Caleb James DeLisle on Nostr: The OG Bitcoiner Perspective š Why did OG Bitcoiners split into BTC Maxis, BCH ...
The OG Bitcoiner Perspective š
Why did OG Bitcoiners split into BTC Maxis, BCH Maxis, XMR Maxis, and multi-coiners?
Latecomers don't understand the philosophy back in the beginning, how each one of these groups evolved, and how important that original philosophy really is.
To really understand early Bitcoin, you have to understand Occupy Wall Street and the Ron Paul Revolution.
It's hard to describe to people today how dark the vibe was during the George W. Bush years. Everything he did, from the PATRIOT ACT, to the wars, to the shameful legitimization of torture, was done with a slap-in-the-face "I'm the president, sit down and shut up" posture. He only secured his reelection by contriving to run goofball John Kerry for the Democrats.
In the year 2006, Texas representative Ron Paul gave a speech called The End of Dollar Hegemony. It proposed an alternative explanation for why the US invaded Iraq. At this time the website Reddit was just one year old. Reddit became a Discussion Hub where ideas around Ron Paul, and hard money, and freedom were discussed. It was a different time. Reddit was a beacon of hope in an incredibly depressing reality. Todays Reddit is a trash fire.
In the 2008 election, Ron Paul ran for president and he had significant support. Betting markets were even taking him seriously. His support was largely young grass roots people organizing on Reddit. The RNC didn't want him to win, so they ran TWELVE people against him. This is known as the "Favorite Son" strategy. Each one of these people gathered their own loyal voters before dutifully dropping out and endorsing the Selected Nominee.
š¶ Everybody knows that the war is over. Everybody know that the good guys lost. šµ
The next thing that would happen would be the 2008 financial crisis and bank bailouts, which, again, you had to have been there. It was hard times, families lost their homes, lost their jobs, lived on rice and beans. And all this time we were being told the banks were Too Big To Fail, they're all gonna get bailed out, and no banker is going to jail.
So people went down to Wall Street and they set up tents and protested the system. OWS was not like any other protest, for one thing there was no defined goal - nobody knew exactly what the banks should do or how. This was dragged on by the media who called the protest "aimless", but because of it the encampment became another Discussion Hub where people came together to question how debt, finance, and even money itself should work.
Predictably, the whole thing ended without any meaningful change. The police started arresting people, pressing Big Jail Time charges, and then letting them go under the threat that if they were seen in the area again they'd be going away forever. At some point the vibe was lost, and police took everyone that remained, washed them in tear gas, and then picked up the tents.
The vibe after OWS was hopelessness. The Powers That Be had shown that they were going to do what they wanted, and you were going to suffer and pay.
When Bitcoin went from being a technologist's toy to being a Real Thing, the value proposition was NOT that the price would go up. Many people, including significant holders of Bitcoin, thought the price might very likely go to zero.
The value proposition of Bitcoin was that The Powers That Be had no control.
They couldn't print it, borrow it, lend it, rehypothecate it, leverage it, repackage it, and turn it into a casino that wipes out a generation of working families while they pay off politicians to bail them out.
Whether Bitcoin went up, or went down, or went to zero, those bastards wouldn't be making a penny off of it.
THAT was the reason to put all of your disposable money into it.
šŖ
At that time, Bitcoin Maximalists didn't exist. The first "altcoin" was Namecoin, following that was a number of technologically uninspiring altcoins with the most famous being Litecoin.
Non-Bitcoin crypto didn't really take off until Ethereum launched and posed an alternative vision of how a blockchain might function. Ethereum gave rise to tokens, which gave rise to a lot of failed projects and a lot of scams.
As the Bitcoin price went up, Bitcoin believers became Bitcoin evangelists because they wanted others to share in what they had. But over and over they would tell someone about Bitcoin, only for that person to go buy some fly-by-night crypto token and lose their money.
This is where Bitcoin Maximalism came from, it was a reaction to the rise of crypto scams as cryptocurrency grew in popularity.
