1 00:00:05,396 --> 00:00:09,536 Welcome to episode six of This Week in Bitcoin. I'm traveling to Austin, 2 00:00:09,656 --> 00:00:15,916 Texas this week, so I wanted to focus on one topic, and it happens to be Roger Ver's new book. 3 00:00:16,036 --> 00:00:21,076 He's a well-known individual in the Bitcoin community, and he just released a new book. 4 00:00:21,156 --> 00:00:27,376 It's about hijacking Bitcoin, and I read all 253 pages, so you don't have to. 5 00:00:27,436 --> 00:00:32,736 You're welcome to, but I actually think we can get to the heart of Roger's argument 6 00:00:32,736 --> 00:00:34,736 pretty quickly in this episode. 7 00:00:35,596 --> 00:00:42,516 So Roger has a position that Bitcoin was stolen from its potential and that 8 00:00:42,516 --> 00:00:45,956 it was maybe intentionally done to limit its functionality. 9 00:00:45,996 --> 00:00:49,956 He says whether due to incompetence in the book, sabotage, or perhaps a mixture 10 00:00:49,956 --> 00:00:55,216 of both, he says the takeover happened roughly from 2014 to 2017. 11 00:00:55,816 --> 00:00:59,776 So I sat down, I read the book, and then I went to go find Roger's own words 12 00:00:59,776 --> 00:01:05,596 on his version of what happened. And we'll go through some of that and I'll give my rebuttals. 13 00:01:05,656 --> 00:01:08,696 The block size were really heated up. The big blockers, the people that wanted 14 00:01:08,696 --> 00:01:12,716 Bitcoin to scale to be money for the world, was like 90 plus percent of the ecosystem. 15 00:01:12,876 --> 00:01:16,236 It was almost all the businesses and almost all the actual users that were using it. 16 00:01:16,296 --> 00:01:21,056 And there was just a very, very loud, vocal, very small minority of people that 17 00:01:21,056 --> 00:01:24,036 were going to do everything that they could to block Bitcoin from being able 18 00:01:24,036 --> 00:01:25,316 to scale to be money for the world. 19 00:01:25,316 --> 00:01:30,756 Now, I was around during this time and a very active user of Bitcoin, 20 00:01:30,976 --> 00:01:32,756 and my recollection is slightly different. 21 00:01:33,116 --> 00:01:38,136 I do agree with Roger that the majority of businesses that were accepting Bitcoin 22 00:01:38,136 --> 00:01:42,916 were amenable to the idea of larger block sizes, the idea being making transactions cheaper. 23 00:01:43,836 --> 00:01:48,636 And I do agree with Roger that we had more businesses accepting Bitcoin back at that time. 24 00:01:49,056 --> 00:01:54,756 I do not agree with Roger that most of the users using Bitcoin also wanted larger blocks. 25 00:01:55,396 --> 00:01:59,696 That's Roger's version of history, in my opinion. That's Roger and his friends 26 00:01:59,696 --> 00:02:03,296 who thought that they were the business savvy and that it was these tech plebs 27 00:02:03,296 --> 00:02:06,996 that were the ones that wanted small blocks because they were concerned about their hard drive size. 28 00:02:07,556 --> 00:02:11,936 Well, I was one of those plebs, and I was concerned about my ability to participate 29 00:02:11,936 --> 00:02:15,876 in the network. And I was concerned, although not totally opposed to larger blocks. 30 00:02:16,256 --> 00:02:20,896 But to have Roger kind of paint it as 90% is kind of exaggerating just from my recollection. 31 00:02:21,016 --> 00:02:24,216 Not because – I think some of them probably understood it, but a lot of them 32 00:02:24,216 --> 00:02:26,736 were just useful idiots in that respect. 33 00:02:26,856 --> 00:02:29,856 And a lot of them thought that like, oh, limiting the block size, 34 00:02:30,056 --> 00:02:32,216 that'll keep Bitcoin decentralized and keep it free. 35 00:02:32,336 --> 00:02:36,176 Whereas now we have almost a decade to look in the rearview mirror there. 36 00:02:36,616 --> 00:02:40,116 It had the exact opposite effect. The small blocks led to more centralization, 37 00:02:40,176 --> 00:02:44,176 more censorship. everybody's using a custodian, people can't afford to transact themselves. 38 00:02:44,376 --> 00:02:47,436 So it had the exact opposite effect of what those people were claiming. 39 00:02:47,656 --> 00:02:50,176 And so like, I think a lot of them are now starting to realize that, 40 00:02:50,236 --> 00:02:53,616 oh, maybe limiting the block size wasn't good for Bitcoin's decentralization. 41 00:02:53,796 --> 00:02:56,996 It wasn't good for its freedom promoting aspects. It was actually a net negative 42 00:02:56,996 --> 00:02:58,836 for the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem. 43 00:02:59,616 --> 00:03:04,336 For the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem, and we're regretting it now. 44 00:03:05,056 --> 00:03:07,156 You'll hear this claim quite a bit. 45 00:03:08,296 --> 00:03:10,296 I'll back it up a little bit, out because I think we. 46 00:03:10,296 --> 00:03:13,396 Should walk through this promoting aspect of what those people were claiming. 47 00:03:13,536 --> 00:03:16,116 And so like, I think a lot of them are now starting to realize that, 48 00:03:16,176 --> 00:03:20,036 oh, maybe limiting the block size wasn't good for Bitcoin's decentralization. It wasn't. 49 00:03:20,356 --> 00:03:25,336 Let's start with the decentralization. So he makes this claim about the decentralization 50 00:03:25,336 --> 00:03:27,576 is worse off because of small blocks. 51 00:03:28,216 --> 00:03:33,196 I can agree it's more centralized from one particular lens. 52 00:03:33,616 --> 00:03:39,156 If you look at the use case of people trying to use Bitcoin for day-to-day payments, 53 00:03:39,376 --> 00:03:44,356 like the proverbial coffee, or to zap somebody on Instagram or boost a podcast, 54 00:03:44,656 --> 00:03:49,096 a lot of times that is using a custodial wallet and service. 55 00:03:49,116 --> 00:03:53,396 Not always, but a lot of times that is true in that one particular lens. 56 00:03:53,756 --> 00:03:58,096 But when it comes to generational life-changing wealth savings, 57 00:03:58,476 --> 00:04:00,516 the blockchain data is clear. 58 00:04:00,936 --> 00:04:06,416 The vast, vast vast portion of the Bitcoin supply is being huddled by long-term users. 59 00:04:07,096 --> 00:04:13,456 And that portion is staggering in size to any of the custodial Bitcoin providers. 60 00:04:14,476 --> 00:04:21,536 Coinbase, the ETFs, MicroStrategy. I will link to the Glassnode two-year and 61 00:04:21,536 --> 00:04:25,636 five-year and three-year analysis of coins that haven't moved. 