If you are part of the Bitcoin community and have not been living under a rock for the past few days, you have probably seen the recent controversy surrounding Coldcard.

Like many other builders in the Bitcoin space, I have had negative personal experiences with Coldcard’s founder. However, this article is not about settling personal grievances or revisiting old conflicts.

Instead, I want to discuss something broader: toxic Bitcoin maximalism and toxicity within communities in general.

Over the past two decades, I have participated in several open-source and privacy activist communities.

Some of these communities learned to deal with toxic behavior by addressing it early and, when necessary, removing people who repeatedly harmed others. They understood through experience that keeping such people around was often not worth the damage they caused.

These individuals may have done impressive work. They were often talented, charismatic, and inspirational. But their status sometimes allowed them to behave as though normal standards no longer applied to them.

This behavior was often enabled by other members of the community who overlooked, excused, or even rewarded it.

Honestly, I do not entirely blame them. It is often more exciting to be around a highly charismatic person than an introverted builder who creates equally impressive things but is less skilled at presenting or promoting their work.

What I have come to understand is this:

If you build a community around loving something, you attract people who love.

Good people attract good people.

If you build a community around hating something, you attract people who hate.

Communities that reward toxic behavior tend to attract more of it.

Relationships built primarily around shared hostility are also fragile. When circumstances change, the same aggression that was once directed outward can quickly be turned inward.

Recent events have made that clear.

My main takeaway is simple:

Invest your energy in building something, not merely in opposing something.

Everyone who tolerated, rewarded, or participated in this behavior should reflect on the role they played and try to do better next time. Some of these people have already responded with humility and honesty. That gives me a great deal of hope.

Overall, I believe things will improve over time. We can already see many great people in the Bitcoin space who contributed generously and helped others without expecting anything in return.

In the hacker community, there is a motto promoted by one of the original hackers, Mitch Altman:

“Be excellent to each other.”

It is time to make this the motto of the Bitcoin community as well!

we should hate shitcoins.

frand and pump and dumps hurt people.

but we should love first. before we hate.