Vlad on Nostr: in august 2017, i don’t recall anyone saying that btc will become a store of value ...

in august 2017, i don’t recall anyone saying that btc will become a store of value from institutions, while bch will pursue the medium of exchange path.

no such narrative existed – it was only a disagreement on how to scale: btc went for layer 2s, bch chose to increase the block size.

it was years later that the capitulation to institutions happened: when big money started flowing into lightning network development and companies started gaslighting us that home nodes are slowing down the network and we should use easily-regulated and censorship-bound lsps or else surrender custody when the amounts are small.

a lot of developers i’ve interviewed over the years told me that they were never against increasing the block size: they were only against the terms of the new york agreement and didn’t see the urgency of taking action back in 2016-2017… but would agree with a block size increase later when there’s constant network demand.

but in the end, a bunch of guys stepped in and created a toxic culture which regards any attempt to improve bitcoin as an attack.

who benefits from this status quo? custodians, banks, credit card companies that no longer feel endangered, western union that is somehow still around and thriving, politicians and central bankers.

somewhere along the line, bitcoin lost its cypherpunk spirit… and i am here to bring it back every week with my podcast.

listen to the bitcoin takeover podcast, there’s nothing quite like it.