62 00:04:27,121 --> 00:04:30,781 It's clear that that is in cold storage. 63 00:04:30,981 --> 00:04:35,581 It's not in custodial wallets. We have the ability to tell that. The data is there. 64 00:04:35,781 --> 00:04:41,461 So I'm not really a big – I'm not going to cosign his statement there other 65 00:04:41,461 --> 00:04:47,501 than I will acknowledge that in certain slices where we're trying to use a bare 66 00:04:47,501 --> 00:04:49,041 instrument for day-to-day transactions, 67 00:04:49,461 --> 00:04:53,621 it is more likely that there will be a custodial service there. 68 00:04:54,201 --> 00:04:59,141 However, as somebody who bought Lunch and other services in El Salvador using 69 00:04:59,141 --> 00:05:01,321 my completely self-hosted wallet setup, 70 00:05:01,521 --> 00:05:06,921 using Zeus and my own node over Tailscale, I can tell you that you can also 71 00:05:06,921 --> 00:05:10,981 use those similar types of services using your own self-hosted infrastructure 72 00:05:10,981 --> 00:05:13,021 because it is an open network. 73 00:05:13,221 --> 00:05:16,301 It wasn't good for its freedom-promoting aspects. It was actually a net negative 74 00:05:16,301 --> 00:05:18,141 for the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem. 75 00:05:18,141 --> 00:05:22,961 The entire cryptocurrency ecosystem. So Roger's argument, he may bring it up 76 00:05:22,961 --> 00:05:24,381 again later, but I'll address it right now. 77 00:05:24,901 --> 00:05:29,581 Roger's argument is these forks of Bitcoin into these other forks like Bitcoin 78 00:05:29,581 --> 00:05:33,401 XT, eventually Bitcoin Cash and all this, you know, the vision crap, 79 00:05:33,561 --> 00:05:38,761 all of that, all of that has reduced the overall amount of liquidity and money 80 00:05:38,761 --> 00:05:41,521 that could have gone into Bitcoin if we all could have just held it together. 81 00:05:41,521 --> 00:05:46,441 And so we would have an even more explosive price for Bitcoin, 82 00:05:46,661 --> 00:05:50,581 even greater gains and returns. 83 00:05:51,701 --> 00:05:57,141 I mean I'm trying – I'm being a little sarcastic but that is I think a very 84 00:05:57,141 --> 00:06:02,701 convenient version of how that would have played out as if Ethereum wasn't going 85 00:06:02,701 --> 00:06:04,221 to eventually become a thing or Cordana. 86 00:06:04,221 --> 00:06:09,681 I mean, all of these things, yes, they started actually around the block-sized war. 87 00:06:10,081 --> 00:06:13,281 But human nature, you can see it in open source over and over again. 88 00:06:13,361 --> 00:06:16,141 There were always going to be forks. There was always going to be a light coin. 89 00:06:16,341 --> 00:06:17,761 It never really mattered. 90 00:06:18,021 --> 00:06:22,361 There would always be all of these other coins, now these VC-backed coins that 91 00:06:22,361 --> 00:06:25,061 we see, that were going to be sucking liquidity away from Bitcoin. 92 00:06:25,561 --> 00:06:29,981 No matter what the big block or small block decision was, no matter what direction 93 00:06:29,981 --> 00:06:33,121 the block-sized war went, we were always going to have altcoins. 94 00:06:33,121 --> 00:06:35,041 And you'll see some people that aren't thinking clearly say, 95 00:06:35,101 --> 00:06:38,481 oh, Bitcoin, $70,000 today. Bcash is $500. 96 00:06:39,161 --> 00:06:42,561 It's like, yeah, well, you're looking at what's seen. What's not seen is where 97 00:06:42,561 --> 00:06:46,101 could the entire market cap of all cryptocurrencies have been had Bitcoin not 98 00:06:46,101 --> 00:06:48,681 run into these intentionally designed scaling issues, right? 99 00:06:48,761 --> 00:06:53,041 When you had companies like Microsoft and Expedia literally stop accepting Bitcoin, 100 00:06:53,281 --> 00:06:55,781 and some of them still don't accept Bitcoin again to this very day. 101 00:06:56,441 --> 00:07:00,381 I don't necessarily agree that they stopped accepting Bitcoin because of the 102 00:07:00,381 --> 00:07:04,221 transaction cost, right? Because if they had bigger blocks, they would have 103 00:07:04,221 --> 00:07:05,281 lower transaction costs. 104 00:07:05,321 --> 00:07:07,161 So you could use Bitcoin for smaller and smaller transactions. 105 00:07:07,281 --> 00:07:08,221 The cost would be less and less. 106 00:07:09,241 --> 00:07:14,501 So Microsoft, maybe you're paying for some Azure service with Bitcoin in this theoretical world. 107 00:07:14,861 --> 00:07:18,261 And they would have done it only if the block size had been larger. 108 00:07:20,194 --> 00:07:27,534 That's ridiculous, right? I mean, it pretends like the SEC and the companies 109 00:07:27,534 --> 00:07:31,214 being afraid of SEC involvement. 110 00:07:31,494 --> 00:07:33,294 You know, all of these companies are risk averse. 111 00:07:34,094 --> 00:07:39,054 The moment it got a little risky to accept Bitcoin, the moment it got just a 112 00:07:39,054 --> 00:07:44,594 little bit of taint on it from either cybercrime or whatever narrative was going 113 00:07:44,594 --> 00:07:47,074 on at the time, they were always going to bail. 114 00:07:48,054 --> 00:07:54,234 At that point in time, Bitcoin was seen more as an alternative to PayPal than 115 00:07:54,234 --> 00:08:00,494 it was as maybe a potential replacement for the Federal Reserve one day. 116 00:08:01,434 --> 00:08:07,154 It was really seen – the mentality was you got to spend Bitcoin. 117 00:08:07,354 --> 00:08:08,314 You got to spend Bitcoin. 118 00:08:09,274 --> 00:08:12,434 Well, that's how people like me who have been in Bitcoin since the very beginning 119 00:08:12,434 --> 00:08:15,574 lost a lot of our Bitcoin was that very mentality. 120 00:08:15,574 --> 00:08:20,454 Mentality uh i mean i'm still torn up about it today the gear i'm speaking into 121 00:08:20,454 --> 00:08:25,634 my mixer my microphone the mic stand the table i'm sitting at all paid for with 122 00:08:25,634 --> 00:08:30,814 bitcoin back then would i buy it today with bitcoin probably not i'm glad i 123 00:08:30,814 --> 00:08:32,814 have this stuff and i didn't have the cash, 124 00:08:33,434 --> 00:08:38,574 so it enabled me to you know pursue a small business and enable my work so i 125 00:08:38,574 --> 00:08:43,334 don't totally regret it but it was a mentality that was drilled into us and 126 00:08:43,334 --> 00:08:47,294 roger still seems to be of that that mentality that we should be using this 127 00:08:47,294 --> 00:08:49,934 scarce digital asset to pay for everyday items. 