But once an ideology emerges, people don't ever go back to ask where it came from or whether it's still useful.
1/2
Why did OG Bitcoiners split into BTC Maxis, BCH Maxis, XMR Maxis, and multi-coiners?
Latecomers don't understand the philosophy back in the beginning, how each one of these groups evolved, and how important that original philosophy really is.
To really understand early Bitcoin, you have to understand Occupy Wall Street and the Ron Paul Revolution.
It's hard to describe to people today how dark the vibe was during the George W. Bush years. Everything he did, from the PATRIOT ACT, to the wars, to the shameful legitimization of torture, was done with a slap-in-the-face "I'm the president, sit down and shut up" posture. He only secured his reelection by contriving to run goofball John Kerry for the Democrats.
In the year 2006, Texas representative Ron Paul gave a speech called The End of Dollar Hegemony. It proposed an alternative explanation for why the US invaded Iraq. At this time the website Reddit was just one year old. Reddit became a Discussion Hub where ideas around Ron Paul, and hard money, and freedom were discussed. It was a different time. Reddit was a beacon of hope in an incredibly depressing reality. Todays Reddit is a trash fire.
In the 2008 election, Ron Paul ran for president and he had significant support. Betting markets were even taking him seriously. His support was largely young grass roots people organizing on Reddit. The RNC didn't want him to win, so they ran TWELVE people against him. This is known as the "Favorite Son" strategy. Each one of these people gathered their own loyal voters before dutifully dropping out and endorsing the Selected Nominee.
š¶ Everybody knows that the war is over. Everybody know that the good guys lost. šµ
The next thing that would happen would be the 2008 financial crisis and bank bailouts, which, again, you had to have been there. It was hard times, families lost their homes, lost their jobs, lived on rice and beans. And all this time we were being told the banks were Too Big To Fail, they're all gonna get bailed out, and no banker is going to jail.
So people went down to Wall Street and they set up tents and protested the system. OWS was not like any other protest, for one thing there was no defined goal - nobody knew exactly what the banks should do or how. This was dragged on by the media who called the protest "aimless", but because of it the encampment became another Discussion Hub where people came together to question how debt, finance, and even money itself should work.
Predictably, the whole thing ended without any meaningful change. The police started arresting people, pressing Big Jail Time charges, and then letting them go under the threat that if they were seen in the area again they'd be going away forever. At some point the vibe was lost, and police took everyone that remained, washed them in tear gas, and then picked up the tents.
The vibe after OWS was hopelessness. The Powers That Be had shown that they were going to do what they wanted, and you were going to suffer and pay.
When Bitcoin went from being a technologist's toy to being a Real Thing, the value proposition was NOT that the price would go up. Many people, including significant holders of Bitcoin, thought the price might very likely go to zero.
The value proposition of Bitcoin was that The Powers That Be had no control.
They couldn't print it, borrow it, lend it, rehypothecate it, leverage it, repackage it, and turn it into a casino that wipes out a generation of working families while they pay off politicians to bail them out.
Whether Bitcoin went up, or went down, or went to zero, those bastards wouldn't be making a penny off of it.
THAT was the reason to put all of your disposable money into it.
šŖ
At that time, Bitcoin Maximalists didn't exist. The first "altcoin" was Namecoin, following that was a number of technologically uninspiring altcoins with the most famous being Litecoin.
Non-Bitcoin crypto didn't really take off until Ethereum launched and posed an alternative vision of how a blockchain might function. Ethereum gave rise to tokens, which gave rise to a lot of failed projects and a lot of scams.
As the Bitcoin price went up, Bitcoin believers became Bitcoin evangelists because they wanted others to share in what they had. But over and over they would tell someone about Bitcoin, only for that person to go buy some fly-by-night crypto token and lose their money.
This is where Bitcoin Maximalism came from, it was a reaction to the rise of crypto scams as cryptocurrency grew in popularity.
But once an ideology emerges, people don't ever go back to ask where it came from or whether it's still useful.
1/2