This is my top 3 list of whom, IMO, are today's most dangerous influential actors in the #Bitcoin arena, the list is based on previous actions and capacity to harm the ecosystem due to their resources and influence in the space:
Number 1 : Elon MuskNumber 1 : Elon Musk
Reasoning: Supporting a meme coin and trolling the ecosystem. Trying to create the american wechat and portraying himself as a protector of freedom of speech. Admired and loved by millions...
Potential impact: High, he may support a shitcoin as solana or worst, create his own with the support of deep pockets and the government. Considering that we are still early and millions around the world still see #Bitcoin as a risk asset or worst, creating one in X will have immediate use case and challenge p2p cash use case from the get go, where Meta failed X may succeed...
Number 2: Jack DorseyNumber 2: Jack Dorsey
Reasoning: Known for his history as Twitter CEO during the crusade against freedom of speech, cancelation of critical thinkers and even a president of USA, the behavior of Twitter was reprehensible while Jack was the CEO, I never thought that a company could behave that way and survive and yet... Unreal and zero legal accountability, twitter basically gaslighted a large amount of the population, supported political propaganda to one party with no neutrality, supported an experimental drug that is still harming people and didnt let experts and doctors to debate and discuss and not one of those thugs blocking accounts and censoring critical thinkers was made accountable, eye opening in many ways for those that at that moment still believed that USA respected freedom of speech...
Currently supporting a mining pool that censors whirlpool from Samourai wallet, old habits die hard I guess...
And the cherry of the pie, now funding FiatJaf whom was looking for funding to spam Ethereum and Monero networks to make them unusable so more funds will move to Bitcoin and LN... This project and idea from the getgo is a no no, you may not like another project but to spam it intentionally should be illegal, and it is being done, shamelessly...
Potential impact: very high, already inside the community, a record of bad actions, pro censorship, vast resources, head of Cash App, admired by most in the community and hence able to missguide the community into a path that could eventually make Bitcoin a failure of a project in the future with the proposal of a hard fork introducing additional censorship and less privacy in one way or another.
Number 3: BlackrockNumber 3: Blackrock
No need to explain much, they join the train and... it is only logical , after so much hate and media propaganda against Bitcoin, that they did so to fight the fight from inside trying to affect it and transform it into something else , just speculation, time will say. Check my article on ETFs
Potential Impact: Super Nova. As I explain in my article of ETFs, they have the resources to attempt to change the direction of Bitcoin development for it to become something else, even kill it as a store of value. They have a large stake in some of the largest mining farms as well... Do the math, it looks like a hostile take over and that may not end well. Again, just my opinion, but, if history and patterns teach us leasons, not a good look...
Activist Critical Thinkers in the space are needed, #Bitcoin for many years has been a space with many of them, the list was long, but little by little I observe a change, produced by time+age+money, those libertarians are now; most of them; retired millionaires, or enterpreuners absorbed by the fiat system and therefore have changed their tune. I thought we will have a new generation, motivated, smarter, ready to take over, but all I see, with few exceptions in the NOSTR side of the equation, is more corporate fiat system acolytes.
Stay humble says someone, never more important...
What are your thoughts?
Share your top 3 current most dangerous threats to the Bitcoin ecosystem...
Bitcoin can have enemies but they can't influence Bitcoin! Bitcoin is and will always be bigger and better than anyone or anything.
A threat to Bitcoin? How can they be threat? If anything is a threat to Bitcoin is government only!
Hmm - I don't think we should create enemy lists as it could be bad juju. I will say Michael Saylor as much as I think he has been decent with Bitcoin so far, I think he is trying to move bitcoin to the digital gold narrative away from the peer to peer electronic cash narrative. I think that isn't good, but he is the biggest celebrity as it comes to bitcoin. I already see a divide in philosophy amongst many bitcoiners on the SoV vs MoE points.
Enemy? Never wrote that word...
Michael Saylor is an interesting case, quite influential but I have not seen yet any indication of him being a potential danger to Bitcoin in any form or shape.