128 00:08:50,254 --> 00:08:53,574 And we could have done that if the block sizes had been larger, 129 00:08:53,674 --> 00:08:54,934 ergo the fees would have been smaller. 130 00:08:55,334 --> 00:08:58,894 Microsoft would have kept taking Bitcoin then. I just don't agree. 131 00:08:59,014 --> 00:09:02,994 I think the fear of regulation and the risk avoidance was always going to lead 132 00:09:02,994 --> 00:09:07,054 them to step away from Bitcoin because there are cheaper and more economical 133 00:09:07,054 --> 00:09:10,154 ways to accept Bitcoin today, and they're not re-engaging. 134 00:09:10,354 --> 00:09:13,234 Bitcoin not run into these intentionally designed scaling issues, 135 00:09:13,374 --> 00:09:17,534 right? When you had companies like Microsoft and Expedia literally stop accepting 136 00:09:17,534 --> 00:09:20,594 Bitcoin, and some of them still don't accept Bitcoin again to this very day. 137 00:09:20,834 --> 00:09:25,354 And so the entire world could have been in a much better position today than 138 00:09:25,354 --> 00:09:30,834 it is had we not ran into that scaling issue that was literally done with a 139 00:09:30,834 --> 00:09:34,874 bunch of censorship and dirty tricks that are outlined and cited right there directly in the book. 140 00:09:34,974 --> 00:09:37,994 And I think a lot of people's jaws will drop when they realize just how many 141 00:09:37,994 --> 00:09:41,514 dirty tricks were played and how much censorship went on within the community. 142 00:09:41,514 --> 00:09:46,114 And if I had to pick one single mistake that I made in my strategy and history 143 00:09:46,114 --> 00:09:51,134 involvement in Bitcoin, it's like I underestimated how incredibly effective censorship is. 144 00:09:51,274 --> 00:09:55,094 The only mistake Roger's made, the one single mistake, according to Roger, 145 00:09:55,194 --> 00:09:58,854 is that he underestimated the power of censorship. 146 00:10:01,387 --> 00:10:07,167 Hmm. Now, is it that censorship has played a role since 2015 and managed to 147 00:10:07,167 --> 00:10:11,107 bamboozle all of the plebs and all of the node operators and all of the miners 148 00:10:11,107 --> 00:10:14,547 and all of the businesses like Strike and others that have come along since? 149 00:10:14,647 --> 00:10:18,827 Have they all just been bamboozled and not intelligent enough to see through the censorship? 150 00:10:19,547 --> 00:10:23,727 Or is it that your idea hasn't been successful in the marketplace of ideas? 151 00:10:24,367 --> 00:10:27,647 And the explanation to yourself is censorship. 152 00:10:27,647 --> 00:10:30,727 Censorship now i do remember reddit posts 153 00:10:30,727 --> 00:10:35,527 getting censored i do recall some of that happening so again you but you might 154 00:10:35,527 --> 00:10:39,807 not be able to appreciate from afar now is this actually did get pretty down 155 00:10:39,807 --> 00:10:43,967 in the dirt at the time so there likely was censorship back in the day and that 156 00:10:43,967 --> 00:10:47,227 may have affected people's understanding but i just don't think it holds up 157 00:10:47,227 --> 00:10:49,867 as an argument so many years later because. 158 00:10:49,867 --> 00:10:52,807 At the time when the censorship first started everybody knew the truth and i 159 00:10:52,807 --> 00:10:55,747 didn't think who's going to fall for the censorship but now that so much time 160 00:10:55,747 --> 00:10:58,647 has gone by a lot of people think like, oh, Roger's, you know, 161 00:10:58,667 --> 00:11:02,147 Bitcoin Judas and didn't ever do anything for Bitcoin and the big blocks were 162 00:11:02,147 --> 00:11:03,887 stupid and the Bcash is stupid. 163 00:11:03,947 --> 00:11:07,227 And like, they don't know the censorship was so incredibly effective. 164 00:11:07,467 --> 00:11:11,607 And that's why even today, like, if you take a step back and take off your censorship, 165 00:11:11,727 --> 00:11:16,027 you know, influenced goggles, you can see Julian Assange is a hero. 166 00:11:16,367 --> 00:11:20,667 Edward Snowden is a hero. Yet the government propaganda against these people 167 00:11:20,667 --> 00:11:23,307 have fooled the majority of citizens into thinking that these people are bad 168 00:11:23,307 --> 00:11:24,687 people and that they did something wrong. 169 00:11:24,687 --> 00:11:28,927 Is he comparing himself to Edward Snowden and Julian Assange? 170 00:11:30,027 --> 00:11:33,927 I actually think people don't think about Roger. I think that's the more likely 171 00:11:33,927 --> 00:11:36,707 scenario is people don't think about Roger and they don't think about Bitcoin 172 00:11:36,707 --> 00:11:38,367 Cash. They don't think about big blocks. 173 00:11:39,067 --> 00:11:44,967 But that's why we should be thinking about this. Because there is an insidious nature to this. 174 00:11:45,107 --> 00:11:47,527 This idea that, well, it's just code. 175 00:11:48,067 --> 00:11:50,447 We can just change it. We can just make the blocks bigger. 176 00:11:52,247 --> 00:11:56,707 There's a viral nature to it. And Roger thinks that this is the time to discuss it. 177 00:11:56,747 --> 00:12:00,587 He thinks there's a movement within Bitcoiners to reignite this debate. 178 00:12:00,727 --> 00:12:01,707 I don't necessarily agree. 179 00:12:01,907 --> 00:12:08,947 But again, I don't find the argument that it's censorship today that really holds up. 180 00:12:09,007 --> 00:12:14,967 He'd argue that it should be voices like his, like Roger's, that should be on 181 00:12:14,967 --> 00:12:17,927 the megaphones and not voices like Saylor is what he would argue. you. 182 00:12:18,407 --> 00:12:21,947 And so the same is true with the block size wars. The censorship was so effective 183 00:12:21,947 --> 00:12:25,447 into tricking people via the censorship and to think that big blocks were a 184 00:12:25,447 --> 00:12:28,867 bad idea or that Bitcoin was never supposed to be peer-to-peer electronic cash, 185 00:12:28,907 --> 00:12:30,907 even though it's right there in the title of the white paper. 186 00:12:31,047 --> 00:12:34,407 Nobody argues that. Nobody argues that. 187 00:12:34,567 --> 00:12:39,387 And I don't understand his concern here because, 188 00:12:41,397 --> 00:12:48,117 doesn't really he's not really addressing the fee issue and i the bitcoin fees are not horrible, 189 00:12:48,637 --> 00:12:52,177 they've been they've remained very reasonable even post etf i don't know if 190 00:12:52,177 --> 00:12:55,177 when roger wrote this book knowing it would come out after the etfs perhaps 191 00:12:55,177 --> 00:13:00,097 he was hope hoping for his for his argument that the blockchain fees on the 192 00:13:00,097 --> 00:13:02,737 bitcoin network would be ridiculous but they're actually still quite reasonable 193 00:13:02,737 --> 00:13:08,577 so even this is it doesn't really in in actuality hold up we've had times of congestion. 