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 lunatics that spend their lives yelling at other people on the internet, especially if they are into other cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin.
This more than horrid and ignorant group of people have been destroying the cryptocurrency community for years. They’ve been yelling “scam!” to everything besides Bitcoin and keep pointing out how ignorant are those who remain on the sidelines, not jumping into the sound money revolution that Bitcoin entails with its hard-capped limit and fixed monetary policies.
But why are we focusing on such a morbid and ill crew of clueless 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 that previous hyperbole, but I wanted to convey how emotionally heated the arguments against Bitcoin Maximalists sound as pushed by the anti-Maximalist (antima) movement lately. Antima is a new and cool wave of criticism against Bitcoiners, whose focus on Bitcoin apparently is intruding on some minds and dreams out there.
What Is Bitcoin Maximalism?
First of all, this is a pejorative term which Vitalik Buterin created 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 righteous and inevitable that the bitcoin currency comes to take a monopoly position in the cryptocurrency scene.”
But despite being invented as a way of disrespecting Bitcoiners because of their Bitcoin-only stances and approach, there was a movement that embraced the meme, making this perspective part of the Bitcoin culture. So, self-identified Bitcoin Maximalists started to grow, especially from the 2018 bear market and beyond.
Within this view, Bitcoin Maximalism is simply the avoidance of cryptocurrencies to focus solely on Bitcoin as a new paradigm shift in the realm of money. It is a kind of monetary maximalism, partially influenced by the economic review of Bitcoin made by Dr. Saifedean Ammous in “The Bitcoin Standard.”
In this scenario, the main premise is that Bitcoin is the real deal and the 20,000 plus altcoins are simply noise. There will be schemes and stuff that offer insane gains, but as we saw with the collapse of Terra/Luna, these kinds of anomalies last a really short time and end up with a lot of drama and pain for those not in the know.
This is where the word scam enters the scene.
Maximalists are believers in bitcoin as the apex of digital money, and find that offering anything that uses blockchain technology yet isn't built on the pillars of decentralization presented by Bitcoin is worthless.
But just pointing this out and saying that something is a scam makes people react like maximalists kill babies or boil the oceans! Just for pointing out that touting aspects of a protocol and not being able to truly deliver on them is not only not cool, but scammy behavior.
Bitcoiners Know Bitcoin Is What Matters
Regardless of how you feel about calling things scams, and disregarding the rude actions that some apply to the Maximalist label but are really aspects of rude people, we end up with a group of people around the world that like to focus on Bitcoin and are trying to spread the importance of having an open monetary network for mankind, especially in the era 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 that understand that, as the world has demonstrated lately, perhaps the last chance for human freedom is the ability to transact value through this alternative network. Other systems may be compromised or will simply lead to a dystopian world. And as a censorship resistant network, Bitcoin remains the only option.
This is a guest post by Cam Randell. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC, Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.