Animal Farm

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Written by
3 years ago

Thursday, September 3rd, 2020

Recently I tweeted a screenshot from the fountainhead.cash telegram channel.

Here's the tweet in case you want to see it:

https://twitter.com/BCHcain/status/1300112785544683521

At the time, it was a public channel, so I saw nothing wrong with sharing it with the rest of the BCH community. As a result I was kicked out of that group, and almost immediately afterward I was also kicked out of the BCHN channel despite that being a public channel as well.

I don't really care that I was banned from either one. People are free to do whatever they want. But by that same token, I also see nothing wrong with what I did. Was it a bit of a jerk move? Maybe, but I wanted to highlight what to me is one of the biggest things holding BCH back. This idea that we can expect to move forward when so much of our infrastructure is maintained by those who I refer to as hobby developers.

By hobby developers I don't mean less talented developers. I mean people whose livelihoods don't depend on the success of BCH. I'm talking about people who work on BCH projects part time while also holding down a real job that pays the bills. It's not meant to be a slight. It's just the reality of the situation. For example, I believe the person who maintains fountainhead.cash is indeed a talented developer. I've been following JT's work since the days of craft.cash. But I'm guessing he uses his talents running another business or a real job that earns him income because fountainhead.cash is provided as a free service. It's a hobby for him. And there's nothing wrong with that, but I think it's time for BCH to grow up and have more full-time developers who are properly incentivized to grow the network by not just improving the protocol, but building out reliable indexers, SDKs, wallet servers, etc., which is where the IFP comes in.

I don't support the IFP because I think I'm going to get a piece of the pie. I'm not even a developer, so that aspect of it has no bearing on my decision. I support the IFP because I've invested my time and money into the Bitcoin Cash project and want to see it succeed as badly as anyone.

Perhaps my recent behavior hasn't been to your liking. I've had some people tell me they were unfollowing me, or that they're disappointed in me, or that they used to enjoy my writing but not anymore. Well, my goal has never been to make people like me. My goal is to help Bitcoin Cash finally reach its potential.

Over the past three years I have used and written about practically every project that's ever launched on BCH. Whether it's yours.org, honest.cash, read.cash, blockchain.poker, lazyfox.io, memo.cash, stamp, electron cash, badger wallet, satoshidice, spice.casa, purse.io, cashID, cryptophyl, nakamotogame.com, cointext, SLP dividend calculator, the aforementioned craft.cash, and many, many more. You name it, I've probably tried it.

The point is, I'm not just some random guy trying to embarrass or troll the dedicated developers who work on BCH as their passion project. I commend all of them. If I knew how to code, I'd probably be a hobby developer myself. But after three years of watching this space, I think it's fair to say that we need a change, we need to evolve, or I can't help but believe this project is going to die. We need dedicated professionals who have expertise in cryptography, in scaling networks, in building infrastructure. And we need the money to pay these people and offer them the chance to work on a potentially world changing technology without bankrupting them in the process.

I know people have recently cheered the ~$1M that has been raised by all the various flipstarter campaigns, but $1M is almost nothing in this world. AVAX recently raised $42M. EOS raised $4B. A highly skilled software developer can easily make $500k/year in Silicon Valley including bonuses, benefits, and stock options.

But I'm sure you've heard all that before. As the BCHBTC ratio sinks to all time lows, don't you think it's time to try something different? To me, the IFP represents the kind of forward thinking that is badly needed in our community. And I don't see it as some hail mary. I see it as a revolutionary idea that could change everything. I've previously written about the importance of incentives. Not just in this industry, but in life in general, because that's the way the world works. Money matters. Money is the great motivator. And I see the IFP acting like a positive feedback loop that will spark the next evolution of not only BCH, but perhaps the entire crypto industry. There's a reason Charlie Lee and the Litecoin community was talking about using part of their coinbase reward to fund protocol development when the IFP was first announced.

The IFP is innovation. Up until now, miners were able to get away with just mining whatever chain happens to be the most profitable. But where has that gotten them? We are still so far away from mass adoption that to outsiders crypto is a joke. Miners allowed the coin with the biggest network effect to get captured by a corporation that wants to cripple the network in order to siphon the value to projects like Lightning Network and Liquid. I think it's time for miners to wake up before it's too late. It's time for miners to stop being passive income earners but investors, because if they don't, there's a very real possibility that Bitcoin will die. As Satoshi once said, "In 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume."

Bitcoin Cash could very well be our last chance at fulfilling the vision of the white paper, and to me that is something very much worth fighting for. I've invested too much of my money and my time into Bitcoin Cash to just sit on the sidelines and watch it fail.

People have recently pointed out how much I've changed. Well, it's true. A year ago I would have been the last person to make a meme to criticize someone, or shared a screenshot to point out another person's failure, but I've grown tired of the narrative being controlled by other people who don't see things the same way I do.