194 00:13:09,517 --> 00:13:15,317 We've had times of congestion. But on the average, fees have been historically low this last year. 195 00:13:15,577 --> 00:13:18,657 Or that Bitcoin was never supposed to be peer-to-peer electronic cash, 196 00:13:18,797 --> 00:13:20,777 even though it's right there in the title of the white paper. 197 00:13:21,177 --> 00:13:25,437 And that Satoshi himself, he literally wrote the software code to increase the 198 00:13:25,437 --> 00:13:28,097 block size on Bitcoin so it could scale to be money for the world to compete 199 00:13:28,097 --> 00:13:32,137 directly with PayPal and Visa and MasterCard and these sorts sorts of things. 200 00:13:32,257 --> 00:13:35,417 Whereas nowadays, you know, and a lot of new people won't know, 201 00:13:35,477 --> 00:13:40,977 like I was one of the, if not the main face of Bitcoin for quite a number of years there. 202 00:13:41,257 --> 00:13:44,297 And now we have people like Michael Saylor is one of the main faces of Bitcoin, 203 00:13:44,457 --> 00:13:47,337 literally telling people, Hey, let's not compete with the U S dollar. 204 00:13:47,537 --> 00:13:51,197 Let's all pay our taxes. Let's not rock the, you know, let's not, 205 00:13:51,257 --> 00:13:55,357 you know, rock the boat at all with this. And it's like, you've missed the entire point of Bitcoin. 206 00:13:55,737 --> 00:13:58,637 If you think it's not going to rock the boat and it's not going to disrupt the 207 00:13:58,637 --> 00:13:59,737 the way the entire world works. 208 00:14:00,217 --> 00:14:04,497 I think it's ironic because I think he's missed Saylor's point and people like 209 00:14:04,497 --> 00:14:06,497 him. It's funny, you know, pay your taxes, follow laws. 210 00:14:06,997 --> 00:14:09,137 What a radical bastard that Saylor is. 211 00:14:10,137 --> 00:14:15,337 But what Roger seems to be missing, in my opinion, is, and he addresses in the 212 00:14:15,337 --> 00:14:16,917 book, but I don't buy it, I don't buy it. 213 00:14:16,957 --> 00:14:21,577 He says that in order for Bitcoin to become a store of value, 214 00:14:21,717 --> 00:14:23,157 it must be first a medium of exchange. 215 00:14:23,497 --> 00:14:26,597 People must be using it to buy things before we can use it as a store of value. 216 00:14:27,917 --> 00:14:33,597 I don't understand that logic because we all kind of know traditionally that's not how things work. 217 00:14:35,137 --> 00:14:38,677 You know, usually it becomes, I mean, just traditionally in history, 218 00:14:38,757 --> 00:14:40,157 it becomes a store of value first. 219 00:14:41,117 --> 00:14:45,257 And once it's a trusted store of value, for something to be widely accepted 220 00:14:45,257 --> 00:14:48,437 as a medium of exchange, it has to be a trusted, reliable store of value. 221 00:14:48,497 --> 00:14:51,877 That's just generally how it works. People need confidence that they can retain 222 00:14:51,877 --> 00:14:57,037 their purchasing power over time or perhaps even increase their purchasing power over time. 223 00:14:58,464 --> 00:15:04,844 Um, and once it's proven its ability to do that, that it's a dependable store 224 00:15:04,844 --> 00:15:11,564 of value that preserves worth, um, then it generally becomes a currency and a medium of exchange. 225 00:15:12,564 --> 00:15:15,404 Roger tries to argue the different, but difference, but I, I just, 226 00:15:15,424 --> 00:15:16,444 I don't buy that argument. 227 00:15:17,404 --> 00:15:20,964 And again if big blocks would have been merged well 228 00:15:20,964 --> 00:15:23,624 then it would have been a major change to how bitcoin works if we 229 00:15:23,624 --> 00:15:26,944 would have accepted the bitcoin xt fork that would have been a 230 00:15:26,944 --> 00:15:30,924 fundamental shift in the network you couldn't argue that bitcoin is as hard 231 00:15:30,924 --> 00:15:35,584 of money as it is now which is sailor's point part of what makes bitcoin hard 232 00:15:35,584 --> 00:15:39,924 money is that we've avoided those fundamental hard forks that the protocols 233 00:15:39,924 --> 00:15:43,784 remain fairly compatible and that we make minor small small improvements over time. 234 00:15:44,824 --> 00:15:48,324 If you start messing with that, then you mess with the hardness of Bitcoin. 235 00:15:48,724 --> 00:15:52,464 You mess with the value. You mess with people's savings. 236 00:15:52,764 --> 00:15:56,364 Bitcoin, if you think it's not going to rock the boat and it's not going to 237 00:15:56,364 --> 00:15:57,884 disrupt the way the entire world works. 238 00:15:57,984 --> 00:16:02,484 And sadly, at this point, Bitcoin isn't nearly as disruptive as it otherwise 239 00:16:02,484 --> 00:16:05,104 could have been if people could still use it as peer-to-peer electronic cash. 240 00:16:05,284 --> 00:16:10,244 So anyhow, the book covers all the ways in which the Civil War dirty tricks 241 00:16:10,244 --> 00:16:14,024 and tactics that were employed to literally undermine Bitcoin's usefulness as 242 00:16:14,024 --> 00:16:15,104 peer-to-peer cash for the world. 243 00:16:15,204 --> 00:16:18,104 And it's already, you know, at the top of its category on Amazon. 244 00:16:18,184 --> 00:16:19,904 And I invite people to go over there and order it. 245 00:16:20,124 --> 00:16:22,324 You can go to hijackingbitcoin.com. 246 00:16:22,464 --> 00:16:24,644 Yeah, there you go. I gave him his plug since I used his audio. 247 00:16:24,824 --> 00:16:27,544 And I read the book and I do like some of the history in there. 248 00:16:28,064 --> 00:16:30,144 But you're probably, if you've gotten this far, you're thinking, 249 00:16:30,184 --> 00:16:35,164 well, why does Roger not acknowledge Lightning? I think Lightning does get discounted by Roger. 250 00:16:35,644 --> 00:16:39,564 It does enable Bitcoin to be used as a day-to-day medium of exchange without 251 00:16:39,564 --> 00:16:41,104 having to hard fork Bitcoin. 252 00:16:42,264 --> 00:16:45,564 I've personally bought things using completely self-custodial solutions. 253 00:16:46,884 --> 00:16:50,404 And I realize that he doesn't agree that Bitcoin is a good solution and Bitcoin. 