Hey!

I thought this may be the best place in the forums to share my new project. I'd be grateful for any feedback that ya'll have! 

www.bitcoinmaximalism.com

The only people that seem to want cryptocurrencies regulated are the people that simply want to leave with more FIAT than they came with. I still have faith that the cypherpunks will beat out regulators and profiteers and that decentralized & private technologies will win out in the long run, but it seems like an uphill battle- now more than ever.

The problem is that the cryptocurrency community has slowly become a large majority of profiteers rather than cypherpunks. The community ethos has changed dramatically for the worse since I joined in 2012, when most Bitcoiners seemed to be of similar cypherpunk-like mentality. How can we ensure the cypherpunk movement is not stifled by regulators and profiteers?

I think the best way forward is to make sure of two things (even if it requires hard forks to maintain them):

1. Cryptocurrencies, and the surrounding infrastructure, need to be made to be as decentralized as possible (including exchanges, markets, social media, etc.)
2. Cryptocurrencies need to be made to be as private and fungible as possible (by leveraging tor, i2p, ring signatures, zk proofs, coin join, etc.)

What do you guys think? Is the movement doomed, or is it just becoming harder to notice support for the cypherpunk cause due to the influx of the profiteers? These profiteers are seemingly a large majority now, can Bitcoin fight them off and remain true to the cypherpunk ethos?

Cryptocurrencies are definitely a bubble because it is hard to discern the value of such when the security, regulation, use cases, economics, popularity, winners, etc... all are in limbo.

Continued here: https://www.decentralized.tech/blogs/bubble-cryptocurrencies-are-in-a-bubble

A diatribe on free market dynamics, and how they we can affect the cryptocurrency and Bitcoin ecosystem.

The Miners secure our cryptocurrency's chain (blockchain). The Lightning Network runs on top of our chain providing a service. Bitcoin businesses effectively are employees for our chain too, because we are the main half (the other smaller half is businesses) that they deal with. Developers are the janitors (emergency bug fixes), construction workers (coding), and engineers (designing protocol improvement) we have employed for our chain. Nation States are like having our own personal police guards that patrol our chain (for better or worse). Exchanges are employed by us too because they ultimately power our revolution...

Continued here: https://www.decentralized.tech/blogs/socialconsensus-stakeholders-should-leverage-social-consensus-more-often

Come on in and share with me which is your biggest bag (or crap coin or cryptocurrency or token or kitten... whatever you kids are calling them these days).

I will tell you if it has been naughty or nice.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

I just wrote an open letter to the Bitcoin community. Please share it to spread the word. I would appreciate it- thanks in advance! 🙂

You can retweet it here: https://twitter.com/DecentralizTech/status/941853909613711361

Dear Bitcoin Community,
Wow. Who would have imagined Bitcoin would be where it’s at today 5+ years ago (when I first entered the community)? As a community of users, philosophers, speculators, businesses, miners, and developers… we should all be very proud of ourselves. The amount of work it took to get here was quite an astounding amount, but it is nice to see the tremendous success of which we have all collectively worked for. Now the mainstream media, your family, and friends are all talking about Bitcoin more and more. It is truly on the cusp of being a mainstream phenomenon.

However, with such success breeds complications. Bitcoin is effectively software, and scaling software to millions of users online has historically been a challenging subject in computer science. Both hardware and software considerations need to be considered. It is obviously a challenging problem to face, and Bitcoin should be proud that it is making headway with Segwit implementation complete.

Lightning Networks will start popping up in the very near future because they are all effectively competing against each other to be first to market. However, it will take a long time for all services and wallets to implement it. There is still a lot of testing that needs to be done. Knowing Bitcoin’s security conscious developers, there will be many tests before anything goes live at all. Point is that it could take a year or more for all wallets and services to implement LNs.

Because of the network effect, Bitcoin has to scale… and it has to scale fast. Every day Bitcoin takes to do so is another day that at least SOME capital goes into an alternative cryptocurrencies' markets instead of Bitcoin's. It is hurting all of the Bitcoin community participants in the ecosystem because some capital is leaving Bitcoin for other alternative cryptocurrencies both from old Bitcoin stakeholders and new community members. Bitcoin fees are already reaching all-time highs, and with the way adoption is going parabolic, expect transaction fees to go parabolic in the short-to-mid-term too.

