An Open Letter to Bitcoin Miners

Firstly, I want to say that censorship is horrible and it must stop. The problem, as with most problems, is that things are not black and white here, what we have is a spectrum of

Censorship vs Moderation.

It’s a fine line between the two, especially in the age of Internet trolling.

I believe the “moderation” on r/bitcoin has become outright censorship, and needs to be rebalanced. I openly condemn the censorship on r/bitcoin.

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Now, what I’m about to write is strictly for the consideration of bitcoin miners.

We as humans are all flawed in one way or another. Even our greatest heroes. Some of the personalities and voices on both sides may have been unnecessarily rude in their advocation for or against Segwit. I think people would be a lot less hostile if this were face-to-face interaction.

We, the dark net community, urge miners look past the hostility and focus instead on the technical benefits that Segwit brings.

For Bitcoin to succeed it must do new things, rather than copy, imitate, or modify what already exists.

“Doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n. But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1.” – Peter Thiel

Going from zero to one is the nature of true innovation.

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It is in the best interest of everybody to have Segwit activated; even Roger Ver himself, although he doesn’t know it yet.

A block size increase is a linear improvement to a forever-growing problem. Again, in business and problem-solving you don’t look for linear improvements, you look for 0 to 1 improvements. Lightning is the only solution to scaling to 1 million txs/second and this is unquestionable.

Segwit enables things that would otherwise be impossible. Schnorr sigs and the best Lightning can only come with Segwit.

We have been observing the block size debate and it is clear that the small blockers have all the expertise. I am doubtful of the BU team’s competence and capability to advance Bitcoin and innovate.

Let’s keep it lean and innovate. The BU team doesn’t have a plan, they are not innovating, and privacy and security aren’t priorities for them. Their code is low quality, untried and their devs are few. Meanwhile Core has all the talent, Core devs have delivered for years and they number in the hundreds. Look at the price performance of Bitcoin! Core code has never damaged Bitcoin, only improved it.

It is saddening to see bitcoin miners and users voting against their own self-interest. The BU/Classic teams have no technical strength and cannot solve the scaling problem, which only comes with Lightning.

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Lastly, I want talk about contentious hard forks. Most people think they are simply “risky.”

We believe that contentious hard forks are disastrous and one in Bitcoin would decimate it beyond repair.

Hard forks can and should be done, but only with the overwhelming consensus of the community, and only as a last resort after all other options have been exhausted.

Wake up.

Two separate chains each claiming to be Bitcoin will destroy everything we’ve built. The ecosystem will take a huge hit and probably never recover. This will have effects on the entire cryptocurrency sphere- the loss of Bitcoin will mean a huge loss of faith in cryptocurrency itself.

Some people have the mentality of “go fast, break things.” I prefer to do things right the first time, because in the case of Bitcoin we may not get a second chance. Failures turn people away from a project. Failures destroy brand recognition. A contentious hard fork may not matter for alt coins which don’t have economic activity backing them, but we can assure you that one in Bitcoin would be unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Bitcoin’s value on both forks will crater.

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Remember that a solution does not need to be perfect (is any solution ever perfect to everyone?) It only needs to be better than the alternative.

Raising the block size before Segwit and Lightning is not useful and not practical. Contentious hard forks are not practical and this is why the anti-intellectualist criticism of Segwit disappoints me.

Segwit represents something new.

With it, we will open up untraversed and fantastic possibilities.

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To Roger Ver: I challenge you to keep an open mind and take some time to reflect on what I have said, instead of the knee-jerk reactions that may be running through your head. Think like the successful businessman you are and be flexible and open to different ways of thinking, no matter how initially opposed you may be. The truth is, you WILL get what you want out of Bitcoin with Segwit, and you will ALSO financially benefit the most! As they say in real estate, the real profit comes from appreciation of the asset. You live a truly remarkable life.