254 00:16:50,404 --> 00:16:52,984 Cashers, they like to laugh at lightning. 255 00:16:53,264 --> 00:16:56,144 Fair enough. To me, it seems like a brilliant solution. 256 00:16:56,564 --> 00:17:00,304 And we could have multiple different types of layer twos. It doesn't have to 257 00:17:00,304 --> 00:17:03,424 be just lightning. So we don't have all our eggs in one basket either. 258 00:17:03,724 --> 00:17:08,024 And they hate the argument that the market has clearly decided because it is 259 00:17:08,024 --> 00:17:11,664 a good argument. argument their response seems to be well censorship prevented 260 00:17:11,664 --> 00:17:14,864 the market from making the right call all these years I don't buy it, 261 00:17:15,945 --> 00:17:21,285 I don't buy it. And I think one of the bits that gets left out in Roger's version 262 00:17:21,285 --> 00:17:25,225 of history can be explained by the author of the Block Size War book, 263 00:17:25,465 --> 00:17:29,485 Jonathan Baer, who explains the details of how their fork activation dynamics 264 00:17:29,485 --> 00:17:34,705 worked and the funkiness there that kind of set this all off wrong from the very start. 265 00:17:34,965 --> 00:17:38,225 Yeah, it was a rolling vote. So as soon as they got to 75 percent, 266 00:17:38,525 --> 00:17:40,665 activation was locked in. 267 00:17:40,665 --> 00:17:47,225 The miners would add into a block space their agreement of wanting to participate 268 00:17:47,225 --> 00:17:50,665 in the block, just I'm summarizing, would want to, they'd signal that they wanted 269 00:17:50,665 --> 00:17:53,045 to participate in the Bitcoin XT fork. 270 00:17:53,325 --> 00:17:55,705 And they had these rolling windows to do this. 271 00:17:55,885 --> 00:17:58,985 Which I thought was pretty stupid. So there wasn't these windows because that 272 00:17:58,985 --> 00:18:02,845 meant that basically at the time it activates, you're guaranteeing there's at 273 00:18:02,845 --> 00:18:07,325 least 25% of the miners who are not upgraded and not running XT. 274 00:18:07,325 --> 00:18:10,605 So you're also ensuring that there is going to be a chain split. 275 00:18:11,005 --> 00:18:15,665 And a much better idea would be, okay, we're going to have these windows and 276 00:18:15,665 --> 00:18:18,105 the vote could be 75% or more. 277 00:18:18,185 --> 00:18:23,045 So it's at least theoretically possible for 99% of the miners to upgrade at the time of activation. 278 00:18:23,565 --> 00:18:29,305 But the way they did it, they were locking in, in my view, 25% miner opposition 279 00:18:29,305 --> 00:18:35,005 to the hard fork, which made a chain split even more likely, almost guaranteed. 280 00:18:35,005 --> 00:18:39,745 So, yeah, I don't think they thought through the activation dynamics that much 281 00:18:39,745 --> 00:18:44,865 because they were so, at this point, the large blockers were very confident 282 00:18:44,865 --> 00:18:47,245 and positive that they would at some point succeed. 283 00:18:48,105 --> 00:18:51,205 And they didn't worry about all these kind of game theory scenarios. 284 00:18:51,665 --> 00:18:54,665 But, yeah, they had quite a controversial activation system. 285 00:18:54,985 --> 00:18:58,065 My recollection was the big blockers were very business focused. 286 00:18:58,225 --> 00:19:01,985 They thought they were the money people. They had Gavin Andreessen on their side. 287 00:19:01,985 --> 00:19:06,145 They thought that they had the chief scientist of the Bitcoin Foundation working 288 00:19:06,145 --> 00:19:11,485 with them, and they were very concerned that all of this was going to go – they 289 00:19:11,485 --> 00:19:13,445 weren't very concerned that this wasn't going to go their way, I should say. 290 00:19:13,505 --> 00:19:16,965 They were, I think, confident that everybody would see it their way. 291 00:19:18,314 --> 00:19:23,474 It was a series of mistakes. That hubris might have led to a series of mistakes 292 00:19:23,474 --> 00:19:25,154 that sort of split the attention. 293 00:19:25,154 --> 00:19:31,754 That was another huge mistake from the large blockers to spin off Bitcoin Cash 294 00:19:31,754 --> 00:19:36,854 and then also try to do SegWit2x at the same time. 295 00:19:37,214 --> 00:19:40,714 So they weren't all united behind one fork. Their efforts were split. 296 00:19:42,014 --> 00:19:45,774 And from their point of view, I was speaking to some of them in Hong Kong at 297 00:19:45,774 --> 00:19:49,954 the time, and they were like, Bitcoin Cash shows the small blockers we're serious. 298 00:19:49,954 --> 00:19:56,514 If they don't go ahead with SegWit2x, we're all going to leave to join Bitcoin Cash. 299 00:19:57,174 --> 00:19:59,734 Therefore they know we're serious now, we've actually got a coin, 300 00:19:59,894 --> 00:20:04,834 and this is going to make the small blockers all agree to SegWit2x, 301 00:20:05,034 --> 00:20:09,754 which of course was completely wrong in their thought processes. 302 00:20:09,894 --> 00:20:15,074 The small blockers were not going to support SegWit2x because of the existence of Bitcoin Cash. 303 00:20:16,174 --> 00:20:23,754 If anything, Bitcoin Cash significantly took all the momentum out of the SegWit2x attempt. 304 00:20:24,894 --> 00:20:28,794 Certainly from the point of view of exchanges who just kind of had to support 305 00:20:28,794 --> 00:20:33,534 Bitcoin Cash and had all the complications of kind of splitting customers' coins, 306 00:20:34,254 --> 00:20:38,434 listing Bitcoin Cash, the technical teams at these exchanges didn't want to 307 00:20:38,434 --> 00:20:41,714 go through this whole process all over again with another SegWit2x coin. 308 00:20:42,154 --> 00:20:48,174 And again, it's about precedent. precedent. The large blockers had done their 309 00:20:48,174 --> 00:20:52,354 hard forks, split their coin off, and it wasn't known as Bitcoin, 310 00:20:52,534 --> 00:20:55,654 and it traded at a significant discount to the Bitcoin price, 311 00:20:55,834 --> 00:21:00,054 which set a precedent for, well, the same thing again will happen with Segwit2x. 312 00:21:00,434 --> 00:21:03,714 The large blockers will split up a coin. It will then be called Bitcoin Cash. 313 00:21:03,854 --> 00:21:05,694 It will be called Segwit2x coin. 314 00:21:06,234 --> 00:21:11,094 And again, it will trade at a significant price discount to Bitcoin and won't be known as Bitcoin. 