Although Bitcoin has had a lot of success, it still has many adversaries to conquer, including nation states that may or may not choose to onerously regulate Bitcoin, bankers that will compete for market share on their own centralized solutions, and alternative cryptocurrencies that are competing for market share. There also exists the possibility that all three of those entities (nation states, bankers, or other alternative cryptocurrencies) will try to kill it via many attacks (51%, spam, ddos, political, social, etc) … if they aren’t already…

Bitcoin is already under attack. We can’t control nation states or banker attacks… they will happen regardless of how we proceed. However, I posit that we can do something about the Alternative cryptocurrencies are trying to kill it economically, socially, and politically. Bitcoin Cash has been the main benefactor of the congestion on the network, but other alternative cryptocurrencies are getting an inflow of capital too from what would have otherwise been capital in Bitcoin. It benefits everyone in the Bitcoin community including users, developers, miners, and companies if that capital stays in the Bitcoin ecosystem rather than shifting over to the alternative cryptocurrency’s ecosystem. Bitcoin’s network effect is under attack, and do not underestimate the power of its adversaries. Things will only get worse from here as all adversaries start to ramp up their attacks.

I think there is one solution that you can implement that will kill the value proposition of Bitcoin’s main competitor... the one alternative cryptocurrency the that the “big blockers” have rallied behind: Bitcoin Cash. The supporters of this resistance have been relentlessly attacking Bitcoin in an attempted coup by claiming they are better, and the “real” Bitcoin- among other things. However, the only advantage it has is that it has a higher 8 Mb block size, and is a lot less popular, which brings its transaction fees down substantially. I know Bitcoin’s plan is to scale via Lightning Networks and I support it, and I also realize that scaling purely by raising the block size infinitely eventually leads to a centralized network. However, at the same time, I would like to ask that the Bitcoin community please consider doing one small increase to Bitcoin’s block size to 8Mb, because Bitcoin’s capacity will be greater than that of Bitcoin Cash’s transaction capacity with the block size increase (plus the efficiencies Segwit affords us).

This will provide temporary financial relief from transaction fees for users and businesses until the Lightning Networks are fully working and implemented into most of the websites, services, and wallets. This will also kill the value proposition of big block solutions because at that point their marketing slogan would be an obvious lie if Bitcoin had the same or cheaper transaction fees. The capital would stop bleeding out of Bitcoin, and stay within the Bitcoin ecosystem. Due to the Network Effect, it is paramount that we retain all of the new users the most current “hype wave” (which people usually call a bubble) is bringing us because the quantity of new users and capital is orders of magnitude more users than the last hype wave.

Again, for emphasis, please consider raising the block size for temporary relief. Even if Lightning Networks are fully implemented, we might still have to increase the block size in order to increase the settling capacity of the network. As Bitcoin garners more and more utility through software innovations, the payment channel settling capacity might need to be scaled similarly to how the transaction capacity has had to with transactions. Also, 8Mb blocks are not really that much bigger than 2Mb blocks. It will hardly affect the decentralization of the network. No one is running full nodes on their phones, modern low-cost desktops and servers can efficiently process 8Mb blocks, and network bandwidth and network latency both are not an issue for most modern ISPs either with only 8Mb blocks.

I understand and totally get that you wouldn’t accept a group of companies’ attempts at doing so (Segwit2x), but surely, we can come together socially in order to come to an agreement. An agreement of which that is made out in the public in between almost all of the community members- not an agreement made behind closed doors by a limited portion of the community (like the Segwit2x agreement was formed). I think that is possibly the main contention the No2x crowd had against Segwit2x… is that it was an agreement formed behind closed doors by a few parties, and not necessarily the concept of a small rise in block size. Let’s test that theory?

Please swallow your stubbornness and pride, admit that there is a problem with high transaction fees, and then take the bull by its horns to fix the problem. Let’s raise Bitcoin’s block size to 8Mb.

A concerned community member,

William Connatser aka. CoinHoarder

Originally posted here: https://www.decentralized.tech/blogs/bigblockers-an-open-letter-to-the-bitcoin-community

I know a lot of people around these parts also predicted the future quite accurately, and I am no one special, but I thought I'd share this Facebook post that I wrote on December 6th, 2013:

The following post was written by me on Facebook on December 6, 2013...

