Bitcoin diehard Udi Wertheimer rails against crypto-tribalism

Bitcoin changed Udi Wertheimer’s life, and then he made fun of copycats into a micro-celebrity. He had every reason to double down on that approach, but the recent crypto boom changed him – now his favorite people are mocking all the people who copy his old playbook.

Why it’s important: At a time when it seems like every tribe that can act tribal is doing so and nothing creates online celebrity faster than attacking tribal heretics, Wertheimer is one of a select group of bitcoin diehards who has done something very surprising: he’s changed .

What they say: “If I had to rank inventions, I think [bitcoin is] one of the most important in recent times,” Wertheimer tells Axios in an interview in Lower Manhattan.

• Wertheimer says bitcoin has been very useful as a test bed for use cases like crypto-based lending, but every time these markets are proven on bitcoin, the founders find they can be done better elsewhere.
• “There’s also benefit going forward, and that’s what I think we bitcoiners have to figure out,” he says.
• Before 2021, it’s unlikely anyone would have heard Wertheimer make those kinds of concessions to other projects. “I look at my old bitcoin-only content and I get annoyed,” Wertheimer says.

Status: Wertheimer is a bitcoiner known mainly for being famous. He started as a software developer, but he was early enough in bitcoin that he now operates more as a small investor.

• His presence on Twitter is his main claim to fame, where he is one of the funniest voices championing bitcoin and blockchain values.
• Many followers of Wertheimer have seen his change of heart in real time, on the timeline.

Context: Within crypto, there is a stark divide between certain bitcoiners and everyone else. There is a thing called “bitcoin maximalism” which claims that bitcoin is the only digital money and everything else that has come since is bad.

• Wertheimer used to agree with that position, mainly because he saw almost everything else from the last boom, the 2017 and 2018 initial coin offering boom, as bad.

Yes, but: However, as decentralized finance and NFTs took off in 2021 and 2022, Wertheimer found he had to admit that these were indeed things people wanted.

• Many of Wertheimer’s peers have turned against him now that he has expressed openness to these industries.
• But for his part, Wertheimer is baffled that bitcoiners aren’t trying to build markets for people to buy NFTs. To him, it’s exactly the kind of digital economy bitcoiners hoped for early on.

“It’s a circular economy where people are anonymous. They can build things without anyone giving them permission, without registering anything, without asking permission. You just do it, and bitcoin isn’t used there at all,” Wertheimer said on a recent podcast appearance.

Style notes: For Wertheimer, his chief forum for communication is largely play. “It’s essentially an addiction for sure,” he says. “Everyone I know, I know from Twitter.”

• “I try not to just troll for the sake of trolling. For me, it’s an attempt to convey information that is less dry,” he says. “Even when I’m nervous, I still try to have a point.”
• Wertheimer believes it is irrational to view an investment as a religion. For example, a Walmart shareholder could buy a small piece of Target stock, just in case, and no one would criticize.
• At the same time, he tries not to ask anyone to be “kind”. He’s just asking bitcoiners if being so exclusive is actually in bitcoin’s long-term interest.
• “My intention is not to change people,” he says. “What interests me more is encouraging people like me to speak up.”

Bottom line: “I just couldn’t care less,” Wertheimer says, but the truth is that he actually thinks bitcoin is important.

• Wertheimer sees a world where most people have only one option to store the value they earn, and usually only one fairly uniform financial system, which might work for everyone—unless they find bitcoin.
• “I think my biggest hope is that it gives people choice. It already has,” he says.