Vitalik Buterin's best work yet: "In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism"vitalik.ca/general/2022/04/01/maximalist.html
1473 sats \ 18 comments \ @eduardopro 1 Apr 2022 bitcoin
write
preview
related posts
21 sats \ 0 replies \ @ugmug 1 Apr 2022
I'll say this is actually worth a read, as it very clearly lays out why Bitcoin maximilism is necessary and good. It's too bad he probably ironically released the post today.
Archive in case it gets taken down: https://archive.ph/Rf4OP
reply
90 sats \ 0 replies \ @itsrealfake 1 Apr 2022 freebie
it's gonna be hilarious when we find out that somebody pwnt vitalik's blog
reply
40 sats \ 0 replies \ @zuspotirko 1 Apr 2022
The
I don't think the Bitcoin and Ethereum community can be anymore different.
image had me dying laughing
reply
14 sats \ 1 reply \ @Majjin 1 Apr 2022
I'm really surprised that the article actually made a very good case for maximalism. However, the fact that it was released on April 1st taints what ever message the article had. It seems like it was released on April 1st to give Vitalik some plausible deniability.
reply
13 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undergotten 1 Apr 2022
Seems like he is just trying to build a bit of credibility to me. He's not well loved in the Bitcoin community, I'm told.
reply
12 sats \ 2 replies \ @0xtr 1 Apr 2022
It’s april fools day, not sure if he is joking or not
reply
13 sats \ 1 reply \ @eduardopro OP 1 Apr 2022
LOL.
It's definitely an alien's version of an April Fools joke.
reply
120 sats \ 0 replies \ @And1 1 Apr 2022
Yes probably he said what he really thinks, which he can't say like that on any other day.
reply
11 sats \ 0 replies \ @LibreLoya 2 Apr 2022
Bitcoin lives rent free in his mind
reply
10 sats \ 1 reply \ @gunson 2 Apr 2022
Really interesting. I think he’s set himself a challenge to fully steel man the case, but released it April 1 as a way to signal it’s not fully serious.
The problem is that despite him articulating some good arguments in a coherent and intellectually honest way, he’s also missed some really important arguments too.
Cynically, this means his case becomes seen as the Bitcoin maximalist one even though it’s just Vitalik’s steel man, and becomes easier to attack. More charitably, Vitalik doesn’t appreciate the full case for maximalism despite making an honest attempt at it.
I think Bitstein had a good take: https://mobile.twitter.com/bitstein/status/1509907738708660230
reply
31 sats \ 0 replies \ @gunson 2 Apr 2022
One more comment. I think it’s safe to say he’s serious about some of the points (like that Bitcoin is focused on empowering oppressed people, while other protocols work on more trivial things), and that these are intended to offer some meaningful internal critique of the Ethereum community.
Even while he’s more tongue in cheek about other points: like the Kevin Pham bit, which honestly just makes maximalists look like dicks, and Ethereum people look like they can at least laugh at themselves.
Basically the whole thing is another Vitalik April 1 “meta joke” where he gets to watch people take the wrong things seriously, and contort themselves to criticise the correct things.
reply
10 sats \ 0 replies \ @02d10975a1 2 Apr 2022
It's a good article. Releasing it on April fools' day is just his weird sense of humor. It's an inverse April fools' joke; everyone expects a satire, but it's serious, so that's the joke.
He has done a similar 'joke' before, releasing EIP 960 (ether supply cap) on April 1st. He said later that the joke was that people couldn't tell if it was serious or not. https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/980744740277661696
reply
33 sats \ 4 replies \ @k00b 1 Apr 2022
This is so interesting ...
There are several things that he says that he has to agree with, that obviously aren't satire. I think @And1 is right that the release on today is likely just to give him plausible deniability for showing support of another asset, which he would get skewered for ... it'd kind of be like Tim Cook admitting he occasionally uses an Android phone.
I personally feel that Vitalik is both thoughtful and well intended (even if I don't agree with everything he ends up being associated with) so this can't all be satire, right?
  1. What if Bitcoin maximalists actually deeply understand that they are operating in a very hostile and uncertain world where there are things that need to be fought for, and their actions, personalities and opinions on protocol design deeply reflect that fact?
  2. The key property to have in a robust and defensible technology stack is a focus on simplicity and deep mathematical purity: a 1 MB block size, a 21 million coin limit, and a simple Nakamoto consensus proof of work mechanism that even a high school student can understand. The protocol design must be easy to justify decades and centuries down the line; the technology and parameter choices must be a work of art.
  3. The second ingredient is the culture of uncompromising, steadfast minimalism. This must be a culture that can stand unyieldingly in defending itself against corporate and government actors trying to co-opt the ecosystem from outside, as well as bad actors inside the crypto space trying to exploit it for personal profit, of which there are many.
reply
71 sats \ 1 reply \ @nout 2 Apr 2022
I recommend reading his other posts too... there are often interesting and solid points that helped me understand some topic. I especially liked the one on the classes of decentralization ("Trust Models")
reply
60 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 2 Apr 2022
This might be an example of poe’s law and we are all just too “in it”
reply
10 sats \ 0 replies \ @cozy 2 Apr 2022
Theory: he saw the Terra/Luna buying Bitcoin news and had an existential crisis. The great thing about Ethereum is that it's always got to fight like 100x harder to keep that #2 slot, NFTs have lost their novelty. What's next? More Crowdfunding (ICOs, IEOs, whatever), Privacy, stablecoins? Anyway, better to take the pressure directly off of the already busy af Bitcoin devs. Unpopular opinion: Eth is good for Bitcoin.
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 1 Apr 2022
I feel obligated to add that I feel like his incentives (social as well as financial) have the effect of making him hard to distinguish from someone un-well-intended given the results ... even if I think he intends to not do harm.
reply
1 sat \ 0 replies \ @a 4 Apr 2022 freebie
I follow bitcoin only because it cuts through the noise. Bitcoin is the real innovation, everything else is experimentation platform that will inform how to build layer 3+ on bitcoin FYI, Layer 1 is BP and Layer 2 is LNP, with LNP/BP as the consensus layer (akin to TCP/IP).
The real innovation is proof of work and magic internet money. Importantly, bitcoin is collaborative, immutable, public, open and decentralized way of communicating value. Looking forward to seeing how bitcoin can help align our species towards mutual collaboration and aligned incentives.