It is crazy how I had everything practically all figured out 4 years ago. Unfortunately, I should have believed in myself more, and put more of my money where my mouth was. I would be a billionaire right now. I am unfortunately nowhere close to such... due to my own stupidity and a few occurrences of bad fortune. I guess I had a hard time believing in myself when no one (or not many at least) believed in Bitcoin back then. I am done with that line of thinking though. The wolves take the candy from the sheep. Not the other way around...

The only thing wrong with this post was that the market took about 2 or 3 years to rebound- not a few days. That ended up being wayyyy too optimistic. When the current "hype wave" corrects itself from $18k, I am expecting it to take less time to rebound though due to Bitcoin gaining in popularity and legitimacy. There are a lot more people chomping at the bit to get in, and a correction will accelerate that. It still won't take just a few days to rebound (unless this is a bear trap), but I can't see it taking 2 or 3 years like it did last time. Maybe a year or two at most- possibly much quicker.

Some of my understanding as to the potentials of the technology has changed a lot since this post too. I am extremely more bullish because now I realize that the technology will disrupt many more industries than it simply being a worldwide payment system.

^^^ hindsight ^^^

The actual FB post from Dec. 2013 here: https://www.decentralized.tech/blogs/retrospect-revisiting-a-facebook-post-of-mine-from-december-6th-2013

Bitcoin maximalists have argued for years that sidechains will kill the value proposition of all alternative cryptocurrencies. Whether you're at a Bitcoin meet up, conference or forum, there always seems to be at least one fervent believer in Bitcoin's (and its sidechains') supremacy for an indefinite amount of use cases over alternative cryptocurrencies. A sidechain is a pegged token that runs autonomously on top of the Bitcoin blockchain, which is secured by merged mining incentives for Bitcoin's miners. Sidechains have been theorized (and debated heavily) for years, and it seems that the time has finally come for the first sidechain to make its debut. The Rootstock beta version (which essentially has all of the features of Ethereum) will launch in Bitcoin's main net with a purported 90 percent of the Bitcoin miner's backing. What does this mean for Ethereum, and more importantly... what does this mean for the entire alternative cryptocurrency space going forward?

Continued here: https://www.decentralized.tech/blogs/speculation-bitcoin-maximalists-versus-altcoin-crusaders-who-will-triumph

This is a follow up to this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1285787

My judgment criteria has changed quite a bit since then.

What is most important in determining a cryptocurrency's value?

You may only select up to 10 options.

Feel free to make suggestions on things I should add to the poll!  

This is a follow up to this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1285787

My judgment criteria has changed quite a bit since then.

Locked... accidentally hit submit, I will create a new poll...

Interoperability will play a big role in the cryptocurrency in the very near future, and Atomic Cross-Chain Swaps will play a starring role in the interoperability play.

...

More here: https://www.decentralized.tech/blogs/speculation-a-skeptical-take-on-interoperability-utility-tokens

This topic has been moved to Speculation (Altcoins) because I thought it is more applicable to the speculation subforum...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2481825.0

A blog post equating Cryptocurrencies to contracts, and breach of contract almost always resulting in forks.

Evidence Provided:
ETH -> ETC
BCN -> XMR
XRP -> XLM
BTC -> BCH

Creating a cryptocurrency is similar to writing a contract (when it comes to the economics of such), and buying a cryptocurrency is like agreeing to that same contract. The contract is written in programming language, enforced by each node on the peer-to-peer network, and then it is further enforced by miners or stakeholders (depending on if it is a PoW or PoS cryptocurrency). Included in this contract are the stipulations on exactly how a cryptocurrency functions, and the economic realities of each cryptocurrency’s distinct ecosystem are defined within these stipulations.

....

Much more (along with other blog posts by yours truly  ) here: https://www.decentralized.tech/blogs/economic-change-ethereum-will-splinter-once-more-into-ethereum-casper-and-ethereum

I will eventually be developing the undeveloped websites too. That is... unless you would like to purchase one of them from me.

If you are interested in paying me develop the domain (or another domain you own) for you, then I would consider that as well.

Negotiations/Offers accepted via PM or email only. PM me for my email.



