Bitcoin Maximalists Know Bitcoin Matters – Bitcoin Magazine
This is an opinion editorial by Cam Randell, a Bitcoiner who believes that Bitcoin is the key technology in the quest for privacy.
“Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, Satoshi Nakamoto?” This is a normal question for a Bitcoin maximalist, a dying breed of maniacs who spend their lives yelling at other people on the internet, especially if they are interested in cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin.
This beyond cruel and ignorant group of people have been destroying the cryptocurrency community for years. They have shouted “fraud!” to anything but Bitcoin and continue to point out how ignorant those who remain on the sidelines are and not jump into the sound money revolution that Bitcoin entails with its hard limit and fixed monetary policy.
But why are we focusing on such a sick and sick crew of ignorant internet trolls? Why is it so important to say out loud that Bitcoin Maximalism is dead?
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I don’t know the answer, and sorry for the previous hyperbole, but I wanted to convey how emotionally heated the arguments against Bitcoin Maximalists sound like the pressures of the antimaximalist (antima) movement lately. Antima is a new and cool wave of criticism against Bitcoiners, whose focus on Bitcoin is apparently intruding on some minds and dreams out there.
What is Bitcoin Maximalism?
First, this is a derogatory term that Vitalik Buterin coined after being upset by, in his view, how closed-minded Bitcoiners are. The creator of Ethereum wrote an essay in 2014, in which he defined what Bitcoin Maximalism is: A doctrine that states that “It is both fair and inevitable that the bitcoin currency will take a monopoly position in the cryptocurrency scene.”
But despite being invented as a way to disrespect Bitcoiners for their Bitcoin-only attitudes and approach, there was a movement that embraced the meme, making this perspective part of Bitcoin culture. So self-identified Bitcoin Maximalists began to grow, especially from the bear market of 2018 onwards.
Within this view, Bitcoin Maximalism is simply eschewing cryptocurrencies to focus solely on Bitcoin as a new paradigm shift in the realm of money. It is a kind of monetary maximalism, partly influenced by the economic review of Bitcoin done by Dr. Saifedean Ammous in “The Bitcoin Standard”.
In this scenario, the main assumption is that Bitcoin is the real deal and the 20,000 plus altcoins are simply noise. There will be schemes and things that make crazy gains, but as we saw with the collapse of Terra/Luna, these kinds of anomalies last a very short time and end up in a lot of drama and pain for those who don’t know.
This is where the word fraud enters the scene.
Maximalists believe in bitcoin as the pinnacle of digital money, and find that offering anything that uses blockchain technology not yet built on the pillars of decentralization presented by Bitcoin is worthless.
But just pointing this out and saying something is a scam makes people react like maximalists killing babies or boiling the oceans! Just to point out that touting aspects of a protocol and not being able to really deliver on them is not just cool, but fraudulent behavior.
Bitcoiners know that Bitcoin is what matters
However you feel about calling things scams, and disregarding the rude actions that some use on the Maximalist label, but which are really aspects of rude people, we end up with a group of people around the world who like to focus on Bitcoin and trying to spread the importance of having an open monetary network for humanity, especially in an age of digital surveillance.
Beyond the speculative bubbles that we saw in the last bull run, Bitcoiners know that Bitcoin is what matters in the long term.
Bitcoiners are a digital and global community of people who understand that, as the world has shown lately, perhaps the last chance for human freedom is the ability to trade values through this alternative network. Other systems may be compromised or will simply lead to a dystopian world. And as a censorship-resistant network, Bitcoin is still the only option.
This is a guest post by Cam Randell. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC, Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.