At the suggestion of Vin Armani, I recently read George Orwell's Animal Farm. To be honest, I don't think the book is a perfect allegory for our current situation because Bitcoin Cash is a voluntary system. Everyone is free to walk away, or sell their coins, or mine or develop on another chain. None of us are being forced to do anything under threat of violence the way the animals on the farm were. We are all free to do as we please, whether that's me criticizing BCH projects, or ABC coding the IFP into their software, or JT kicking me out of his channel.

But one thing that did strike me while reading Animal Farm was how the animals just seemed to let everything happen to them. They simply accepted what the pigs told them to do and didn't question their authority, or fight back in any way.

Well, I don't want that to happen to BCH. I don't care if I come across as a jerk at times. I'm not here to conform, or tow the party line hoping to curry favor with the same handful of people who fund 80% of every flipstarter campaign. I'm here because I want BCH to succeed, and I'm not going to just be another sheep on the farm waiting to get pushed around by the pigs. I'm going to push back.

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Avatar for Cain
Written by
3 years ago

Comments

That's nice

$ 0.00
3 years ago

i actually DON'T see a problem with what you did (posting the screenshot) .. i can only assume that it was taken to be in bad faith (considering your IFP position)..

u have previously told me that the IFP could solve issue like this; and yet u yourself have no assurance that ABC can or will invest in these services .. unless there is some proposal as to how/when ABC will address issues like this (I could have easily missed it); claiming that the IFP will "solve all BCH's woes" is a bit naive, don't you think?

enough with the fairy tales, past time for ABC to start putting their shit in writing; after all that's what "non-hobby" developers are supposed to do, right?!?

$ 0.02
3 years ago

I agree. ABC will have to prove me right. It's possible they prove me wrong, and I will be as disappointed as anyone. But I want to give them the chance. Same for BCHN. Go ahead and do what you want on your own chain. I will own both coins until I see a clear signal of what's going to happen. But I am going to do everything in my power to advocate for the side I believe has the best chance at making real strides forward.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Damn King. You dropped this 👑

$ 0.25
3 years ago

Well said.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

However, you did embarrass them by making that Tweet, so while BCH has hobby developers, they might as well be paid as under one community called Bitcoin Cash. It does seem you are right in other aspects.

Anyhow, people are natural followers of great leaders, and most of us BCH users are just the same. We are, however, a community born from resisting ideas that isn't aligned to the white paper's original goal (1MB limit).

I follow the anti-IFP "herd" because BCH Infrastructure is leaving ABC's soft fork rule. The users will simply follow the infrastructure as these things will just bring BCH to global adoption. I am glad that there is a following for ABC itself, but because we are so wired to having the Miners (in a very not-accurate nutshell)cash the coins, and sell the coins for others to buy them, that everyone profits from this: The Exchanges, the Businesses, and the Developers.

The Developers have a special case, however, as unlike other Cryptocurrency chains, we're not one node. ABC is the lead implementation and essentially "Bitcoin Cash" itself, but it isn't. We have Bitcoin Unlimited following us from Bitcoin Core/Blockstream, and then we had lots of nodes for different types of development, BCHD, Knuth, Verde. And BCHN are a group of developers that helped ABC once.

In honesty, I really wouldn't mind if ABC had an IFP, if and only if we were only one implementing node and the whole community agrees with Amaury's mindset. But we don't.

You still get an upvote though. Thanks for continuously explaining your side and seeing a small IFP side still strong, despite $30 futures.

$ 0.05
3 years ago

A relevant comment from Deryk Makgill on Reddit:

I suggest you reread the book more carefully. There are many analogs to what ABC is doing now and has done for many months. Here are two...

  • When you lose one scapegoat, find another. First it was (understandably) Craig and Calvin. Then they left though. And for a while the "BSVers are secretly amongst us" schtick worked, then ABC found new people to demonize. Bitcoin.com, Roger, Marc D, freetrader, Bitcoin Unlimited, Steve Patterson, Tom Zander, Andrew Stone, etc etc. This is like when Snowball is chased away and Napoleon has to constantly namedrop him, or the humans, to remind the animals of what would happen without the protection his pigs offer....

"BU are BTCers because they held BTC instead of BCH and didn't lose all their money! Actually BU are BSVers!"

"Bitcoin.com are bad actors! Roger lied! He didn't send us the money directly! He paid our legal fees and the costs of the hash war! Doesn't count as funding us! In fact it was all his fault to begin with!"

"Roger is an idiot. Roger has no moral compass...Roger Roger Roger is greedy!"

"Marc is a pedophile and a government agent!"

"Do you really want to trust this ANONYMOUS Freetrader guy??? He is ANONYMOUS."

"BCHN can't code! They don't know how to use git!"

