bitcoin

Bitcoin has a definite culture, but the folks protesting Bitcoin's culture present a caricature of it.

Success for Bitcoin does not mean becoming a global currency and UoA. Minimum Viable Success in my mind is becoming a large, independent virtual commodity that is easy to move wealth in and out of without restriction

BCH and BSV have claims to being Bitcoin, as do Litecoin and Dogecoin and every other derivative of Bitcoin. None of them have good claims though