In my last post, I drew a comparison between the Bitcoin movement and the Hippie movement. When reading this rather pessimistic article - https://stacker.news/items/165552 - it occurred to me that there is yet another analogy to be made. As the authos states, some bitcoiners really seem to be getting drunk on mass adoption, believing that nothing can go wrong anymore. They think that everyone already loves Bitcoin and that governments cannot simply ban it. While I also like this feeling of being unbeatable and unstoppable, I believe that it could potentially be a dangerous state of mind that could make us more vulnerable. Is bitcoin really so unstoppable just because "it is too late to ban it", "you cannot destroy the code" or "the adoption is too big"?

The truth is, in the 1960s, everyone also loved LSD. It was even used in universities, where professors and scientists freely and officially experimented with students. Who would have thought that it could be forbidden when it was so widely adopted, even in universities, right? And look at what happened when the US government decided to react to this adoption, because it eventually saw it as a threat to the state. And how quickly other countries followed suit - even the "enemy countries" behind the iron curtain. Revolution doesn't come without a cost. The adoption of love and peace during the hippie era dissipated just as quickly as it arose, and no one saw it coming. At the time of the biggest ecstasy somewhere around Woodstock 69, it possibly seemed like there was no going back, and peace and love would never be stopped (which is exactly what I often hear from bitcoiners about the holy and undefeatable code).

The same fate in my opinion may befall Bitcoin if too many people start to be sedated with enthusiasm. Instead of music festivals, we now have massive conferences, and instead of faith in karma and chakras, we have faith in code that no one can change, and states cannot reach.

But what if they might be able to reach it? How can we be so sure? Maybe not directly through the code, but what if it won't even be necessary. All they need to do is let us get drunk enough on enthusiasm and then strike at our weakest moment (and our greatest delusion) when everyone is thinking that everything will be just all right - the code will take care of it, and Bitcoin is too widespread to fail, right?

I understand that this comparison is not one of the most accurate and requires some bending, but personally, I want to express with this post my HUGE appreciation for all the crypto-anarchists, lunar punks, privacy fighters, coders and educators who have not abandoned their principles even in times of great excitement. They have not sold their souls to KYC and have not prioritized profit over Bitcoin's original intention - to be parallel and free money. Companies such as Trezor come to my mind in this point. With their open-source and bitcoin focused hardware wallet, they also developed a browser of non-KYC exchanges called Invity, and a non-profitable phone app called "vexl" which makes it easier to buy P2P local non-KYC Bitcoin (by this time being tested in Czechia). They never sacrificed their principles for better marketing or sales numbers - this, to me, is the true Bitcoin spirit. They have never overloaded their wallet with unreliable services that endanger the privacy and essence of Bitcoin as free money, even though it might have provided them with bigger profits. I want to extend a big thanks to every great coder out there who does the same thing and helps make the world a little bit freer.

I hope one day I will be able to say this about myself.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1-beroun-bitcoin-meetup-tickets-555968094537

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