i would have been very upset and defensive a few years ago if someone said that. i see the complete abandonment of all the core principles if not in words in deeds. with 99% of the effort going into endless coping and shilling, trying to rope new bagholders in.
Discussion
Any answer I give will probably get dismissed as cope 🙁
It is worrying that on‑chain activity looks down. The last major fee spike from pure BTC demand was years ago - maybe 8, at least 4. That doesn’t look like an adoption curve. And who’s selling now, when even nation‑states are adopting?
I doubt OGs are selling. Institutions might take profits off‑chain in big chunks. For everyday users, wallets haven’t improved much, so adoption is either whales or plebs relying on custodians.
Plus, who knows how much batching, SegWit, and Lightning have absorbed demand so fees don’t flare up like before?
i personally think we (as in the cyberpunks) lost this one. bitcoin failed to build out defenses against regulatory capture through completely centralized and compliant valuation mechanisms. and it is getting massively diluted with paper and derivatives and frankly wall street affinity scams.
i fail to see any reason this would improve and not get worse and worse.
