Published in Coinmonks·Sep 17, 2018What Makes Bitcoin a Store of Value?A cup is not being useful when it sits in the cupboard, only when you drink from it. A bicycle is not useful when it sits in the garage, but when you ride it. …Bitcoin8 min readBitcoin8 min read
Jun 9, 2018Bitcoin Farm: An AllegoryThis article is inspired by Derek Magill’s excellent post, ‘Animal Farm’ and Bitcoin Core, and will take a closer look at the similarities between George Orwell’s allegorical tale of an animal uprising and the hijacking of the Bitcoin (BTC) project at the hands of Bitcoin Core. In brief: The leaders…Bitcoin14 min readBitcoin14 min read
May 14, 2018Bitcoin is not a Store of Value — YetThis article can also be read on Yours.org The latest thought meme being echoed from Wall Street to Silicon Valley is that Bitcoin is merely a “store of value,” an alternate asset class to be held as part of a well-balanced portfolio. This sentiment was recently expressed in a Tweet…Bitcoin5 min readBitcoin5 min read
Oct 15, 2017Profit is not a Dirty WordFinding themselves unable to attack Bitcoin Cash or Segwit2x on technical merit, opponents of a Bitcoin capacity increase have ramped up their smear campaigns and coordinated brigading of anyone with a difference of opinion. …Bitcoin6 min readBitcoin6 min read
Jul 6, 2017Decentralization Fetishism is Hindering Bitcoin’s ProgressThe word “decentralization” gets bandied about so often in Bitcoin scaling debates that its actual meaning seems to have been forgotten. Although decentralization is an important property of Bitcoin, many people have come to fetishize the word, imbuing it with all sorts of mythical properties and treating “more decentralization” as…Bitcoin7 min readBitcoin7 min read
Jun 24, 2017Bring on the Chain SplitIn a previous essay, I examined the unlikelihood of a Bitcoin chain split. At the time, hashrate signaling for larger blocks was increasing daily and the prospect of a miner supermajority hard fork appeared likely. The situation has since changed. The two warring factions have reached an impasse, one side…Bitcoin6 min readBitcoin6 min read
Feb 27, 2017/r/Bitcoin Censorship, RevisitedNote: This post is meant as a follow-up to my original article, A (brief and incomplete) history of censorship on /r/Bitcoin. As the /r/bitcoin moderators will frequently alter the content of threads, the entire thread being referenced in this article has been archived here. …Bitcoin11 min readBitcoin11 min read
Feb 11, 2017It’s Not the Censorship Resistance, Stupid“At the core of Bitcoin’s value proposition is censorship resistance. Bitcoin has value because it can be used to complete transactions that are likely to be censored on other payment networks.” -Kyle Torpey, writing for Nasdaq, March 11, 2016 One of the more recent talking points being used by small-block…Bitcoin7 min readBitcoin7 min read
Feb 9, 2017The Importance of Clear Definitions in Bitcoin’s Block Size DebateI have noticed an interesting phenomenon on the side of the small-blockers throughout the course of the scaling debate. I call it “narrative drift.” It is similar to the logical fallacy of “equivocating” or “moving the goalposts,” in which evidence presented in response to a specific claim is dismissed by…Bitcoin6 min readBitcoin6 min read
Dec 20, 2016The Fee Market MythI don’t anticipate that fees will be needed anytime soon, but if it becomes too burdensome to run a node, it is possible to run a node that only processes transactions that include a transaction fee. The owner of the node would decide the minimum fee they’ll accept. Right now…Bitcoin8 min readBitcoin8 min read