315 00:21:11,094 --> 00:21:16,174 Coin so again they got their tactics completely wrong they thought that this 316 00:21:16,174 --> 00:21:20,354 would you know help win the war help let the small blockers know they're serious 317 00:21:20,354 --> 00:21:24,554 but actually completely undermine their case split their camp into different 318 00:21:24,554 --> 00:21:30,094 coins and you know helped ensure the victory for the smaller blockers so. 319 00:21:30,094 --> 00:21:34,854 They essentially made a series of mistakes in those days that split the energy, 320 00:21:35,654 --> 00:21:43,174 And when I look back at it, I guess I could have seen Bitcoin survive with larger blocks. 321 00:21:43,494 --> 00:21:45,694 I don't think it really... 322 00:21:47,471 --> 00:21:51,491 I don't think it really would have fundamentally changed the self-hosting scenario 323 00:21:51,491 --> 00:21:54,251 unless they'd gotten really large, right? 324 00:21:54,291 --> 00:21:58,611 The part of the proposal was to move it from one megabyte to eight megabytes, 325 00:21:58,731 --> 00:22:01,371 and then the block size would double every two years. 326 00:22:01,531 --> 00:22:04,771 So eventually you could see it kind of getting out of control. 327 00:22:05,411 --> 00:22:10,511 There are a few main agreed-upon properties of a currency, right? 328 00:22:10,591 --> 00:22:11,951 It needs to be a medium of exchange. 329 00:22:12,651 --> 00:22:15,951 Well, Bitcoin is that. It needs to be a store of value. 330 00:22:15,951 --> 00:22:18,791 You bitcoin is becoming that it needs to be a unit 331 00:22:18,791 --> 00:22:22,091 of account and we definitely have it as that it needs to be portable bitcoin 332 00:22:22,091 --> 00:22:28,451 is the best at that and it needs durability um like so for a physical currency 333 00:22:28,451 --> 00:22:33,311 that means it needs to be resistant to wear and tear it has to have longevity 334 00:22:33,311 --> 00:22:41,551 and acceptance over time i think in a digital world that means forks are the greatest sin Sin, 335 00:22:41,551 --> 00:22:44,031 especially the, I mean, a hard fork is the greatest sin. 336 00:22:45,031 --> 00:22:47,251 And Bitcoin has a network effect. 337 00:22:48,491 --> 00:22:52,851 And that also gives it durability. And then another aspect is limited supply, 338 00:22:53,111 --> 00:22:55,531 which we know Bitcoin has. 339 00:22:55,891 --> 00:23:00,151 These are the properties that ensure a currency can effectively serve as a medium 340 00:23:00,151 --> 00:23:04,431 of exchange, a store of value, a unit of account, facilitating economic transactions in general. 341 00:23:05,051 --> 00:23:08,171 These are sort of the agreed upon properties of a currency. And I don't really 342 00:23:08,171 --> 00:23:14,951 hear anything in Roger's arguments that don't make Bitcoin as it is today, all six of those things. 343 00:23:16,351 --> 00:23:21,771 So where I see it today, it actually seems to me, taking the adoption route 344 00:23:21,771 --> 00:23:29,351 of a real currency, the store of value aspect of it could take multiple generations. 345 00:23:30,051 --> 00:23:33,031 It's entirely possible. It took gold like what, a thousand years? 346 00:23:33,871 --> 00:23:39,411 And we're just the first generation of Bitcoin users, the very first generation. 347 00:23:39,471 --> 00:23:42,831 I could see something like that taking a really long time. 348 00:23:43,131 --> 00:23:48,751 And maybe to us alive right now, it may for some like those on the big block 349 00:23:48,751 --> 00:23:53,111 side from that time may still see it as a failure for the rest of their life. 350 00:23:55,368 --> 00:23:59,748 Bitcoin's a thousand year technology and the store of value and people beginning 351 00:23:59,748 --> 00:24:03,748 to accept that is it's really just part of the process. 352 00:24:05,568 --> 00:24:10,908 All right, coming up, your boosts, project updates, clip of the week and more. 353 00:24:11,068 --> 00:24:14,608 So let me say thank you to my sponsor, Podhome.fm. 354 00:24:15,488 --> 00:24:19,888 Podhome.fm is a podcasting, Twitter hosting platform. It's the one I use. 355 00:24:19,908 --> 00:24:21,948 It has unlimited shows and episodes. 356 00:24:22,188 --> 00:24:25,468 It's got Podhome AI that's fantastic. fantastic it'll automatically 357 00:24:25,468 --> 00:24:28,368 transcribe to give you a transcription in the 358 00:24:28,368 --> 00:24:31,168 podcast app it'll figure out your chapters it can even make 359 00:24:31,168 --> 00:24:33,868 clips and the ui makes it really easy to add 360 00:24:33,868 --> 00:24:38,508 remote items like value for value music set up your splits so you can send a 361 00:24:38,508 --> 00:24:44,268 little sat love to a guest if you have it if you use the promo code twib you'll 362 00:24:44,268 --> 00:24:47,708 get the first three months for free that's twib this week in bitcoin i love 363 00:24:47,708 --> 00:24:52,648 pothome.fm it's great for live streaming too they've got a a fantastic setup over there. 364 00:24:52,708 --> 00:25:00,208 So go to pothome.fm, promo code TWIB, and thanks to Pothome for sponsoring this week in Bitcoin. 365 00:25:00,468 --> 00:25:04,228 Now, we did get some boosts, and I mean some. 366 00:25:05,028 --> 00:25:09,628 Last week's episode sucked, so I knew it was going to be rough in the boost 367 00:25:09,628 --> 00:25:12,768 department. I mean, I didn't expect it to be this bad. 368 00:25:14,048 --> 00:25:18,148 Woo, it's bad, boys. It's bad. But Adam Curry is our baller booster. 369 00:25:18,228 --> 00:25:21,128 He came in with 10,000 sats hello mr curry 370 00:25:21,128 --> 00:25:24,348 thank you very much for the support uh he writes boosting 371 00:25:24,348 --> 00:25:27,428 to remind everyone that you can stream sats 372 00:25:27,428 --> 00:25:30,128 per minute i stream this week in bitcoin 200 sats per 373 00:25:30,128 --> 00:25:37,848 minute because i value thank you podfather yeah i see that um my totals that 374 00:25:37,848 --> 00:25:40,608 i read in the messages don't include the streaming stats but i'll often see 375 00:25:40,608 --> 00:25:44,448 the total uh for each individual contributor after the week and you're always 376 00:25:44,448 --> 00:25:48,868 high on that list thanks to those streaming sats and those boosts appreciate Appreciate that. 377 00:25:49,048 --> 00:25:55,128 No second best is back again with 15,042 stats. Also art baller. Hey, look at that. 378 00:25:58,428 --> 00:26:01,048 Uh, thanks for staying focused on the signal during a noisy week. 379 00:26:01,148 --> 00:26:05,848 Read the pomp problem. I'd say watch him for a bit and then see how he does and keep us posted. 