In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
vitalik.ca
In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
1–10 of 234 posts
Re: In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
#2I started reading the article assuming it was an April fool's joke. After a bit into it, I thought it was not a joke. When the self-deprecation began, I was again convinced it was a joke - but at the end of the article, I think this is not a joke. It's a rather good take on why Bitcoin maximalism is what it is.
Some degree of ETH-maximalism will be required in the future given the sheer number of pretender L-1 blockchains snapping at ETH's heels. Writing about BTC-maximalism sets the foundation for that culture.
Re: In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
#3It's no coincidence that some of the strongest criticism against cryptocurrency happens here, in a community mostly of banked, relatively prosperous people in stable countries.
May you never personally experience being unbanked or otherwise financially oppressed.
Re: In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
#4It's no coincidence that some of the strongest criticism against cryptocurrency happens here, in a community mostly of banked, relatively prosperous people in stable countries. May you never personally experience being unbanked or otherwise financially oppressed.
Where would you say that the "unbanked, relatively not prosperous people in unstable countries" stand - in the "really like and benefit from cryptocurrency" camp, or in the "never heard of and don't care about cryptocurrency" camp ?
> May you never personally experience being unbanked or otherwise financially oppressed.
Of course. But this is unrelated, unless you're making the "politician's fallacy": "We must do something (about that). This is something. Therefore, we must do this."
Re: In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
#5It's no coincidence that some of the strongest criticism against cryptocurrency happens here, in a community mostly of banked, relatively prosperous people in stable countries. May you never personally experience being unbanked or otherwise financially oppressed.
correct me if I'm wrong but people using bitcoin in oppressed countries will basically be rendered penniless by simply cutting off network access. source: https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/the-technological-case-ag...
Re: In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
#6It's no coincidence that some of the strongest criticism against cryptocurrency happens here, in a community mostly of banked, relatively prosperous people in stable countries. May you never personally experience being unbanked or otherwise financially oppressed.
Perhaps it's because the people on a tech forum see the problems of a tech hammer banging on everything it perceives as a nail better than others?
Re: In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
#7> Blockchains sacrifice privacy, requiring even crazier and more expensive technology to get that privacy back.
The Mimblewimble protocol [0] bucks that trend, providing more privacy at the base layer while being less expensive in terms of the historical size of transactions [1].
> a focus on simplicity and deep mathematical purity: a 1 MB block size, a 21 million coin limit
A supply of 50/(2^{height/210000}) coins every 10 minutes is not particularly simple or pure. One coin per second forever seems preferable, even if it takes a century to get inflation down to 1% [2].
> The protocol design must be easy to justify decades and centuries down the line; the technology and parameter choices must be a work of art.
This is where Ethereum fails miserably.
> The second ingredient is the culture of uncompromising, steadfast minimalism.
Even bitcoin is not that minimal if you consider the complexities of bitcoin script. Much of that functionality can be achieved with scriptless scripts [3].
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20190312100102/https://www.circl...
[1] https://forum.grin.mw/t/scalability-vs-privacy-chart
[2] https://john-tromp.medium.com/a-case-for-using-soft-total-su...
[3] https://medium.com/scalar-capital/scriptless-scripts-25e18fd...
Re: In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
#8It's no coincidence that some of the strongest criticism against cryptocurrency happens here, in a community mostly of banked, relatively prosperous people in stable countries. May you never personally experience being unbanked or otherwise financially oppressed.
correct me if I'm wrong but people using bitcoin in oppressed countries will basically be rendered penniless by simply cutting off network access. source: https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/the-technological-case-ag...
People bypass China's firewall as well, why would this be subject to a different reality? Also even if we were to assume they can't access it, it doesn't mean the funds have disappeared from the wallet.
Re: In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
#9Why is uncensorable money worth the risk of permanently losing your money because you forgot a password or lost a thumb drive?
Re: In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
#10It's no coincidence that some of the strongest criticism against cryptocurrency happens here, in a community mostly of banked, relatively prosperous people in stable countries. May you never personally experience being unbanked or otherwise financially oppressed.
correct me if I'm wrong but people using bitcoin in oppressed countries will basically be rendered penniless by simply cutting off network access. source: https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/the-technological-case-ag...
As long as you know your private key and / or seed phrase, you will always have access to your wallet's funds. As soon as you get network access, you can transact. You literally have to cut off the internet to stop crypto - that is part of what makes it so compelling.