Oddbean new post about login | logout That’s a lot of unknown risk for the sake of optionality that may never be exercised Either way, things have changed. The people that had influence no longer do so to the same extent or at all; they just don’t know it yet.
Unknown risk is a weak answer. We have known risks to address.
It’s not at all. What existential risk is bitcoin facing at the protocol level besides the unix time issue?
You sound like a crypto-bro. Many tokens had no technical issues with the protocol. This is why bitcoin is different. What is the problem bitcoin, as a protocol, set out to fix? Do you feel it appropriately addresses the problem?
Wut? That first statement made no sense. I’m asking what about the protocol is broken and needs to be fixed besides the unix timestamp issue? I’m guessing nothing since you didn’t point it out. The problem it fixes is well understood. I didn’t get here yesterday. Yes, i think the problem is appropriately addressed. These protocol changes are motivated by ideological reasons not catastrophic flaws in bitcoin’s design. “Everyone needs to own a UTXO” and the like. It’s not as if satoshi didn’t know not everyone was not going to be able to transact on L1.
The problem is UTXO ownership that doesn't scale. Resulting in capture and then the protocol is what the capturing party says it is. If everyone can always go to main chain consensus, capture becomes deterred.
This is a subjective problem based on your opinion around UTXO ownership. Competition on higher layers addresses capture and censorship. But then again most people are perfectly happy with their banks and the idea of self custody feels crazy to them. Assuming this will change materially is delusional.
You can satisfy a script condition for a UTXO or you cannot. You own it or you do not. Multiple people can own a UTXO. How do you define ownership? Defining terms might help.
I meant to say UTXO ownership scaling*
Scaling means answer the problem outlined in the whitepaper. Where everyone can p2p settle on chain without trusting a third party financial institution.
I would rather scale at higher layers with tradeoffs there as opposed to introducing risk to the base layer. The lack of an existential problem makes unintended consequences resulting from a soft fork unnecessary, in my opinion. I would venture to say not many of the people pushing for soft forks are all in and have families to support. Not saying this is you, but it’s easy to want change when you’re a single dude with a $500 stack.
Family man talking about softforks with majority exposure in bitcoin. Count myself as another. I know personally one more. nostr:nevent1qqsp00nr5ywuvjrdktq9h0p7p6dw26q3tzz529rj3l5eyh9qjhlmmecpz3mhxw309ucnydewxqhrqt338g6rsd3e9upzp57hgyjdm76mm3sm3uvdzlpnxkamf7x8zxp2xhhzwv22fxjwk7caqvzqqqqqqym638us
Also scaling at higher layers defeats the whitepaper abstract's goal
The abstract never promised the goal would scale to every single person in the planet forever.
Peer to peer doesn't mean everyone to you?
No, it means a P2P. Equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. There is no centralized party deciding who can and can’t be a peer. Bitcoin is not perfect. It’s good enough and the best we have.
Right. The opportunity to hit the main chain doesn't exist without changes to scale UTXO ownership. This is irrespective of fees. Thank you for confirming for me.
Of course it exists, what are you talking about? Anyone that wants to transact on-chain can do so at any time. The network is and will continue to be P2P. Show me an example of a peer of the network not being allowed or requiring permission to transact with another peer. The elephant in the room is that not everyone will end up being a peer. Bitcoin is scarce, blocks pace is scarce. This is not a new revelation.
How do you define a peer of the network? Do think everyone will have an equal opportunity to be a peer?
"A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution." If I am unable to go to main chain, I am now going through a financial institution.
That statement is true today and will continue to be true. Anyone that wants to enjoy those benefits can today. The people that these changes are aimed to “help” don’t even know Bitcoin exists, they don’t care or like Bitcoin, or would rather use a financial institution. When these people that can’t transact on-chain and are actively using custodial LN or ecash, and the livelihood of their families depends on using Bitcoin sovereignly start asking for changes, then I’ll take it more seriously.
legacy finance and fiat degens coming in for NGU and advocating for ossification before the network is capable of scaling to provide widespread sovereign usage.