Nostr Web Client

What makes me think there will be another wave of monkey spam? Bitcoin Core devs are literally pushing through a source code update as we speak, against the wishes of many, that lifts the cap on the amount of spam that can be crammed into a transaction and, if I’m reading the proposal correctly, makes it more difficult to filter it out at the node level. They’re literally welcoming this type of activity with open arms. It’s championed by a fellow who promotes and profits from these schemes.

No, altcoin scams are most certainly NOT “one and done.” There’s a sucker born every minute. People will not learn. Even the lion’s share of prior victims will not learn.

Now, if your point is that people won’t be fooled by that *exact* same monkey promotion, then ok, I concede. Maybe they won’t. Maybe next time it’ll be a rhino. Or a Trump-themed cat. Or some other harebrained meme. One of them will catch on and fees will spike as monetary transactions get crowded out in favor of these garbage transactions. Then the fee bubble will pop and the cycle repeats.

As an aside, one of the things I absolutely love about Ethereum (as a Bitcoin maxi) is that historically, it’s acted as a magnet 🧲 for this type of garbage, keeping it out of the Bitcoin ecosystem. And how does the Bitcoin developer community respond? By inviting that exact same garbage into our own house.

Your point that hypothetically L1 backspace competition would heat up anyway, even in the absence of all monkeys 🐒, due to the sheer quantity of legitimate monetary transactions, is well taken. You’re absolutely right. And if it happens before the general masses get acclimated to L2 solutions then yeah, that’s a problem. But whatever time window you imagine we have before that happens shrinks dramatically with monkeys (and other chicanery) crowding out legit transactions.

FernandoTheKoala 8mo ago 💬 1

Dude what’s happening here?I’m fairly new to the btc game so I don’t have historical lived examples, but this behavior of btc core does not make any sense!

The only reasons for their behaviour I can’t think of are:

- they got corrupted by the system or blackmailed

- they got drunk with power and think they can force whatever they decide

- they got rich enough and now don’t care anymore about btc original mission

But what I don’t get the most is that if implemented this change will destroy btc, like you said it will be flooded with spam without a doubt, pushing out ppl who want to use it for monetary transaction. Do core really believe this will not happen? I can’t believe they don’t see it coming

Sorry man just trying to engage with someone on this issue which is managed in such a weird way

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

Anon 8mo ago 💬 1

I wish I had some inside information on what’s going on with the Bitcoin core devs, but I’m just an outside observer reading the same stuff you are.

From what I can tell, one of the key guys trying to obsolete Bitcoin’s original mission as a medium of exchange and store of value and transform into a less capable Ethereum knockoff, is a partner in a company that promotes this garbage. It’s just greed.

I wouldn’t say it’s the end of Bitcoin, but when I see that those in control are banning dissenting opinions, deleting comments, and ramming through harmful proposals that mainstream Bitcoiners don’t want, I’d say it might be the *beginning* of the end. It’s just too soon to say.

At the end of the day, maybe it’s just inevitable that the control of money, be it fiat or Bitcoin, eventually finds its way into the hands of a small group intent on using it for their own ends at the expense of everyone else. Maybe that’s just the nature of money.

FernandoTheKoala 8mo ago 💬 1

Yes I agree with you, it might be the beginning of the end if things don’t change….

But it seems fishy as hell, even Lyn, which I always considered as one of my reference point in the btc community, seems strange about this issue (the answers she gives, and the way she treats the topic as if it’s not a major point of contention)

Anon 8mo ago 💬 1

Lyn’s a macroeconomic wiz but not necessarily in a position to understand the ripple effects of these seemingly small protocol changes. Nor does he claim to be. Nor do I, for that matter.

I’m a pretty simple minded guy with only a surface level understanding of how these BTC transactions are crafted. From my perspective, I’m just asking myself, “Does this make things easier for spammers , or harder? Does it further Bitcoin’s primary purpose as money, or just it make it easier to crowd out monetary transactions with garbage? Do the people pushing the proposal receive outsized financial benefits from the change due to their own business interests?”

The only response I’ve seen so far is, “No worries. Spammers probably won’t make use of this exploit we’re introducing because, guess what, we’ve already introduced a *prior* attack vector that’s even *more* effective for supporting spam transactions.” Meh, ok. Maybe that’s true, but not exactly a compelling narrative. Why take the risk when no one is really certain what the side effects will be?

Even if turns out the change is a non-issue from a technical standpoint, if there’s enough acrimony over it to cause a split or hard fork, either on the chain itself or in terms developer mindshare, that truly is a problem. No way institutions or government agencies will want to stay onboard if there’s a debate over which branch is the real Bitcoin. I don’t think it’ll come to that, but I already see rumblings of people digging in, running alternate Bitcoin implementations, trying to poach devs from the core group, etc.

It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.

FernandoTheKoala 8mo ago

The questions you asks yourself are exactly the same I ask myself!!

Yes the response core gave is not very compelling, but most of all it’s the way they behave that is worrying me. Almost like they don’t have to explain things to anybody and we plebs are too stupid to understand anyway and shouldn’t have a say in the matter….

Let’s see how it unfolds….if even btc fails to revolutionize the world I’m giving up forever !!