There is zero doubt in my mind that bitcoin was created by a libertarian or anarchist that understood free market capitalism and specifically Austrian economics. If you've read the white paper and understand these ideologies it is obvious. The idea that bitcoin's success is dependent on convincing people to accept these ideologies is deeply flawed. Most people are not interested in even attempting to learn more in these areas. In this article you can see the author's priority for not being in the out group. If we have to move the masses to become freedom minded and more importantly freedom oriented bitcoin will never win. Thankfully that isn't how the world works. Most people are completely intellectually inconsistent. Put simply, they act in their self interest often against their own stated beliefs. Most people are self contradictory and their egos will not allow them to see this.
Don't kid yourself though. Bitcoin is a threat to the state and its power. This include both clown parties. Both want to control the beast. Left and right politicians should hate it and try to stop bitcoin. This fact should wake up those that vote for these clowns but it won't. Bitcoin will win regardless because it works. The masses will use it because it works even though they don't understand why or how. I say this because this is the way it has always been. The masses don't understand the world around them. If we had to convince the masses by explaining how everything worked we would not have most of the tech we have.
For the bitcoin maxis I would say you be you. Seek to learn for yourself. Speak when you think you should. Be kind, don't be nice. Speak the truth but be true and real. The answer is not to water yourself down. We don't need to moderate to make bitcoin more "appealing". We bitcoiners need to know the tools, why they work, how they work and be ready to teach others that are open to learning. Also, we don't have to orange pill everyone. We need to target those that want to learn. The curious. Those that want freedom and autonomy. But really, being toxic isn't appealing. Be joyful and successful. It is contagious. Be someone that others want to emulate.
reply
Finally, people start to understand that Bitcoin maximalism is a counter-productive idiocy that will always harm mass adoption of Bitcoin. About time.
reply
You are very wrong, Bitcoin maximalism is simply Newton's Third Law in its finest: for every action there is a reaction
Bitcoin maximalism is only a self-defence mechanism against: fragmentation. Because fragmentation means that Bitcoin cannot fulfill the social role of money
And even our "enemy" i.e. Bank for International Settlements lays the cards on the table:
"Fragmentation means that crypto [i.e. Bitcoin] cannot fulfil the social role of money." https://www.bis.org/publ/bisbull56.pdf
Be your own bank regardless if you are far left or right. And avoid your own bank fragmentation.
reply
Lol Bitcoin will be captured in a blink with people like you. We don't care about mass adoption this is a high time preference greedy fiat bro hope. Only the ethos counts. Without it Bitcoin is obviously doomed. How do you want a mass adoption to happen without the core value of maximalism being spread widely and endorsed by a maximum number of Bitcoiners ?
Sovereignty, privacy, immutability, uncensorability. Those who don't care about these values don't need Bitcoin, so no "mass adoption" you get it ?
reply
Yeah that isn't what the article was about from my skim through lol.
reply
Be your own bank regardless if you are far left or right.
reply
The thing is, leftists dislike very much private property. As Bitcoin is the most absolute kind of private property ever invented, almost obsoleting the State to enforce it (which was not possible before), this can hardly be a left thing IMO. Don't forget that socialism feeds itself in the rogue capacity from the State to steal from the productive ones to give to its voters. Bitcoin will make it incredibly harder, so socialism could shrink as more and more people will opt out of the fiat system. Now they have a choice.
reply
little correction from my almost 50yo experience:
leftists sometimes dislike private property, but: others' and usually make an exception for their own private property (just to be able to comfortably drink coffee latte in Starbucks, for example :)
"Be your own bank" slogan - should be still appealing, then... ;)
reply
There are many layers to this, but as I see it: The people who are the exact opposite of the toxic maxis, are the people with the voice in mainstream society and media. Therefore, they are the ones who have the most influence over the general opinion in society, and over the laws. Them getting orange-pilled is the best chance for hyperbitcoinization. If they instead fight bitcoin too much, making it illegal in most of the world, most people won't use it, and its value will fall drastically. It will of course still work, but maybe at 5% of current value, and no part can accept it legally, stifling adoption. Add to that the military power of this majority, that could threaten the other nations to quit bitcoining and to pass bans there too.
I believe we're in a hurry if we want the "bright orange future", and we don't only need to advocate bitcoin to everyone in general, but to the ones that the toxic maxis hate in particular. That is not done by harsh retorts, blocking and bragging that Bitcoin is invincible (while advocating staying humble). Sure the network is close to invincible, but the value and usefulness of it is definitely not.
reply
Well you have to publicly shame scammers. Scammers (such as corporations issuing shitcoins like the Ethereum foundation has issued and sold off their shitcoin) is a need. Shitcoins don't "help with adoption". Shitcoins are a deterrent to people looking at whether to take Bitcoin seriously.
That said, this article was not about that. This article was about welcoming people who think politically differently from you. Which is very different from welcoming scammers.
reply
Yes, I wasn't talking about scammers either. Sorry if it came across that way. I meant the ones that the article talks about - the left, vegetarians/vegans, LGBTQ+, those worried about CO2, etc.
reply
If you truly go down the rabbit hole of understanding why bitcoin works it will open your mind to many flaws in popular political views. It is interesting to watch this happen to progressives. Many progressives have core beliefs I share but the difference is that most progressives believe the garbage their politicians say. Bitcoin is good for people. Period. It is not good for rulers or rent seekers. The problem is most people don't understand that their rulers are evil.
reply
"many of Bitcoin’s biggest proponents and greatest public figures would identify most often with the political right and are predominately white men "
Wokisme has definitely infiltrated Bitcoin Magazine. This thing need a hard fork ASAP if they want to keep being a little bit relevant
reply
Serious "second-hander" vibes for sure.
reply
Oh pfft, I thought this was Bitcoin magazine defending their scam shilling again. Yeah, political leanings are not relevant to Bitcoin.
reply
Mass adoption doesn't matter without core principals.
reply
The world is not the United States.
reply
Fuck the antimas. Bitcoin maximalists are always right. If that drives the woke Marxist left away from Bitcoin that's great.
reply
Austrian economics isn’t an ideology. It’s a science. It is rooted in logic. Scientific inquiry seeks to identify patterns, laws, and causal relationships, and is self-correcting, as new evidence or observations can lead to the modification or rejection of existing theories. Ideologies on the other hand are often grounded in moral or political values and can be subjective or based on personal experiences, emotions, or biases.
Austrian economics creates a scientific framework of truth through which Bitcoin can be understood.
An important nuance.
reply
If it is true that bitcoin's social layer ranges from conservative to batshit heroin-in-vending-machines libertarian, it is a forgone conclusion that the majority of people enriched by bitcoin are your new free market extremist overlords. Hand-wringing about what the masses will do with the remaining two million is sort of silly, innit?
reply
deleted by author
reply
Agree in most of what you say, mainly, bitcoin will succeed if we use it.
Now ask yourself... when was the last time you bought or sold something using bitcoin?
reply
Bitcoiners are anti-cult not anti-science. Especially in anything relating to the use of information warfare, this is the foundation of Bitcoin's architecture and why it survives.
Culture war is the spreading of indoctrination via various kinds of soft-war. Look up what a Cultural Revolution is.
Cult manipulation is the biggest difference between the culture of bitcoin and shitcoins. I have seen it first hand in several projects.
reply
Self-sovereign is the solution to move toward mass adoption
reply