I don't think these characteristics are mutually exclusive in Saylor's view.
You can buy a car with bitcoin, but for a coffee it's not really practical. So is it cash then? Yes and no?
how do you mean? I've been buying coffee with btc almost every day for years now
You wait ~10 minutes, sometimes longer, every morning at the coffeeshop?
Lightning network ;)
Even though I'm not sure you're asking this in good faith...
LN is L2 Bitcoin is the settlement layer
Yes, but it inherits all the properties of the base layer... With potentially enhanced privacy if you use it right. So yes, one can pay coffee with btc without waiting 10 minutes.
playing with words, it’s a separate codebase, they’re not the same
Bitcoin is oligarch proof, all these guys can do is confuse NPC's that didn't understand Bitcoin to begin with... If you're concerned with that then you should spend more time making yourself more influential than they are
On to the next block...
🫡
In short:
Elon influence is undeniable, a single tweet and a shitcoin become viral, a bad word about Bitcoin can do a lot of harm too.
Dorsey is deep inside the core, currently, some say, the most influential developer (gate keeper of BIPs approvals - personally I think is an exaggeration but it is clear he has plenty of grip) is in his payroll and that is quite of a problem considering his past behavior and the uncertainties of his agenda with Bitcoin
Blackrock, we agree...
Musk is super shady but I don’t think he can do that much to harm bitcoin.
BlackRock is a bigger issue but even they don’t hold a big proportion of the supply.
I think ultimately these actors all believe they can control bitcoin. They believe their own hubris and they’re gonna have to find out the hard way.
Add Microstrategy, even George Soros has millions of shares of it.
Coinbase is the biggest potential threat to Bitcoin. They are the largest custodian of Bitcoin in the world and that is growing every day and they are only pro bitcoin out of necessity. They are much more interested in the crypto casino than Bitcoin.
Nice one! Have to agree
Nowadays there are people who can create noise about Bitcoin but still Bitcoin remains stable and strong in the digital world.
100%, yet, we need to stay vigilant!
Bitcoin core
Mempool
Wizard
My thought is this: None of the above nor anyone else has the capacity to harm Bitcoin. Of course they could try to and maybe succeed in causing some depraciation in bitcoin's value in the short-term, but it is far beyond any one entity to completely take Bitcoin down to its knees, especially at this point. Look, there are far more people in Bitcoin than you can ever imagine. They (we the bitcoiners) are full of knowledge and wisdom, not of fiat but of reality. The fiat world is full of foolishness and short-term thinking, and lacks moral standing. To fully grasp Bitcoin, you have to see it as a self-sovereign technology and self-custody money. Whatever means Elon, Jack, or BlackRock might want to implement in order to undermine Bitcoin has already been tried and failed. The only possible way to harm Bitcoin is to kill every single node in the universe. Good luck with that.
My top three would be Blackrock, Microstrategy and Grayscale
I understand Blackrock and Grayscale, but,
Why MicroStrategy? Honest question
Business intelligence software = selling secrets = CIA
Thanks for answering, made a quick query and found the link between the company and government agencies, not conclusive the fact that the company monetizes from the state, but clearly there is a link.
My finding, for what is worth and whoever else reads this, you clearly are aware of it:
The company provides its enterprise analytics platform, MicroStrategy Cloud for Government, as a managed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to government agencies. This platform operates under Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) guidelines, ensuring high performance, sophisticated security, and data privacy requirements.
Government Agency Use Cases
MicroStrategy’s platform is used by government agencies for various purposes, including:
Enhancing operations with data to pursue their mission Providing timely insights into real or potential threats Injecting or embedding intelligence from disparate data sources into new applications Modernizing legacy technology investments and transforming data usage Improving operations and facility managementIt’s interesting that everyone is calling this a list of enemies. Everything has risks. You’re just identifying some of them and explaining why they are risky. Something being a risk doesn’t make it an enemy.
True
Shitcoins, shitcoiners and shit lickers are the three biggest threats.