If you want to compare whatever BCHN is doing to Animal Farm, you should cut the communist party pravda tactics yourself first.

  • When the governance model ABC suggested didn't go their way, they rewrote a new one. In one of the early discussions, ABC announced that it would like to nominate that people like Jonald, Chris Pacia, and Josh Ellithorpe be trusted advisors who can alert the world if anything fishy is going on with the IFP....Well, all of these people decided the IFP was fishy and publicly stated they are against it, but ABC went ahead with it anyways....Remember in Animal Farm, the pigs are always changing the governance rules they set for themselves on the wall of the barn in the middle of the night and expecting nobody to notice...

I could go on...

You should ask yourself "which character am I?" I think you sound a lot like Boxer—the well-intentioned, hard-working, True Believer, who is easily manipulated and ultimately, utterly disposable to the pigs. You're never going to get to eat from the 8% trough with them.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

I think those quotes mostly sound more likely to be mostly true. I think it is likely Amaury believes the things he says are generally true. The opposition, in contrast, uses out and out dishonesty to hide the truth every day. When Amaury offered the opposition a seat at the decisionmaking table for how to spend the 8%, they should have taken it. Now they can't complain about how the council distributes the funds. Of course many will, especially if they try to fund truly valuable development that might make BCH into a real Bitcoin.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Yes. I remember Fyookball was ment to have veto votes. lol. Ah well. GNC much better..

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Tu penses sincèrement que Marc D, Bitcoin Unlimited et Steve Patterson sont des gens respectables qui veulent sincèrement le bien de BCH et pas manipuler la communauté pour avancer leurs propres intérêts ?

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Je n'ai pas écrit ce texte. Non je ne leur fais pas nécessairement confiance. Steve Patterson (comme Deryk Makgill) est BSV-friendly. Il est possible que Marc de Mesel ait des motifs cachés derrière sa générosité (possible que ce ne soit pas le cas également). Quant à Bitcoin Unlimited, c'est une organisation donc difficile de juger.

J'aurais tendance à faire confiance à d'autres personnes comme Mark Lundeberg, emergent_reasons (John Nieri), Josh Ellithorpe, Chris Pacia, Jonald Fyookball, freetrader, imaginary_username, bref des développeurs qui ont, à un moment ou un autre, été complimentés par Amaury et qui s'opposent aux décisions actuelles de Bitcoin ABC.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Ok, j'avais mal compris que tu commentais quelqu'un. Ceux que tu cites sont effectivement des gens qui semblent être de bonne foi dans leur opposition. Mais leurs alliances avec des gens douteux me poussent de l'autre côté du débat. Je ne vois largement pas autant de manipulateurs du côté de Bitcoin ABC.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Ah si pour moi il y en a. Dire "Bitcoin ABC = Bitcoin Cash" c'est de la manipulation.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Je vois surtout des gens qui disent que c'est aux exchanges de décider (mais qu'ils sont convaincus que les exchanges et les mineurs choisiront la branche X plutôt que Y). C'est plutôt dans ton camp que je vois cet argument.

Il y a une différence entre dire "BCHN is preparing a fork" (ce qu'on a tous dit dès le début d'année, mais qui reste neutre concernant le succès futur et la légitimité) et "ABC is forking away" (sous-entendu le fork ABC ne sera pas la continuité de BCH).

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Je suis désolé, mais quand je lis les communiqués de ABC (celui-ci par exemple : https://blog.bitcoinabc.org/2020/09/04/the-global-network-council-framework/), je vois des "Bitcoin Cash" partout mais aucune évocation de la situation réelle, comme s'il allait y avoir une mise à niveau sans contention ni split. Pareil sur le site bitcoincash.org qui liste la "coinbase rule des 8 %" dans les spécifications : https://www.bitcoincash.org/spec/2020-11-15-upgrade.html

Une approche plus saine serait d'expliquer que Bitcoin ABC fera ça, et gardera peut-être le nom et le ticker (ou peut-être pas) selon ce qui se passe.

Du reste, Roger Ver joue exactement au même jeu en disant "ABC is forking away", je suis d'accord sur ça.

L'idéal ce serait que les plateformes d'échange listent les deux coins et, comme en novembre 2018, les appellent momentanément BCHA et BCHN, le temps que le marché décide.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

While I read it I could already see those arguments being made by the anti-IFP folks. Like I said in my article, it's not a great allegory for our situation for a variety of reasons, including the fact that we need time to pass to see who is right and who is wrong.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

And yet, you made the allegory:

But one thing that did strike me while reading Animal Farm was how the animals just seemed to let everything happen to them. They simply accepted what the pigs told them to do and didn't question their authority, or fight back in any way.

And you titled your post "Animal Farm".

Aren't you tired to make propaganda for Bitcoin ABC?

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Great article 👌

$ 0.00
3 years ago