Oddbean

I saw Occupy Wall Street taken over by controlled opposition before my very eyes and now I am seeing Bitcoin taken over by the same people. Calling it right now Bitcoin is now irrelevant in the west. Taking it back will be a massive battle and the only people who can are in the Global South. Bitcoin has been broken as a movement.

👀 - thanks for the reminder and wake-up call. Just hodling won’t be enough. I now need to contemplate what I am going to do if and when holding/buying/selling Bitcoin will be outlawed in my country. If and when running a lightning node requires a license (that will probably prevent the freedom use cases).

I don’t fully agree, but it’s clear that the #Bitcoin movement in the West has stalled intellectually in very important ways… Namely the West’s obsession with higher Fiat prices of #Bitcoin and actively seeking more Fiat Institutional “adoption” and “validation” with things like ETFs, GBTC, Coinbase, etc…

the movement has always been constantly harrassed. just read about the blocksize war and the dirty tricks, smears, and various tactics that have been tried. as a Go programmer i see the marks of manipulation all over the codebases of various bitcoin and lightning related things too. the reason why bitcoin survives is because it has to, and this is a bulwark upon which more things are being built and we are creating a refuge for the righteous and it's not about adoption, it's about giving the people who see through the financialising fiat slavery game and want to get out of it, and in doing so, are helping others who also want to do so. they tried to fork bitcoin a thousand times, and there is still one bitcoin. the rules got set in stone by about 2012 and they will not change, and it will still be possible to replicate valid blocks even with a sub 16 version, probably forever. but the physical places, bro, if you are still in a big Western city, you are half asleep and complacent and are still not getting it.

i didn't study it real close, there's a book about it, but all kinds of fud, smears, sock puppets, ultra bad takes, and deceptive proposals. even lawsuits i think. kreg keeps doing the lawsuits thing too, he lost against someone last year. and not to mention the several hard forks and all the victory laps from vitalik and co. it was bad then and it will be even worse now that the value has gone better than 10x and even more people are trying things. look at drivechains, still big blockers, still craig fricking wright, udi, all the scammers... there hasn't been a hard fork of bitcoin in over a decade and i suspect there won't be one for at least another decade, the longer it stays the same the more likely it is going to stay the same longer.

Definitely shouldn't be making any concessions to the establishment. There's many freedom fighters in the west who feel helpless to course-correct the ship though. Giving them a place to exit to (e.g. ES, city states) seems wise. +1 for shitcoin intolerance. And beat them with superior ideas and reasoning, not ad-hominem bullshit.

Bitcoin is decentralized and it’s use is voluntary. What it means for the Global South and what it means for the West may be different because everyone’s incentives and agendas are different. It doesn’t matter whether people agree with you or not on your statement. What matters is what you do to help those you care about and your community. If bitcoin can help them, show them the way. Show them there is an alternative. Help to form a new world and new reality that you want to see. I know you have been through some challenging times. Don’t give up. Stay strong and keep going 💪 🧡 #bitcoin