Linux creator Linus Torvalds does not think Bitcoin is money, or great enough to pay much attention to. You can follow his logical reply to the discussion here
To be fair, he is pretty intelligible about the whole thing. But perhaps, having been at the head of the largest technological software development project --Linux -- that is inherently NOT defensive against the subtle capture and corrupting motives of powerful oppressive actors, he doesn't get it.
Linux is great. But it is only a knowledge-facing technology, like AI. Like some very large library of books.
But I cannot read if I am starving.
I cannot seek enlightenment if all I can think about is my stomach, my skin being pelted by rain or sun heat because I have no house, thirsty. Why, that is hell.
What use is books when my neighbor is rich and because of that he has a wife who loves him if he is wise too, and he will have kids who he can impart that wisdom too. Even if I love children, I will love them way less if I cannot feed them. (As a man who has grown up in Africa, I have seen this diminished love as a function of poverty).
Bitcoin as money represent access to more fundamental needs -- access to food, shelter, clothing -- for more people, by breaking down the weaponization of money by Big State the same way IP is weaponized by Big Corp. Which Linus Torvalds is against (if you read his book, Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolution. He has a very reasonable take on IP that I agree with).
I bet you some philosopher has said books are useless if the people are not fed. Wait, Jesus first fed the 5000 before teaching them!
I admit that the process of developing an open source monetary protocol is far less glamorous and is 100x more complicated and full of scams. Bitcoin, by association with cryptocurrency, really seems like the scam corner of the planet. No wonder Satoshi Nakamoto couldn't steer Bitcoin the way Linus did. He understood that this is not just a software. This is a civilization altering technology and powerful egos are going to be hurt. Because we have built our world on strong sand and not rock. Will require breaking a few (nah, a lot of) systems as we go along. That is painful, bruv.
To repeat the difference between Linux and Bitcoin: Oppressors with monetary power can adopt Linux. "Adopt" open source ethos. Coupled with AI, they can learn quickly how to play the game and appear sensible and fair.
But because Linux is a knowledge protocol, even a small hint of propaganda can veer it of course but given human biases, this will go unnoticed, only to surface years later as a poor design choice but at which point, all the power is with the powerful.
Bitcoin, however, is money because money is a material reality protocol. I need money now. So either I scam you or I sell you a real product. The rubber meets the road way faster. Because it actually meets the road. Not in our lofty mind-space idealized software imaginations.
Basically, you cannot fake a money protocol for longer than you can fake a knowledge protocol. This is why even when some people have wrong ideas that they stand by be it politically or about relationships or about science, when it comes to money, eveyone better cut to the pragmatic praxeology fast or they'll be toast. PhDs in [insert niche field nobody on earth actually makes money from], for example, quickly look for a job at Starbucks. That is money showing its might against knowledge. Also, it's a sign whatever you got that PhD for, hopefully you were satisfied enough by just knowledge and enlightenment, going through all those ancient tomes in the library, and didn't think it would be a money earning career. Coz that right there is a wrong system of thinking being broken, up close and personal. Alchemist style.
Money thus is about reality more that knowledge. Without money, there can be no knowledge. Without a fertile cresent, you cannot have geniuses appearing in the Middle East.
Torvalds said in the github discussion that with fiat money, trade prices are VOLUNTARiLY known before hand. He doesn't see the gun at the beginning of this process. (And while in his book he says War drives Technology, as a Bitcoiner, I want to think that "need drives technology". War simply sharpens needs in the face of our mortality, but seeking challenges in outer space can also do this. Thus, we do not have to impose this mortality-clarifying lens on ourselves by pointing a gun at other humans and pulling the trigger. There are enough things in nature to do that for us). Bitcoin is young so it is messy. Happens with all teenagers. But it cuts to the chase faster. It embodies this quote from V for Vendetta better than Linux or AI powered Linux phones, and its open source community is closer to the true power of de-weaponization of technology. In fact, we're at the very margin of it. The thin line between Yin and Yang. Big Brother cannot dare rear his ugly head in our world, because:
Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
Why do you link to a comment from an UWM Researcher and then talk about what Linus said?