380 00:26:06,488 --> 00:26:12,148 It's very reasonable. Thank you very much. Nullifier comes in with 2001 sats. Just a little concern. 381 00:26:12,248 --> 00:26:15,488 I'm beginning to have the morning zoofication of podcasts. 382 00:26:15,728 --> 00:26:18,528 I find the soundboard clips a bit cheesy, but at least you aren't putting them 383 00:26:18,528 --> 00:26:21,248 on. So at least you aren't putting on some persona. 384 00:26:21,468 --> 00:26:25,588 Aha. I could try. He says, I know it's, this is Adam Curry's influence at play. 385 00:26:25,588 --> 00:26:28,028 And I picture Nullifier shaking his fist. 386 00:26:28,688 --> 00:26:32,708 You know, so Nullifier, I do appreciate for some people they find the sound 387 00:26:32,708 --> 00:26:36,288 effects annoying. We could probably get like a new set for this week in Bitcoin. 388 00:26:37,468 --> 00:26:40,908 But there's a process at work here. 389 00:26:41,008 --> 00:26:46,008 You see, we have memes that get created by the audience, like a row of ducks and space balls boost. 390 00:26:46,288 --> 00:26:50,508 And part of what makes that magic work is to have a sound effect that goes with 391 00:26:50,508 --> 00:26:53,608 that particular type of boost, kind of then organically takes off. 392 00:26:53,608 --> 00:26:55,668 And they generally come from the community. 393 00:26:56,608 --> 00:26:58,908 It's kind of part of the fun is you boost in a certain amount, 394 00:26:58,988 --> 00:27:01,528 you trigger a certain sound effect. It doesn't work for everybody, 395 00:27:02,108 --> 00:27:04,208 but on the whole, it does seem to work. 396 00:27:04,528 --> 00:27:07,808 And it also just kind of makes it fun, keeps it moving and things like that. 397 00:27:08,248 --> 00:27:14,668 I also, I guess I take issue with calling it the zoofication of podcasts, 398 00:27:14,868 --> 00:27:15,848 the morning zoofication. 399 00:27:15,948 --> 00:27:24,348 I mean, you're talking about a handful of soundbites for 10-15 minutes in part of the podcast, 400 00:27:25,248 --> 00:27:31,128 compared to like the absolute ludicrous ridiculousness that is actual morning 401 00:27:31,128 --> 00:27:35,568 radio with all of their commercials and all their stupid antics and guy laughing 402 00:27:35,568 --> 00:27:37,788 in the background off mic and all of that like. 403 00:27:39,362 --> 00:27:42,702 It's not really a fair comparison, although I appreciate that some people come 404 00:27:42,702 --> 00:27:44,902 to podcasting to get away from radio. 405 00:27:45,022 --> 00:27:47,442 So anything that kind of reminds them of radio is triggering. 406 00:27:47,962 --> 00:27:51,142 But I think it's a little bit of a dramatic statement to say it's morning zoofication. 407 00:27:51,682 --> 00:27:55,902 I think there is a balance to be had there, though. Loomer comes in with 5,000 408 00:27:55,902 --> 00:28:01,982 sats and writes, I like your examination or explanation of why the supply can't be changed in Bitcoin. 409 00:28:02,102 --> 00:28:04,362 I appreciate you keeping an eye on the mainstream media, but not sure I'll keep 410 00:28:04,362 --> 00:28:07,042 listening if it's the largest part. Not counting the boosts. 411 00:28:07,822 --> 00:28:11,802 I'd be curious to know what you think of the balance today. EPC comes in and just says, boost! 412 00:28:13,302 --> 00:28:14,622 So five boosters. 413 00:28:16,122 --> 00:28:20,802 With 32,543 sats. That's rough. 414 00:28:21,802 --> 00:28:27,262 That's a low hourly wage. But also on me. It was not a good episode. 415 00:28:27,882 --> 00:28:33,062 I'm probably going to take next week off. Because I'll be traveling and I want 416 00:28:33,062 --> 00:28:35,182 to think about retooling the show a little bit. 417 00:28:35,842 --> 00:28:39,902 Because I wasn't happy with the results either, and now it's reflected in the boosts too. 418 00:28:40,242 --> 00:28:45,282 So thank you, though, for everybody who did, for all five of you who did send 419 00:28:45,282 --> 00:28:47,062 a boost in. I do appreciate that. 420 00:28:48,802 --> 00:28:52,162 Some project updates for you. I just talked about Mutiny Wallet recently, 421 00:28:52,242 --> 00:28:56,242 but they have another release, version 0.62. This is a big deal, you guys. 422 00:28:56,782 --> 00:29:00,282 So Mutiny Wallet, I like it a lot because you can self-host it yourself, 423 00:29:00,722 --> 00:29:05,662 or you can use their web-based version. When we use their web-based version, it's so quick. 424 00:29:05,842 --> 00:29:07,782 Spin up a Lightning Wallet, start using it immediately. 425 00:29:08,162 --> 00:29:10,902 If you just need a quick, disposable Bitcoin Lightning Wallet, 426 00:29:10,922 --> 00:29:12,822 it's so awesome. Really good. 427 00:29:13,802 --> 00:29:17,162 And they've semi-recently introduced Mutiny Plus. 428 00:29:18,342 --> 00:29:22,942 Now, this is a subscription of 16,000 sets, but you get early access to new 429 00:29:22,942 --> 00:29:26,062 features, your own Lightning Address, an iOS test flight app, 430 00:29:26,222 --> 00:29:30,102 and, of course, you're supporting future development. And Lightning Addresses 431 00:29:30,102 --> 00:29:32,682 is one of the new features they've added in 6.2. 432 00:29:33,302 --> 00:29:37,222 And they also are working on the ability to receive payments while you're offline. 433 00:29:38,504 --> 00:29:41,504 Which is a bit tricky with Lightning. They say in the announcement, 434 00:29:41,604 --> 00:29:45,544 they write, our new feature uses eCash locked to your pub key so you can only 435 00:29:45,544 --> 00:29:47,004 spend it when you're back online. 436 00:29:47,324 --> 00:29:50,784 Your wallet listens for DMs on Noster and unlocks tokens once received. 437 00:29:51,364 --> 00:29:53,724 It's using Fetament on the back end, so you need to set that up. 438 00:29:54,064 --> 00:29:59,544 They keep pushing Fetament further and further and federated systems further and further. 439 00:29:59,624 --> 00:30:03,324 It kind of is an alternative to Liquid, and it's really fascinating what they're 440 00:30:03,324 --> 00:30:06,624 doing over there. The UI has recently got a refresh. I covered that not too long ago. go. 441 00:30:07,204 --> 00:30:10,224 The Mutiny Wallet is an app that even if you don't need a wallet, 442 00:30:10,324 --> 00:30:13,104 you need to go be aware of it so you can recommend it to friends and family 443 00:30:13,104 --> 00:30:16,204 or just people that need quick wallets. It could be a great way to consolidate 444 00:30:16,204 --> 00:30:18,644 UTXOs, something to definitely look into. 445 00:30:18,944 --> 00:30:23,344 And then in my also high esteem category, one of my absolute favorite Bitcoin 446 00:30:23,344 --> 00:30:27,444 apps, the Zeus Wallet version 0.8.3 is now available. 