I think maybe our disagreement here is whether the “Bitcoin puritans” were just “fuck your scams” or more. As loop argued in his recent piece, they seem to be way way more - spending time attacking people who contribute to core for perceived slights, seeking out targets to attack who didn’t do anything related to bitcoin, etc etc. sure, there are reasonable folks who didn’t, but they also accepted plenty of trash under the same banner without batting an eye.
Discussion
ppl be ppl, with all the good and all the bad ✌️
Communities have norms and accepting that “this is just the bitcoin community” drove lots of normal people away from bitcoin, devs away from building on bitcoin, and devs away from contributing to core or moving bitcoin forward.
I’ve been screaming from the top of the mountains for over 10 years “Bitcoin doesn’t have a community” that’s to say it has many voluntary tribes. Bitcoin is amoral monetary system.
We project all of our bullshit on it.
Bitcoin is neutral, the people around it who interact with each other is a community (even if only a small part of the bitcoin user base). That community has norms, and like it or not that community led to lots of destruction of Bitcoin’s potential over the years.
Single community implies eveyone has to adhere to the same presences. Bitcoin provides the means for the opposite of that.
Start your own tribe/community with your preferences.
Trying to force everyone to adhere to the same things is where most of the friction comes from.
Nah, I’m not naive enough to think I can force anything. I’m just suggesting (a) it would have been nice had there been more responses of “nah lol” to garbage takes that drove good people away and (b) happy that many of the garbage takes and “bitcoin puritans” seem to be slowly going away, at least in part because the platform doesn’t as much encourage such nonsense.
Suggestions won’t change anything. Build the community you want to see, ignore the other the one you don’t like. Bitcoin is the first system that allows both to trade with each-other peacefully.
That’s great in theory, and honestly I’m only here because of that, but, again, lots of people don’t, and when there’s things like soft forks being proposed you can’t - the bitcoin user base has to agree. That drove good people away, just telling them “ignore Twitter” isn’t helpful when they’re getting harassed everywhere.
Thank you for the discussion đź«‚
At this point, everyone involved in Bitcoin is or has been accused of "destroying Bitcoin's potential". It's basically a meme.
Also, "we don't have to convince anyone because Bitcoin is just going to automatically inherit the earth because fiat is going to collapse and bitcoin will be the only alternative" is a pretty pseudo-religious/Book of Revelations like attitude. It's the sort of thing for which I think the rude awakening will be ... severe.
It’s true, we really don’t.
NgU convinces ppl.
Loss of economic freedoms convinces ppl.
Debasement convinces ppl.
Capital control convinces ppl.
The fiat ppl are doing all the work for free.
The ppl you think we need to convince are nor ready or need it yet.
I don't think anything about the future is this certain. I prefer to advocate and work towards the future. Never believe you can assume you've already won. I think that's always naive. Not just with bitcoin. But with everything.