Crizzo on Nostr: A lot of the arguments in favor seem like strawmen to me. "This change will fix this ...

A lot of the arguments in favor seem like strawmen to me. "This change will fix this hypothetical problem that isn't actually currently a problem."

Some examples I've read:

Supposedly lightning justice transactions need a more complete picture of the current mempool to work effectively. Justice transactions are exceedingly rare already and pushing false channel states as a way to steal sats is not really a viable method of attack. The only instance I've even heard of a justice transactions happening is when someone set it up themselves just to test it.

Supposedly smaller miners are being left out of getting more high value transactions when people wanting to put out of band data on the chain go directly to the larger miners to get it done. This will lead to more centralization in mining. Are smaller miners really struggling from this? I honestly don't know, but I don't think you can attribute the struggles of small miners to this. Currently the coinbase reward makes up the vast majority of miner income, and every miner that discovers a block gets that regardless of what transactions (if any) are included in the block.

Supposedly since anyone can put unlimited data on the chain anyway we should open up OP_RETURN to make it easier. Seems backwards. Storing excessive non-monetary data on the chain was not part of the design of Bitcoin originally. From what I understand this ability was introduced with SegWit and it seems like an unintended consequence, not a feature.

I also don't understand why there is urgency to push this change through when none of the arguments really apply to the current state of Bitcoin, only future potential problems. It makes me think there are special interests that want this done so they can benefit now and to hell with the consequences. It's either that or hubris from my perspective. Bitcoin, imo, should not be a sandbox for developers to play in and make significant changes like this. It's far too important to humanity.

This whole episode has really shaken my understanding and faith in Bitcoin. It is perhaps not the perfect money that I believed it to be if it is subject to changes like this by a small group of devs. However I still believe that the monetary use of a perfectly scarce asset will outcompete any other uses of the limited block space. I just don't think we should invite those other uses to test it.