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This seems like someone saying "I don't agree with the direction that BitCoin is heading in" and then taking his ball and going home. A bit dramatic yes, but no

This seems like someone saying "I don't agree with the direction that BitCoin is heading in" and then taking his ball and going home. A bit dramatic yes, but not uncommon in open source projects. It's like someone saying "Linux is dead because it doesn't confirm to XYZ principle", which seems to occur every other Tuesday. Forks happen. It seems like he makes some cogent criticisms, for which the best solution seems to be to fork the project, or begin developing for any of the other *coins that were so popular a couple of years ago. But BitCoin has the dominant brand and the people who control the mining and the source code can do whatever they want. Something tells me that bitcoin itself isn't dead because there's been too much invested in it by too many people, whatever the problems. But it's dead in the eyes of the author and maybe for several others, and that's all that matters in the context of his blog.

dragontamer 11y ago
He did fork. He's the creator of Bitcoin XT, which was trying to bring light to the blockchain issues he discussed. He was met with DDOS attacks, and was banned from several bitcoin communities. When the BTC community has become so hostile to literally attack those who criticize it, it becomes hopeless to resist. The best you can do is walk away until the community stops being so hostile.
- kale 11y ago
  That's the discussion. Technical hurdles appear to be solvable. The core concept should still be sound. It's the political structure around Bitcoin that appear to be killing it. Fixing Bitcoin would be the best solution, but the politics and governance structure aren't letting this happen. Aside: As I age I'm understanding more and more how critical leadership is. All of the pieces are there for Bitcoin to succeed, but they aren't organized correctly. The second option is the community choosing to change to a different client, so that by a grassroots movement, eventually the blockchain moved in the right direction. It would likely be a rough transition for uneducated people, companies, and software for businesses that use Bitcoin, but if it can't be official, it would have to be something done similarly to XT. The last solution is to switch to another cryptocoin and blockchain entirely. I don't keep up with news, so hopefully some of the smaller coins have implemented fixes. This would set back blockchain-based cryptocurrency a few years, though. If the whole community abandoned Bitcoin and moved to Vertcoin or Dogecoin, companies that went out of their way to support Bitcoin might be reluctant to follow.
Jordrok 11y ago
> "Something tells me that bitcoin itself isn't dead because there's been too much invested in it by too many people, whatever the problems." So in other words, too big to fail? I don't necessarily disagree with you, but that sure seems to support the argument that the Bitcoin ecosystem as a whole isn't in a very healthy place.

dragontamer 11y ago

He did fork. He's the creator of Bitcoin XT, which was trying to bring light to the blockchain issues he discussed. He was met with DDOS attacks, and was banned from several bitcoin communities. When the BTC community has become so hostile to literally attack those who criticize it, it becomes hopeless to resist. The best you can do is walk away until the community stops being so hostile.

kale 11y ago
That's the discussion. Technical hurdles appear to be solvable. The core concept should still be sound. It's the political structure around Bitcoin that appear to be killing it. Fixing Bitcoin would be the best solution, but the politics and governance structure aren't letting this happen. Aside: As I age I'm understanding more and more how critical leadership is. All of the pieces are there for Bitcoin to succeed, but they aren't organized correctly. The second option is the community choosing to change to a different client, so that by a grassroots movement, eventually the blockchain moved in the right direction. It would likely be a rough transition for uneducated people, companies, and software for businesses that use Bitcoin, but if it can't be official, it would have to be something done similarly to XT. The last solution is to switch to another cryptocoin and blockchain entirely. I don't keep up with news, so hopefully some of the smaller coins have implemented fixes. This would set back blockchain-based cryptocurrency a few years, though. If the whole community abandoned Bitcoin and moved to Vertcoin or Dogecoin, companies that went out of their way to support Bitcoin might be reluctant to follow.

Jordrok 11y ago

> "Something tells me that bitcoin itself isn't dead because there's been too much invested in it by too many people, whatever the problems." So in other words, too big to fail? I don't necessarily disagree with you, but that sure seems to support the argument that the Bitcoin ecosystem as a whole isn't in a very healthy place.