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The Bitcoin community has changed greatly over the years; from technophiles that could explain a Merkle tree in their sleep, to speculators driven by the desire
by apo 8y ago
The Bitcoin community has changed greatly over the years; from technophiles that could explain a Merkle tree in their sleep, to speculators driven by the desire for a quick profit & blockchain startups seeking billion dollar valuations led by people who don’t even know what a Merkle tree is.
I'm not sure which version of history this guy was on, but it clearly hasn't been the one I followed. He's describing a past that never was.
Read the old Bitcoin Talk posts. It took years for Bitcoin's technical ideas to become well-understood by even a fraction of the user base.
Pick any year after 2010 and you'll find that the vast majority of Bitcoin users were in it to: (1) stick it to the man; (2) make a buck; or both.
Interest in the technology itself motivates only a tiny fraction of users.
- btown 8y agoTechnically, when the community was just Satoshi, what he said held true :)
- zymhan 8y agoIs this really even worth saying? Saying you're being pedantic doesn't cover it.
- EliRivers 8y agoGiven that he read the bitcoin white paper the day it was released and found it an interesting use of Merkle trees, I suspect that he's describing the past he experienced. When he read it, the community was such people.
- 21 8y agoI've been following bitcoin since 2012 and that is also my observation. It was always dollar is worthless and bitcoin is going to replace it, and drugs and assassination markets will run in the open fueled by bitcoin, no taxes will be paid anymore, and government will be powerless to stop any of this.
- acdha 8y ago> It took years for Bitcoin's technical ideas to become well-understood by even a fraction of the user base. That last part is the key qualifier for this line of criticism: there were quite a few people who were interested in the tech but also understood it and economics well enough not to become boosters.