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100 sats \ 3 replies \ @ramenbased 11 Jun 2023 \ on: Could the political views of Btcoiners becoming diluted be dangerous to Bitcoin? bitcoin
OP there is way too much to unpack in your OP. generally i think it is helpful to always differentiate between pure ideology and realpolitik. your use of socialism is skewed in the sense that no european country is actually socialist. europe is at best a social democracy, not democratic socialism. europe is a capitliast society.
also, anarchism/libertarianism doesnt really have any meaningful representation when it comes to anything really. the libertarian party in the US is laughable and cringe being busy going on their knees for any dictator just for a few likes on social. so when you think about society, those people — myself included — dont matter.
on the topic of predetermined issuenace, id argue most bitcoiners these days can’t articulate why changing the supply cap is bad. ask yourself this: if from inception, bitcoin was released with a constant 1% inflationary issuance, would you own it today or not? if the answer is no, why not?
the reason we shouldn’t change issuance is because there would be no point of facilitating universal consent if the thing we possess is not predetermined in quantity. i hope this helps :)
(Yeah, if the original Bitcoin had a 1% set in stone from the beginning i'd buy it.)
Alright, whether or not you believe that certain European countries are socialist (or if socialism has ever been attempted or not,) I suppose what I was trying to convey was mostly not that they are or aren't socialists, but that they are MORE socialist than Bitcoiners have been. Rather than believing "taxation is theft." They believe in it. They believe in taxing the rich more. They believe in social safety nets. And, (in my opinion) if there was ever a future where a country didn't have a fiat currency to help provide these social programs, they would try to get these programs through changing Bitcoin.
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i still think this isn’t necessarily the correct way to think about it when it comes to the political spectrum. taxation isn’t necessarily a socialist praxis. even small state conservatives generally say that without taxes „who will build the roads?“. and when politicians talk about deregulation and tax cuts, its generally for their donation buddies, not the lower or middle class.
not to shill socialism, just context: early 70’s irc, allende in chile established the socialist policy that lower income households dont have to pay taxes at all. the opposite from taxing the rich. libertarian communists after the spanish revolution rejecected state money and made their own money (before it was cool). while nothing is perfect, those were real lived experiences under socialism which are more aligned with „taxes are theft“ than anything we see in contemporary politics. i guess i disagree with the popular idea that bitcoin is somehow anti-socialist. rothbard warned people not to falsely paint everything red with a brush after all, so i try to be open minded.
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This is good. See, this is what I want to hear. I don't want there to actually be any problems I the future from this.
Of course, I am overgeneralizing. Also, progressive Bitcoiners seem completely fine not changing Bitcoin. (However, in the case that fiat and Bitcoin don't coexist, would they choose to...
A) live in a world without welfare, social programs, food stamps, etc.
B) (try to) change Bitcoin.
It's a hard choice for them to make.)
What I am afraid of is that Bitcoin attracted a pretty darn politically non-conventional group of people as it's first 1% of adopters. With the next 5% still with relatively strong correlations towards anti-tax tendencies.
These attitudes have been here so far.
Bitcoin has worked great so far.
If those attitudes aren't there any more,
Does Bitcoin not work great any more?
Of course, we can only speculate, but a funny thing that just popped into my head, is, in the event of a fork, are these "pro-tax bitcoiners" even running nodes, lol? Maybe not, if they are culturally apart from mainstream Bitcoin culture.
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