Edit: This offer is no longer valid

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about Bitcoin and its future. It has gone up a lot since I first started learning and following it in 2012... from $10 each to $8000 each, or +80000%. I've been wondering if it is simply a bubble. Such performance from a commodity is indeed unheard of, and based on just that alone certainly seems unsustainable.
After much research and thought, I have decided that it is not a bubble, and I have even been putting my money where my mouth is by buying fractions of a Bitcoin with each weekly paycheck since March. Let me describe my thought process as succinctly as possible (bear with me… lol).

More here: https://www.decentralized.tech/blogs/speculation-bitcoin-will-be-worth-100k-in-under-5-years-and-eventually-over-375k

[More Ideas For Cards.]

I will pay $10 USD to anyone whose suggestions lead me to edit the design of my collectible card game.

The biggest thing that I would like right now is More Ideas For Cards.

I would like all of the following peer-reviewed though (and suggestions on changes made):

Backstory
Objective
Game Modes
Rules & Dynamics
Gameplay
Card Names
Card Attributes
Card Descriptions
Additional Card Ideas

http://docdro.id/jeV597C

Rumblings on Twitter... I have no time to check the validity of the claim because I am at work, but it could possibly be  bad for Bitcoin Cash if true (alleged fork has no replay protection, and has the flawed EDA with inconsistent block production). Can anyone confirm or deny?

Bitcoin Cash was maliciously forked at 504032. If you need Bitcoin Cash Reply Protection, please contact: app@bitmaintech.com . Our Bitcoin Cash Reply Protection is from coinbase transaction after the upgrade in November.

https://twitter.com/Fuyi_BTCcom/status/930772360692559873

[UPDATES:]

Starting with Litecoin, I have been one of the biggest advocates for alternative cryptocurrencies since the early days:

I expect one or two alt coins to really take off in 2013

There used to be a time when I knew almost everything about the top 100 or so market capitalized cryptocurrencies. I have been slacking since "ICO Mania" started though.

I am determined to get caught up with the times, and thus will be analyzing most top 100-200 alternative cryptocurrencies over the coming months. This analysis will be posted publicly ITT and on my website, as peer review and debate is the only path to enlightenment.

I will analyze cryptocurrencies in the order they are suggested in this thread. Reply with the ticker of cryptocurrencies you want analyzed. I will try to analyze one a day, and out links to each cryptocurrency's analysis here in the OP.

Warning: I will be very blunt. If you ask me to analyze a crap coin, then I will not hesitate to tell everyone that I think it is a steaming pile of crap.  

Let the games begin... what alternative cryptocurrency is first?

UPDATES:

Monero Analysis:
https://www.decentralized.tech/blogs/evaluation-evaluating-monero

I don't buy tokens unless they have a working implementation, so I've sat on the sidelines when it comes to ICOs. Have any ICOs gone on to create a working software release? I'm not talking about a basic skeleton implementation to send/receive tokens, but instead an implementation that closely resembles a full featured version of the token's intended road map.

What recent ICOs already have full featured working implementations? I have a feeling there aren't very many that aren't still vaporware.

[Free Market Dynamics]

(This is the first part in a series of posts in which I aim to thoroughly describe my viewpoint on the recent Bitcoin forks. Reading only one part in this series may lead you to a wrong conclusion. Stay tuned to get a thorough snapshot of my viewpoint.)

Free Market Dynamics

I would like to clarify that the title is sarcasm. The recent Bitcoin forks are (approximately) the five millionth (more sarcasm) forks of bitcoin/blockhain technology/ideology. Many forks have come (and most have already have gone) before, and there is no doubt that there are many more to come in the future.

Read all of part one here: www.decentralized.tech/blogs/part-1-bitcoin-core-bitcoin-cash-bitcoin-gold-and-bitcoin-2x-oh-my

10/10/17 Update:

(This is the second part in a series of posts in which I aim to thoroughly describe my viewpoint on the recent Bitcoin forks. Reading only one part in this series may lead you to a wrong conclusion. Stay tuned to get a thorough snapshot of my viewpoint.)

Social Consensus

It has been years since I started following the numerous debates and commentary regarding which cryptocurrency everyone fancies. One measuring stick has always been regurgitated ad naseam. No matter how many years have passed, how many times its been debated, or whoever weighs in on the debate, different consensus algorithms are championed by different people, and for different reasons.

Read all of part two here: https://www.decentralized.tech/blogs/part-2-bitcoin-core-bitcoin-cash-bitcoin-gold-and-bitcoin-2x-oh-my