447 00:30:28,144 --> 00:30:31,184 This is a big one. It's got on-chain coin control. 448 00:30:32,244 --> 00:30:36,424 They write in their announcement, Quote, all three of our L&D interfaces now 449 00:30:36,424 --> 00:30:38,964 support CoinControl when crafting on-chain transactions. 450 00:30:39,484 --> 00:30:42,744 There's still work to be done, though, including adding the ability to send 451 00:30:42,744 --> 00:30:46,224 full UTXOs without manually calculating the fee difference. 452 00:30:46,544 --> 00:30:51,404 For now, we recommend users who need to burn a full UTXO to put it into a channel 453 00:30:51,404 --> 00:30:54,624 using the send max flag. Yeah, that is actually really handy. 454 00:30:55,204 --> 00:30:59,424 Also good news, if you're using their liquidity provider for Lightning, 455 00:30:59,624 --> 00:31:03,124 I should say, they have reduced the Zeus Pay Lightning address fees. 456 00:31:03,564 --> 00:31:07,244 Quote, the new fee structure will see most users paying less than 50% of the 457 00:31:07,244 --> 00:31:09,284 fees they were previously. 458 00:31:20,508 --> 00:31:24,388 I'm going to recommend The Block Size War to you. It's a book that I picked 459 00:31:24,388 --> 00:31:27,568 up back in 2021, and it's fantastic. 460 00:31:28,168 --> 00:31:33,588 It covers the Bitcoin block size war, which was waged from August 2015 to November 17. 461 00:31:34,648 --> 00:31:40,048 And at the heart of it, it is really about the users deciding the future of Bitcoin. 462 00:31:40,508 --> 00:31:44,048 I know Roger and his crew wouldn't like that version of history, 463 00:31:44,188 --> 00:31:48,708 but that's the version that I remember, is that the users picked the direction 464 00:31:48,708 --> 00:31:50,188 of Bitcoin and the Bitcoin network. 465 00:31:50,988 --> 00:31:55,488 Despite what the companies and all of the business smart people wanted. For better or for worse. 466 00:31:55,668 --> 00:31:59,048 I think for better, but The Block Size War captured. It's a pretty short read. 467 00:31:59,468 --> 00:32:03,788 You know, it may be shorter than Roger's book, actually. They're about the same length. 468 00:32:04,368 --> 00:32:07,248 And if you're going to get Roger's book, definitely get The Block Size War because 469 00:32:07,248 --> 00:32:09,768 you should read both accounts of history. 470 00:32:11,348 --> 00:32:14,388 If you've heard of this book and you've never picked it up, please, 471 00:32:14,388 --> 00:32:19,248 please consider this the thing that pushes you over to actually read this book. 472 00:32:19,248 --> 00:32:22,788 It's not a difficult read it's a great read and 473 00:32:22,788 --> 00:32:26,748 it'll give you stronger conviction about bitcoin's future and direction too 474 00:32:26,748 --> 00:32:32,528 definitely did for me now i'm gonna play a clip from mr sailor i know um i risk 475 00:32:32,528 --> 00:32:36,128 going mainstream with this one but to be honest there's only so many people 476 00:32:36,128 --> 00:32:39,608 that are getting interviewed these days and i think it would probably drive 477 00:32:39,608 --> 00:32:42,428 roger nuts to hear a sailor clip so shortly after him but, 478 00:32:43,199 --> 00:32:48,799 Mikey tries to make the argument why modifying the block size could wreck the value of Bitcoin. 479 00:32:49,759 --> 00:32:54,119 And if that's true, I guess you could say Mikey's in the ossification camp, 480 00:32:54,279 --> 00:32:55,439 as they like to call it now. 481 00:32:55,559 --> 00:33:00,859 The commonly understood reason for why you don't want to change the block size 482 00:33:00,859 --> 00:33:04,979 is we don't want to centralize the network. We want to keep nodes that you can run. 483 00:33:05,339 --> 00:33:11,499 But it's not actually, in my opinion, it's not the best argument. 484 00:33:11,499 --> 00:33:15,579 I mean, the truth is you could probably make an argument that an eight megabyte 485 00:33:15,579 --> 00:33:18,979 block space will also be decentralized or not. 486 00:33:19,139 --> 00:33:26,039 Now we're in this little debate over the cost of storage versus the rate at 487 00:33:26,039 --> 00:33:28,519 which the Bitcoin blockchain increments. 488 00:33:29,539 --> 00:33:37,079 And the better debate is don't change it because it's unethical to change it. 489 00:33:37,979 --> 00:33:45,259 It. Don't change it because it's evil. It's unethical. That's why you don't do it. 490 00:33:45,399 --> 00:33:49,739 Do you agree? Is it evil and unethical to make large changes to Bitcoin as more 491 00:33:49,739 --> 00:33:52,899 and more people try to store their generational wealth into Bitcoin? 492 00:33:53,319 --> 00:33:58,019 And if you do agree with that, does that pose a challenge to Bitcoin's future? 493 00:33:58,579 --> 00:34:02,159 Or is there a positive to it? Perhaps you could argue that as well. 494 00:34:02,199 --> 00:34:03,539 Let me know. Send a boost into the show. 495 00:34:03,739 --> 00:34:07,439 When I'm back, I will read them. I'm going to to wrap up with just a reminder 496 00:34:07,439 --> 00:34:10,759 that I'll probably be out next week, although depending on how things work out, 497 00:34:10,799 --> 00:34:12,179 I may have an episode for you. 498 00:34:12,639 --> 00:34:14,659 I'd still like to hear what you'd like to hear from the show. 499 00:34:14,739 --> 00:34:16,219 Does that make sense? I want to hear what you want to hear. 500 00:34:16,999 --> 00:34:21,079 Let me know what you, yeah, anyways, you know, as I'm taking some time to think 501 00:34:21,079 --> 00:34:24,659 about how to retool the show, it's a great time to get your piece in and share 502 00:34:24,659 --> 00:34:27,579 it with a friend, maybe another Jupiter Broadcasting community member, 503 00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:29,539 somebody in the podcasting 2.0 community. 504 00:34:29,859 --> 00:34:32,339 I'd really appreciate that and love to hear their feedback as well. 505 00:34:32,459 --> 00:34:34,999 I am going to leave you with a value for value song. 506 00:34:35,339 --> 00:34:40,019 This is by TJ Wong, and it is so many years. Thanks for being here.